Stalingrad led the domestic box office this weekend, while The Wolverine was edged out to third place. Overall, the weekend ticket sales was close to $23.5 million, which is off 4 percent from the previous week. Imported films took up 73 percent of the three-day revenue.
At 3680 theaters, the controversial WWII epic Stalingrad took first place with a solid $6.3 milion and has become the highest-grossing Russian release ever at the Chinese box office. Over a year after its U.S. debut, animated Hotel Transylvania posted a strong debut with $5.6 million in China, which was good enough to beat two weeks' box office champ The Wolverine.
Since December, the protection month for domestic films, is around the corner, foreign movies were eager to crack the door of Chinese cinemas at the beginning of November. It is worth noting, though, that the releasing calendar has become more rational when compared to last year. The Wolverine, The Last Stand and Stalingrad was scheculed one by one in three weeks' time.
