9:19 pm PST 2/21/2021
in
Patrick Brzeski
The thrilling comedy ‘Hi, Mom’ of Beijing Culture emerged as China’s Lunar New Year champion in 2021, reaching a total of $ 619 million.
Chinese blockbusters Hi Mom and Detective Chinatown 3 both surpassed the $ 600 million mark during their second weekend in theaters – an unprecedented feat for two films competing face to face in a single market.
Exciting comedy Hi Mom, produced by Beijing Culture, emerged as China’s Lunar New Year champion in 2021, despite starting the holiday a distant second behind the success of the Wanda Pictures comedy franchise Detective Chinatown 3. Although DC3 had a strong franchise appeal and a lot more holiday marketing buzz, Hi Mom captured the hearts of Chinese moviegoers and became a viral phenomenon, consistently generating the highest social scores on ticket apps and movie review sites.
Hi Mom won the second weekend with sales totaling $ 134.2 million, down 17 percent from the first three days when DC3 was dominating screen sharing. DC3 added $ 45.3 million last weekend, down 89 percent from the opening record of $ 397.2 million. Ten days after launch, Hi MomThe company’s cumulative total is $ 619.4 million, a winch more than DC3 with $ 619.2 million, according to estimates by the box office tracker Artisan Gateway.
At Imax, DC3 reached $ 33 million, making it the third highest-grossing local language title of all time in the giant screen format.
Directed, written and starred by Chinese comedy veteran Jia Ling, Hi Mom tells the story of a woman whose world turned upside down with the death of her mother. Struck by grief, she magically transports herself back in time to meet a younger version of her mother, trying to improve her mother’s life using insights from the future. The film is based on memories of Jia’s mother in real life, who passed away in the director’s adolescence.
Third during the second holiday weekend was Huace’s fantasy and action film Odyssey of a writer, which raised another $ 20.2 million to raise its summit to $ 112 million. Andy Lau’s highly rated thriller Endgame rose to fourth place with $ 14.7 million for a running total of $ 42.3 million. The fifth score was the children’s animation portion Bonnie Bears: The Wild Life with $ 10 million and $ 77.4 million in total.
Lightchaser Animation’s New Gods: Nezha Reborn, which was recently acquired by Netflix, added about $ 9 million to a total of $ 50.3 million. Huayi Brother’s fantasy film dropped to a distant seventh place with just $ 2.6 million and $ 36.7 million in total.
The Chinese New Year period officially comes to an end on Friday – and with the end of the extremely lucrative holiday window, regulators will suspend their protectionist blackout at Hollywood film releases. The first studio title to test the waters of the expanding Chinese theater market again will be Warner Bros. ‘hybrid live-action / animation Tom and Jerry, opening Friday, February 26.