The big winner as the Year of the Goat began was the historical action movie Dragon Blade, starring Jackie Chan, John Cusack and Adrien Brody, which took $54.84 million in its opening four days, according to data from Entgroup. The movie had 132,874 screenings and notched up 8.14 million admissions.
Directed by Daniel Lee, Dragon Blade is based on a story about a missing legion of Roman soldiers that traveled into China in 48 BCE. The cast also includes South Korea's Choi Si-won, member of the K-pop band Super Junior, who previously appeared in Battle of Wits.
The movie took 32.6 percent of total income on the first day of the Chinese New Year and took $33 million over the holiday weekend.
Cusack plays Lucius, a Roman general who led a legion of 1,000 soldiers into Han Dynasty China. Brody plays Tiberius, who has assassinated Rome's Consul Crassus and chased after Lucius with a force of 100,000 soldiers. Chan stars as the commander of the Protectorate of the Western Regions who teams up with Lucius to protect China's borders and sovereignty.
In second place was the follow-up to the Chow Yun-fat movie, The Man from Macau, which took $43.10 million in its opening four days from 101,691 screenings and 6.49 million admissions.
(Original title: "China Box Office: 'Dragon Blade' Dominates Lunar New Year Holiday")