With $8 million at the box office, Barbie opens in fifth place in China

While “Barbie” was breaking box office records in North America and doing well in many other countries, the pink craze only managed to finish sixth in China, the second-largest movie market in the world, on its opening weekend.

The first three days of the movie “Barbie” brought in $8.2 million, according to figures from the consulting company Artisan Gateway.

On the three days of the weekend session, according to local box office reports, the movie was stuck in that position as the locally made films jostled for dominance and switched places. Positively, “Barbie”‘s daily score had improved by Sunday as a result of more screenings provided by Chinese exhibitors.

“Barbie” is the latest Hollywood production to suffer box office failure in mainland China this year. Others include “Fast X,” “Indiana Jones,” and “The Little Mermaid.”

In China, there aren’t as many structural barriers to Hollywood films as there were a few years ago (delays in certification and import). However, western brands are drawing fewer viewers, and this year, fans have overwhelmingly favored Chinese and Japanese films. Due to this, Chinese box office has nearly reached pre-pandemic 2019 levels within 8%.

“Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms” (the first installment of the “Fengshen Trilogy”) took top place at the mainland Chinese box office over the most recent weekend, grossing $42.1 million. based on information provided by consulting company Artisan Gateway. In four days, $53.7 million was made.

According to Imax, “Creation of the Gods I” made $8.6 million over four days on its screens in China. More than 16% of the movie’s total domestic sales came from it.

Even though it came in first place, “Creation of the Gods I” had a wobbly beginning. It debuted on Thursday, one day earlier than the majority of new releases in China, came in second on Friday, and had fewer screens available on subsequent days. Given its goals, its final product is probably going to be disappointing.

The “Fengshen Trilogy,” which was directed by Wuershan (“Painted Skin,” “Mojin: The Lost Legend”), set out to be China’s equivalent of both “Lord of the Rings” and “Iron Man,” combining history, folklore, and mythology from more than 3,000 years ago on a massive scale. At one point, it hoped for a budget of more than $400 million for the three films and was successful in keeping Barrie Osborne (“Lord of the Rings”) on board as production consultant and Bill Kong (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) on board as executive producer.

It was closely followed at the box office on the most recent weekend by “Chang An” (also known as “Chang An 30,000 Miles”), a Chinese animation that is currently in its third weekend of release and brought in $40.6 million. “Chang An” is one of the most grossing Chinese animated films of all time with $168 million after only 16 days of release.

“Wonder Family” (also known as “Advancing of ZQ”), a live-action fantasy about a guy who finds a financial item and the opponents who want it for themselves, came in third place. It made $31.3 million in the first three days of release. The comedy group Mahua FunAge, who have consistently produced successful comedies like the preceding “Moon Man,” has now released their newest work, “Moon Man.”

With a fairly respectable $20.6 million over three days, Wang Baoqiang’s film “Never Say Never,” which he also wrote and directed (“Lost in Thailand,” “Detective Chinatown”), fell to fourth place. After 18 days of release, its total earnings had reached $261 million.

The weekend’s combined box office brought in a robust $168 million, bringing the year’s total to $4.63 billion. According to Artisan Gateway, that puts us around 70% ahead of where we were at this time last year.