(THR) Universal's The Fate of the Furious downshifted a few gears in its second weekend but still put up huge numbers at the Chinese box office, earning $54.3 million for a massive 10-day total of $318 million (RMB 2.19 billion).
On Sunday, the F. Gary Gray-directed blockbuster passed Michael Bay's Transformers: Age of Extinction to become the second-biggest Hollywood movie ever in China in local currency terms.
Only Furious 7 has earned more in the Middle Kingdom — RMB 2.43 billion ($390 million at 2015 exchange rates) — and with 12 days to go before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 lands in China on May 5, Fast 8 has plenty of open road left to try to chase down its predecessor. Globally, Fate of the Furious has earned a flush $908.4 million.
Fast 8 occupied roughly 50 percent of China's total screen share for the weekend and accounted for just under 70 percent of the country's total ticket revenue for the frame. The second-weekend total of $54.3 million represented a 71.4 percent slide from Fast 8's historic $190 million debut. Steep second-weekend declines by studio franchise titles have been a recurring feature of the Chinese box office for at least a year.
Sony's Smurfs: The Lost Village opened Friday and was left coughing on Fast 8's fumes, earning just $11.1 million for the weekend — slightly ahead of Smurfs 2's $9.9 million China launch in 2013.
Alibaba Pictures' romantic comedy Mr. Pride vs Miss Prejudice, starring Dilraba Dilmurat, Leon Zhang and Vengo Gao Weiguang, was the only other earner of note, opening to $9.9 million.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter by