In China, local thriller ‘Animal World’ dethrones ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’
BEIJING: China-made thriller Animal World has kicked off the summer blockbuster season , opening to US$38.2 million (RM152.8 million) and dislodging Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom from the top spot.
The youth-oriented action film is based on a popular Japanese manga and stars Li Yifeng as a young man who is induced into taking part in a violent game of chance overseen by an archvillain, played by Michael Douglas.
Directed by rising talent Han Yan and produced by Enlight Media, Animal World was boosted by strong word of mouth, scoring 8.7/10 from ticketing app Maoyan and 7.4/10 from Douban, the more fickle reviews aggregator.
Still packing some bite, Fallen Kingdom pulled in US$14.7 million in its third frame, boosting its 17-day total to a healthy US$232 million, according to numbers from Beijing-based EntGroup. The J. A. Bayona-directed sequel has now eclipsed the US$228.7 million total of the first Jurassic World film in China.
Escape Plan 2: Hades, cofinanced and produced by Lionsgate and China’s Leomus Pictures launched in third place, thanks to a solid start of US$5.3 million. But the film was quickly savaged by critics and fan reviewers and slid down the charts, totalling just US$10.7 million for the full weekend.
Sylvester Stallone and Dave Bautista star in the sequel, alongside Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming. The increased Chinese involvement was a response to the US$40.9 million the first Escape Plan movie earned in China back in 2013 — considerably more than the US$25.1 million the movie brought in domestically. The sequel stands little chance of matching its predecessor, however.
Disney’s and Pixar’s The Incredibles 2 came in just a step behind in fourth place, adding US$10.1 million for a twoweekend total of US$40.4 million.
Comedy maestro Xu Zheng’s comedy-drama Dying to Survive also burst onto the Chinese charts thanks to just two days of limited previews Saturday and Sunday. The sneak peeks pulled in a whopping US$7.6 million.
Word of mouth for the movie, which is produced by Xu’s fellow hitmaker and former collaborator Ning Hao is effusive.