China’s highly lucrative Lunar New Year box office race is underway and The Battle of Lake Changjin 2, as expected, has staked out a commanding early lead.
The much anticipated patriotic war sequel hit $100 million (RMB 636 million) by mid-evening Tuesday, the first day of the weeklong holiday. Battle of Lake Changjin 2 also is leading the race for the Chinese audience’s ratings favorite, earning high social scores of 9.6 on ticketing service Maoyan, 9.6 on Alibaba’s Taopiaopiao ticketing platform, and 7.4 on popular reviews site Douban.
China’s New Year box office rankings often undergo a rapid reshuffling once audience expectations meet the reality of the audience’s reaction to the actual movies; but with such strong social scores, Battle of Lake Changjin 2‘s frontrunner status appears secure.
Currently in second place is blogger-turned-director Han Han’s road trip drama-comedy Only Fools Rush In with $35 million and counting, followed by slapstick comedy Too Cool to Kill at $33 million, director Wen Muye’s (Dying to Survive) drama Nice View with $28 million, family animation Boonie Bears: Back to Earth with $18 million and Zhang Yimou’s Korean war biopic Sharpshooter with $7.7 million.
Maoyan is currently forecasting Battle of Lake Changjin 2 to finish its run with around $938 million in total ticket sales. The company’s projections also tend to undergo heavy revision later in a movie’s release cycle, but if the early prediction holds roughly true, The Battle of Lake Changjin 2 should become China’s new all-time box office champion. The record is currently held by the film’s predecessor, the first Battle of Lake Changjin, which opened just last fall during China’s Oct. 1 National Day holiday and went on to earn $913 million.
Battle of Lake Changjin 2 won’t break China’s single-day box office record — RMB 1.05 billion (or $163 million at the time) — set by Wanda’s Detective Chinatown 3 last year. But the war sequel has much better social scores than those of Detective Chinatown 3, which ultimately proved top-heavy, finishing with $685 million while fellow comedy Hi, Mom soared past it and topped out at $822 million.
A lingering question for the blockbusters on release is how much the Beijing Winter Olympics, which open Friday, will cut into theatergoing during the tail end of their holiday earnings run.
Like its predecessor, Battle of Lake Changjin 2 is a chest-thumping, emotionally stirring pseudo-propagandistic action movie glorifying China’s victory over U.S. forces during a key battle in the Korean War (known in China as the “War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea”). The new installment focuses on the Chinese military’s mission to take out the Water Gate Bridge, an important path of retreat for American troops.
Both films star local action hero Wu Jing and heartthrob Jackson Yee, and somewhat uncommonly, the two titles are co-directed by a trio of established Chinese hitmakers, Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark and Dante Lam.
Bona Film Group CEO Yu Dong set the patriotic tone for the film’s reception when its trailer was unveiled for Chinese media in mid-January. “The Spring Festival is an occasion when Chinese families get together,” the executive said. “Today’s union is possible because our ancestors risked their lives in battles. We should remember what they sacrificed on this special occasion.”
Updates to come…
Source: Hollywood
