‘Wolf Warrior 2’ sets new box-office mark
BEIJING: Wolf Warrior 2 has cracked the one-billion-yuan mark in record time, dislodging Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid from the top ranking.
Market analysts are now predicting that it will wrest the all-time highest box office record held by The Mermaid, which last year grossed 3.39 billion yuan (RM2.22 billion).
Over the weekend, Wolf Warrior 2 had grossed 989 million yuan (RM632 million) to top the global box office, beating even the Christopher Nolan war epic Dunkirk.
Wolf Warrior 2, directed by the actor Wu Jing, sends the Rambolike protagonist Leng Feng, who was expelled from the special forces of the Chinese army, to Africa for a rescue mission.
The film features many explosive scenes, including having 100 cars destroyed in explosions. American movie star Frank Grillo (Captain America: Civil War) and ChineseAmerican actress Celina Jade (Arrow) also star in the movie.
The script was inspired by the historical event of China’s navy evacuating almost 600 Chinese citizens and 225 foreign nationals from Yemen’s southern port of Aden in 2005.
I hope China’s passport will be the best in the world. Maybe it cannot allow you to go to every place in the world right now, but it can help you come back home from any place. Wu Jing, actor-director
Two years ago, Wu had likewise set the box office on fire with the first movie in the series. On a budget of only 10 million yuan, the movie had raked in 540 million yuan.
In contrast, Wolf Warrior 2 had cost 200 million yuan to produce, and it had to contend with the likes of the military epic The Founding of an Army.
With typical patriotic fervour, actor-director Wu said during the premiere: “I hope China’s passport will be the best in the world. Maybe it cannot allow you to go to every place in the world right now, but it can help you come back home from any place.”
Under the Global Passport Power Rank for 2017, China trails most of the world at 134th.
Malaysia ranks fourth.