A crowd of Chinese movies jostled with record breaking “The Fate of the Furious” for the top spot at the China box office during the first weekend of the May Day holiday week.
Star-studded bomb disposal action thriller, “Shock Wave” emerged on top on Friday and Saturday giving it a weekend win. Directed by Hong Kong’s Herman Yau, produced by and starring Andy Lau, the film played some 55,000 screenings per day and earned a score of $24.1 million in three days.
Wanda’s crime suspense film, “Battle of Memories” started with 64,000 screens on its first day, but saw its play-dates shrink over the weekend. It finished in third place with $21.5 million.
Splitting the two newcomers, and taking second place, was “Furious 8” in its third week on release. Despite coming third on Friday and Saturday, it revved back into top spot on Sunday and finished the three days with $22.1 million. After 17 days on release, the “Furious” franchise film has a cumulative of $362 million. It is now the second largest film of all time at the Chinese box office, having overtaken both “Furious 7” and “Monster Hunt” in local currency terms. Only Steven Chow’s “Mermaid” has a higher score.
"This is Not What I Expected,” a comedy romance starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhou Dongyu, place fourth, with a score of $12.6 million. That put it narrowly ahead of “Love Off The Cuff,” the third film in Pang Ho-cheung’s sly comedy romance series. It earned $12.5 million in three days. With previews from the weekend earlier, it has a score of $13.5 million.
"Smurfs: The Lost Village” remained doggedly in sixth place throughout the three days. It managed $4.73 million over the weekend for a cumulative of $17.8 million after ten days.
Minor places were taken by Alibaba’s “Mr Pride and Miss Prejudice” with $1.47 million in seventh place. It has $16.6 million after 11 days of release. “The Blood Hound” tracked down $750,000 in eighth place and a ten day cumulative of $3.26 million.
Ninth place was taken by Russian animation “Savva: Heart of the Warrior.” A Saturday release, it scored $740,000 in two days. Tenth place was taken by “A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella” with $120,000, for an 18-day cumulative of $24.5 million.