“Alien: Romulus” scored its third win at the Chinese box office over the weekend. Thai comedy “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” also climbed into the top five in its second week in China.
But those bright spots for imported titles highlighted the current weak performance of films made in China, which has dragged down the Chinese summer season.
“Alien: Romulus” grossed 63.4 million yuan ($8.9 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consulting firm Artisan Gateway. That brings its total to 661 million yuan ($93.1 million). That’s higher than the film’s $88.8 million through Sunday in the North American market.
The total is the second-highest for any Hollywood film in China this year (after “Godzilla x Kong”) and has surprised many commentators. It’s also surprising that the figure was achieved in August, a month that in previous years was considered part of a ban or “Chinese movie promotion month.” Those restrictions have been quietly lifted as Chinese cinemas crave new, premium content.
Chinese crime film “Go for Broke” climbed from fourth to second place, with its weekend revenue down just 13% from the previous week. It made $6.2 million for a 17-day total of $44.9 million.
The summer's biggest hit, “The Caliph,” also returned to the top five, taking in $3.7 million for a total of $459 million.
The crime drama “Untouchable” grossed $3.7 million in its second weekend, down from $10.3 million.
The Thai comedy-drama hit “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies,” which opened a week ago outside the top five, took fifth place. The film grossed $3.3 million (down from an expected $4.4 million) and has grossed $10.7 million since its release in China on Aug. 23.
The Artisan Gateway reported that the weekend's domestic box office took in $40.8 million. That's the lowest figure in 10 weeks, bringing the total to $4.70 billion — down more than 22 percent from the same period last year.
Maoyan, one of China's leading movie ticketing agencies, says the summer season (which it estimates as June to August, inclusive) is down 44% from last year.
“The summer box office revenue of the Chinese film market in 2024 was about RMB 11.64 billion, representing a year-on-year decrease of about 44%. This was mainly due to the decline in the number of blockbusters,” the company reports. “However, the total number of films released and those with revenues exceeding RMB 100 million during this summer season reached the highest level in nearly six years, with a variety of new domestic films released.”
“This summer season saw a very diverse lineup of local films, with imported films performing exceptionally well. In terms of new local films, the genres covered include comedy, thriller, drama, crime, sci-fi, animation and more. The best performing films overall were the two local titles: “The Caliph” and “A Place Called Silence.” [which] The film grossed a total box office revenue of 1.35 billion yuan.
“As for new imported films, there were nine films that grossed over 100 million yuan this summer season, both in terms of number and box office, higher than in 2023. It is worth noting that ‘Alien: Romulus’ performed better in China than in North America,” Maoyan said.
