- Due to the apparent easing of restrictions, three imports landed in Chinese boxes last weekend
- Chan and Knoxville appear together on screen for the first time in China-Hong Kong co-production
- Skip dominated 57% of ticket sales, while Warner Bros' Jungle Hero attracted only 15%
Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville in Skiptrace (Beijing Talent International Media Co.)
Thanks to the apparent easing of import restrictions, a rare showdown between a domestic film and a Hollywood film took place at the Chinese box office this summer: domestic moviegoers overwhelmingly chose Jackie Chan's “Skiptrace” (绝地逃亡) – also starring Johnny Knoxville – over “The Legend of Tarzan”, which contains no Chinese elements.
The action buddy comedy “Skiptrace,” starring 62-year-old Chan and “American Jackass” star Knoxville, grossed 409 million RMB ($62.3 million) for Beijing Talent International Media Co. in its four-day debut, the biggest local debut since “Ip Man 3” grossed 471 million RMB in early March.
Skiptrace dominated the weekend box office, accounting for 57% of ticket sales. Meanwhile, “Tarzan,” which came in second, only secured 15% of the weekend's box office receipts. Warner Bros.' jungle hero film debuted in first place with $7.0 million on Tuesday, but quickly lost theaters to Chan's Skiptrace on Thursday. “Tarzan” managed just RMB 80.6 million ($12.0 million) over the weekend, for a six-day total of RMB 183 million ($27.4 million).
“Tarzan” was unusually released in July. This month is usually reserved for domestic films, but this year Chinese regulators allowed five imported films into the country. Three imported films were released this week – “Tarzan,” the Japanese animation “Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016” (哆啦A梦：新·大雄的日本诞生) and the Indian historical epic “Baahubali: The Beginning.”
“Doraemon,” featuring one of Asia's most recognizable cartoon characters, grossed RMB 54.2 million ($8.1 million) over the three-day weekend. This installment in the cute cat franchise evidently didn't strike the same chord with Chinese moviegoers as 2015's “Stand By Me Doraemon,” which surprised analysts by grossing $86.9 million (currently the sixth-highest-grossing animated film in China) amid a wave of nostalgia among the post-80s generation that grew up watching “Doraemon” on TV.
Stand By Me Doraemon is also credited with easing Sino-Japanese relations after a dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in 2012 led to Chinese regulators banning the import of all Japanese films. Since Doraemon's surprise box office success, a number of Japanese films have been able to enter the country.
The other imported film this weekend, the Indian film “Baahubali: The Beginning,” failed to live up to its country’s high expectations, grossing around $630,000 in three days.
Bollywood comedy PK grossed an impressive $19.4 million in China in 2015, sparking talks between the two countries about further co-production opportunities and generating interest from Indian producers to gain access to the world's second-largest and fastest-growing film market.
The Indian press had been building hype around Baahubali's release in China for months, and despite deep discounts on most Chinese online ticketing sites and local media coverage, moviegoers stayed away. The film only played in two percent of theaters nationwide, and the average attendance over the weekend was just 12 people per screening.
— Follow Jonathan Papish on Twitter @ChinaBoxOffice
About the author Jonathan Papish currently covers the Chinese film industry from New York City, but previously worked in China for 8 years. Jonathan was a social media and digital assistant for dGenerate Films, a distributor of contemporary Chinese independent theatrical films, and most recently covered the China market for BoxOffice.com. Jonathan is also an audiovisual translator from Mandarin to English and has subtitled several high-profile mainland films and television programs.
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