“Skiptrace” starring Jackie Chan celebrates big debut in China with over 62 million US dollars

Skipthe Renny Harlin-directed action comedy starring Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville, opened in China to big box office numbers. Box office numbers alone show that the film grossed $62.2 million, beating all of its competition, including Warner Bros' The Legend of Tarzan, which came in a distant second. To give an idea of ​​how popular Skiptrace was, Tarzan's six-day box office in the country was only $27.3 million. The China opening is also Chan's biggest ever opening in the Middle Kingdom for a live-action film.

It didn't hurt that Skiptrace's $60 million production featured another popular local star, Fan Bingbing. The film also opened in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Romania and Bulgaria, grossing a total of $64 million in seven markets managed by Bloom International.

In the U.S., the film will first be shown exclusively on DirecTV, then hit theaters and available on demand on September 2, courtesy of Saban Films and Lionsgate, who are handling production here. Rated 13+, Skiptrace follows a Hong Kong detective (Chan) who must team up with a fugitive American gambler (Knoxville) to fight Chinese villains.

The film is a Chinese-HK production and the characters speak both Chinese and English (yes, even Knoxville). It was originally scheduled to be released in China last Christmas, but then the release was pushed back to this summer. The Chinese press says it could be the only Chinese-language film to gross 1 billion RMB (equivalent to $153 million).

Beijing Talent International Media Co. is the Chinese company behind the film. Local press reports that Beijing Talent negotiated a deal with Alibaba, Shanghai Hehe Films and Tianjin Lianrui Pictures to cover the production budget, distribution and marketing costs, in return for a guaranteed minimum box office of 1 billion RMB. The same deal was apparently struck for the box office hit The Mermaid – which ended up being China's highest-grossing film of all time.