China box office: 'Your Name' topples 'Fantastic Beasts'

Six new films entered the Chinese top 10 in the week of Nov 28 - Dec 4, with Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name topping the chart with a record-breaking $42.5m from its first three days.

The Japanese animation reset several box office records, including the biggest opening day for a Japanese film (on Friday), the biggest single-day for a 2D animation (Saturday) and the first non-Hollywood imported film to hit RMB100m ($15m) in a single day (Saturday).

The animation, already a smash hit in Japan and Hong Kong, is a body-swapping fantasy romance between two teenagers, a girl from the countryside and a boy from Tokyo. It also posted the biggest opening weekend for a Japanese film and is set to surpass Stand By Me Doraemon to become the biggest Japanese film ever.

Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them fell to second place, but it was still going strong with $32.31m. With a 10-day total of $74.64m, the Harry Potter spin-off has topped Deathly Hallows - Part 2 to become the best performing Harry Potter film in the series.

Fox’s Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children opened in third place with $10.32m from its first three days; slightly ahead of Disney animation Moana, which took $9.55m for $22.32m after 10 days.

Hong Kong director Derek Yee’s Sword Master debuted in fifth with $7.82m from its first three days. The remake of the Shaw Brothers’ martial arts classic is produced by Tsui Hark and stars Lin Gengxin and Peter Ho.

Feng Xiaogang’s I Am Not Madame Bovary dropped to the sixth with $7.51m for a 17-day total of $57.19m. Three new releases followed: local action comedy Super Express on $4.26m from its first three days; Paramount’s Allied on $3.70m from its first five days; and US-German action film Autobahn on $1.81m from its first three days.

Ringo Lam’s thriller Sky On Fire rounded out the weekly top 10 with $1.39m for $5.37m after 10 days.

Last week’s box office continued the upward swing and surged by approximately 27%. The single-day box office hit RMB200m ($30m) on both Saturday and Sunday.

Upcoming releases include Hacksaw Ridge (Dec 8), Sully and Suddenly Seventeen (Dec 9).