Detective Vs Sleuths box office smash
Nevertheless, having two Chinese-language films going strongly raised the nationwide box office total above $61 million. That was the highest weekend score since the Chinese New Year high in February, which occurred before the current COVID wave in China. Further cinema re-openings likely also helped.
“Lighting Up the Stars” earned $27.7 million (RMB186) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was a 38% drop compared with its second weekend. And after three weekends in cinemas, it has accumulated $177 million (RMB1.19 million).
“Detective Vs Sleuths” sees Wai Ka-Fai, a writer-director who is also a longtime Johnnie To collaborator, re-team with actor Sean Lau (aka Lau Ching-wan), the star of 2007’s “Mad Detective.” The Emperor Motion Picture-produced tale sees Lau as a retired and stressed-out former cop on the trail of a serial killer, who appears to be tidying up loose ends in a series of cold cases.
In third place in the chart, “Jurassic World: Dominion” earned a further $6.3 million (RMB 42.5 million). That gives it a cumulative since June 10, of $144 million (RMB967 million).
Fourth place saw the debut of “Octonauts: The Caves of Sac Actun,” which opened only on Saturday and earned $2.6 million (RMB17.5 million) over two days. Including earlier previews, it has a cumulative of $6 million.
Alibaba’s youth drama “One Week Friends” managed $500,000 (RMB 3.6 million) in its fourth weekend, giving it a cumulative of $17.6 million.
