Foreign titles re-entered the weekly chart after the blackout as Star Wars and Sherlock claimed top and third spot, respectively.
China was the last major market to open Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which landed top of the box office during the period Jan 4-10 with $53.17m from its two-day opening weekend on Saturday and Sunday.
Its $32.12m opening day (including midnight previews) represented China’s highest Saturday opening as well as Disney’s highest opening day in China.
However, the mark is down on some of the biggest US releases of last year. The new generation of Chinese cinema-goers is unfamiliar with the almost 40-year-old franchise and the prequels were released in Chinese theatres at a time when its box office was significantly smaller with much fewer screens.
To drum up interest in the film, the first six ‘episodes’ in the Star Wars saga were made available to Chinese viewers for the first time in September through streaming service Tencent.
Disney also mounted a huge marketing campaign, which included placing 500 stormtroopers on the Great Wall and enlisting Chinese popstar Lu Han as a brand ambassador. In a promo video, Lu is seen dancing in a Jedi robe while singing the film’s official theme song The Inner Force in English and Chinese.
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride debuted in third place with $20.84m (including previews) after seven days.
The release of the feature-length episode of the BBC drama was made possible by a deal between BBC Worldwide and Shanghai Media Group last October.
The new film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, benefited from the huge fanbase for the BBC drama Sherlock, the last season of which was seen by 98 million Chinese viewers online.
The film topped the daily chart on its opening day (Jan 4) with $5.40m, but local action comedy Detective Chin Tang reclaimed the daily top spot the following day until The Force Awakens came along.
Detective Chin Tang held strongly in second place and added $32.08m from $97.79m after 12 days.
It was followed by two blockbusters: Mr. Six, which earned $19.82 for $126.83 after 18 days and Mojin: The Lost Legend, which added $12.76m and expanded its haul to $252.14m after 24 days, making it China’s fourth-highest grossing film of all time, ahead of Lost In Hong Kong.
New local animation Boonie Bears III took sixth place, grossing $3.88m from previews only. The previous two Boonie Bears films, adapted from a popular TV series, were once the top two local animation films of all time.
More Chinese holdovers followed: comedy Devil And Angel took $1.73m for $99.65m after 18 days; Gary Wang’s local animation Door Guardians picked up $1.29m for $11.78m after 10 days; and comedy Heart For Heaven took $1.10m for $12.63m after 11 days.
New local thriller Strange Battle rounded out the weekly chart with $0.29m from its first three days.
More foreign titles set for release this week include Solace (Jan 14) and The Last Witch Hunter (Jan 15). New local fare includes Barbara Wong’s The Secret (Jan 15) and Boonie Bears III (Jan 16).
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