Jackie Chan-starring comedy, “Kung Fu Yoga” topped a bountiful Chinese box office weekend that largely shrugged off the back to work blues. But over the entire Chinese New Year period Tsui Hark and Stephen Chow’s “Journey to The West: The Demons Strike Back,” not “Kung Fu Yoga,” was the biggest winner.
Officially China’s holidays ended on Thursday and many businesses were supposed to reopen on Friday (Feb. 3). But, inevitably, many people took the weekend as additional holiday days or were on the road travelling. Cinemas were the big beneficiaries, with daily attendance more than 50% higher than a typical non-holiday weekend.
For the Friday-Sunday weekend, “Yoga” claimed $49.9 million from some 70,000 screenings per day. “Journey 2” earned $34.5 million from only slightly fewer screenings, according to data from Ent Group. (The film also earned $1.2 million from 400 venues in Sony Pictures Releasing International’s 7 overseas territories.)
Han Han’s drama “Duckweed” climbed the rankings to take third with a strong $29.9 million from some 45,000 screenings per day. The second India-themed comedy, “Buddies in India” earned $12.9 million, narrowly ahead of franchise cartoon, “Boonie Bears: Endangered World” which grossed $12.4 million.
Those five had all been released on the first official day of the holidays (Saturday, Jan. 28.) And the quintet dominated theaters throughout the nine-day period, untroubled by a smattering of small new releases in the second week.
After a fast start – it broke the record for the largest single day in Chinese box office history — “Journey” had accumulated $182 million from nine days. “Kung Fu Yoga,” in second place, had $146 million. “Buddies” stands on a nine-day cumulative of $89.0 million, “Duckweed” reached $70.5 million, and “Boonie Bears” collected $48.0 million.
The holiday box office bonanza has been hailed by Chinese media as a return to form for the Chinese theatrical business and for Chinese-language films. But there are multiple reasons to question that analysis.
First, while the six-day official holiday period (Jan. 28-Feb. 2) saw a 13% growth in ticket sales, according to government reports, the number of cinemas in operation has increased by some 30% since 2016. Per screen, ticket sales remain persistently down.
Second, while January 2017 saw a 25% increase in theatrical business compared with January 2016, last year the Chinese New Year holidays fell entirely with in February. This year a steep comparative drop should be expected for February.
Complicating matters further, China’s industry regulators began presenting the box office data differently. From the first day of the lunar new year (Jan. 28) reported grosses had to include online booking fees. These are typically between RMB3-5 (US$0.44-0.72) per ticket. Their inclusion instantly swelled the box office by some RMB4 (US$0.58) per ticket, or more than 10%, given that more than 70% of movie tickets in China are now sold online.
The idea behind the change is to ensure greater clarity of reporting. After all these are the prices paid by the consumer.
But the change has the effect of making comparisons with past performances (reported net of the booking fees) much harder. And it is the gross revenues measured in the old way, i.e. without the booking fees, that are still to be used for calculating the revenue shares payable to overseas rights holders in the case of imported films.
Another reason for caution is that the Chinese New Year period was all about local films. A crop of new releases, including Hollywood titles “xXx: The Return of Xander Cage,” and the Oscar-fancied “La La Land” will soon grab screens from the incumbents and compete for Valentine’s Day audiences.
So, while “Journey 2” grabbed the opening day record, its cumulative score is currently outside the all-time top ten. The film stands little chance of getting near the RMB3.39 billion ($491 million) excluding booking fees performance of last year’s “The Mermaid.”