"The Fate of the Furious” drove off with a $190 million opening weekend win at the Chinese box office. Along the way, it shattered numerous local records.
Known locally as “The Fast and the Furious 8,” the film opened with a $59.8 million score on Friday, having already clocked up $8.4 million in midnight previews, according to local data tracker, Ent Group. Its muscle car performance was revved still higher on Saturday when it took $67.9 million. It rounded the weekend with a further $55.5 million on Sunday.
The scores on both Friday and Saturday were records for single day takings in China. They were achieved from record-breaking wide releases, with the number of daily screenings exceeding 160,000.
IMAX reported that within the $190 million total, the film earned $14 million from 395 theaters, the second highest three-day score in the country (behind “Warcraft.”) The total as a 45% increase in local currency terms on “Furious 7.” IMAX theaters earned a per screen average of $35,000.
(“Furious 7” was released two years ago and became the all-time box office champion in China with a total reported as $380 million at the time. Later that year it total was overtaken by local live action-animation hybrid “Monster Hunt.” The all-time record holder is now Stephen Chow’s “The Mermaid,” which last year scored $527 million.)
Over the weekend second place went to Chow’s “A Chinese Odyssey: Part Two Cinderella” with $12.6 million in three days. No other title, new release or holdover, managed more than $1 million.
"Ghost in the Shell” managed $760,000 for a $28.5 million cumulative. New release, Hong Kong, comedy drama “A Nail Clipper Romance” earned $710,000. “Kong: Skull Island” managed $640,000 for a cumulative of $168 million. “The Devotion of Suspect X,” earned $470,000 for a cumulative of $57.8 million after 17 days. One day previews of next week’s local comedy "Mr Pride vs Miss Prejudice” earned $200,000. Animation, “Snowtime” made $190,000 for $6.22 million after 16 days. Behind them, drama “Mad World” and new release “Love is Frozen” each earned some $110,000.