China Box Office: ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ Holds off ‘Cesium Fallout’

As a movie enthusiast who has spent countless hours in dimly lit theaters and lost track of countless weekends engrossed in the silver screen, I find myself captivated by the latest box office trends unfolding in China. The second consecutive victory of “Venom: The Last Dance” is indeed impressive, especially considering its 50% drop from the debut weekend. Yet, it’s the similarity in pace with “Alien: Romulus” that truly piques my interest. Could we be witnessing a new chapter in the annals of Hollywood-China box office history?


Over the past two weekends, “Venom: The Last Dance” has remained number one at China’s box office. During this time, it outperformed the recently debuted thriller, “Cesium Fallout,” which features Andy Lau in the cast.

Over the weekend, ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ brought in RMB104 million ($14.6 million), as per Artisan Gateway’s data. This represents a decrease of over 50% compared to its opening weekend earnings, but it has now amassed a total of $70.8 million after 12 days in theaters. This pace is remarkably similar to ‘Alien: Romulus’ in China and suggests that ‘Venom’ could rank among the top three highest-grossing Hollywood films in China this year.

Starting off in the second slot, the movie “Cesium Fallout” raked in $9.8 million during its debut weekend. This production from Hong Kong’s Edko Films features local stars Andy Lau and Karen Mok. Originally titled “Burning City” and then “Fallout”, this film is marketed as China’s inaugural nuclear radiation disaster movie. Anthony Pun was the director, and Alibaba Pictures took care of its distribution in China.

Titled “The Unseen Sister,” this mystery drama is the initial commercial venture from director Midi Z, who was born in Myanmar and currently resides in Taiwan. In its second weekend, it grossed $3.5 million (equivalent to RMB25 million), bringing its total earnings to $18.5 million over nine days. This week, the film was showcased in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

In the span of four consecutive weekends, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” the fourth film in the Harry Potter series, was re-released. It trailed closely behind with earnings amounting to approximately RMB24.7 million or $3.4 million. Notably, Imax, a large screen provider, reported that about $700,000 of this total revenue was generated from their screens.

Over the weekend, the Chinese horror movie “Yuanyang Lou,” directed by Wang Shenghe, ranked fifth and brought in a total of 2.8 million dollars during its first weekend.

Artisan Gateway revealed that the overall cinema earnings for the country amounted to approximately $43.7 million this week. This figure surpasses the accumulated total so far this year, now standing at about $5.45 billion. However, it’s worth noting that this represents a 21% decrease compared to the box office numbers from the year 2023.

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2024-11-04 06:16