Johnson’s heroics in China unseat domestic films at box office
BEIJING: Contrary to the controversy surrounding homegrown sosial drama ‘Dying to Survive’ and the buzz over Jiang Wen’s ‘Hidden Man’, the two films managed to secure only the second and third spots respectively at box office.
Both the films have been dethroned by the hype and buzz over China’s ongoing love for Dwayne Johnson that has come to the actor’s rescue as his latest tentpole ‘Skyscraper’ opened in first place at the box office. Despite the weakerthan-expected North American numbers for ‘Skyscraper’, the film raked in US$47.7m million in three days according to studio figures, in line with industry expectations.
More importantly, ‘Skyscraper’ took US$13.7 million on the first day of its theatrical run in China, surpassing its North American debut of US$9.3 million on July 13. The film’s strong performance is more evidence of Johnson’s position as “an old pal of the Chinese people”, according to ticketing platform Maoyan. Johnson’s previous outings have done strong business in the world’s second-biggest movie market: ‘Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious’ are the two highest grossing Hollywood exports ever in China, while his last vehicle, ‘Rampage’, earned US$156.4 million.
While ‘Skyscraper’ has a rating of 6.7/10 on Chinese review aggregator Douban, it was much better received by the Maoyan crowd, which gave the Legendary East and Universal Pictures action thriller an average score of 9.3/10, the highest rating of a Hollywood film so far in 2018, as compared with 8.9 of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and 9.1 of ‘Ready Player One’.
On Maoyan, China’s moviegoing public was pleasantly surprised by the Chinese elements in the film, which is set in Hong Kong, with some calling the action set pieces “pantswettingly thrilling”. However, there was some dissent, with some users criticising the lack of originality found in ‘Skyscraper’, describing it as a “nouveau riche version” of the 2016 Daniel Wu starrer ‘Sky on Fire’.
‘Skyscraper’s’ China performance taken together with the US$27.7 million earned in other foreign markets over the weekend meant that the film was the best performing globally with US$75 million this weekend and its worldwide total now stands at US$179.6 million. However, the film is still facing a loss.
Johnson’s heroics in China have unseated homegrown social drama ‘Dying to Survive’ from the box office throne, but the latter continued its strong momentum to reach US$426.7 million in its 18-day run. The Warner Bros. co-production ‘Hidden Man’, directed by hit maker Jiang Wen, placed third with US$30.9 million to a two-weekend total of US$78.2 million.
The 2017 Blue Dreams Studio animation ‘Animal Crackers’, backed by Beijing Wen Hua Dongrun Investment Co. and China Film Group, took US$3.8 million during its two-day opening, while the controversial children’s picture ‘Show Dogs’ debuted with US$1.2 million over three days.