(Variety) The fervor of the previous May Day holiday quickly died down at the Chinese box office. That left holdover titles “Us and Them” and “A or B” alone at the top of the charts.
Romantic drama, “Us and Them,” directed by Taiwanese actress Rene Liu, earned $25.8 million on its second weekend of release. That lifted its 9-day cumulative score to $191 million.
Behind it, crime drama “A or B” detected a further $11.1 million in its second weekend. Its total after 9 days grew to $48.0 million.
“Rampage” remained the top Hollywood title for another weekend. It added $7.82 million for a cumulative of $150 million after 24 days in theaters. It narrowly exceeded the score for India’s “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion,” which was the top-ranked new release of the week.
The South Indian action film played out on 9,500 screens, including some 500 IMAX venues, and was the third placed film on Friday. But it drifted to fourth on Saturday and Sunday. While the film’s weekend haul is several times better than the $1.11 million earned by “Baahubali: The Beginning” in China in July 2016, they also show that not every Indian film can score blockbuster numbers in China. Greater success has come from drama, such as “Dangal,” “Secret Superstar” and “Hindi Medium,” rather than action or mainstream Bollywood Masala films.
“Ready Player One” took fifth place with $2,52 million over the weekend. That lifted its cumulative to $218 million after 38 days in cinemas.
No other new or continuing film scored more than $1 million over the weekend. The box office of the top 12 films was a modest $57 million, signaling the fourth quietest weekend of the year. That will all change from Friday, with the release of “Avengers: Infinity War.”
Source: Variety By Patrick Frater