Aging action legend Jackie Chan galloped away with another win as his latest action-comedy film Ride On maintained its grip on the top spot of the Chinese box office for the second consecutive weekend. Meanwhile, Universal Pictures’ The Super Mario Bros. Movie struggled to keep up, finishing the frame in fourth place.
According to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway, Ride On earned $6 million (RMB41.5 million) for the weekend, representing a respectable 48 percent week-on-week drop from its $11.7 million opening the week prior. The film has already amassed $22.6 million in ticket sales since its release on April 7. Ticketing app Maoyan projects a $33 million (RMB230 million) career total for the title.
Coming in second place was iQiyi Pictures’ Hachiko, which added $4.9 million over the weekend, bringing its total to $35.1 million since its release on March 31. The film, which is based on the classic Japanese story of a loyal dog who waits for his owner every day at the train station, has been a respectable minor hit with Chinese audiences.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie continued to underwhelm, meanwhile, collecting $4.3 million in its second weekend in China, bringing its total to $17.1 million after ten days — a tiny fraction of the film’s bofo $347.8 million domestic haul. Such wide gaps between domestic and Chinese sales totals were once rare for top IP-driven studio tentpoles.
The new release of the week was period action feature Faces in the Crowd, opening in fifth place with $3 million.
China’s box-office total for 2023 currently sits at $2.5 billion, which is 20 percent higher than the same period last year, when the market was stricken with harsh Covid-19 lockdowns and cinema closures. Compared to the pre-pandemic benchmark year of 2019, this year’s start is down by 17 percent.
Analysts are expecting a burst of box-office energy on Friday, however, with the release of Japanese anime hit The First Slam Dunk, which is being jointly distributed by China Film Group and Road Pictures, the marketer and distributor behind Suzume‘s recent local success.