China Box Office: ‘The Flash’ and ‘Elemental’ Make Soft Starts on Debut Weekend

Warner Bros.s The Flash and Disney/Pixars Elemental made theatrical debuts in China that were in line with their soft starts in North America and other international territories.

The Flash captured the top spot in China with a $13.4 million (RMB94.8 million) opening weekend ($13.8 million including previews), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

It deposed Transformers: Rise of the Beasts which opened a week earlier and which slipped to second place in its sophomore frame. Transformers took a 69% fall and recorded $12.4 million between Friday and Sunday in China. That produces a $61.7 million cumulative after ten days in Chinese theaters.

Giant screen systems provider Imax reported that The Flash earned $2.3 million of its total on the companys screens in China and that Transformers earned $600,000 at its China sites.

Elemental opened in third place with $5.3 million (RMB37.4 million).

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse slipped from second place to fourth in its third weekend of release. It earned $3.7 million (RMB26.3 million), for a running total of $41.3 million in China.

Long-playing Chinese film Godspeed earned $2.7 million in fifth place. That gives it a cumulative total of $163 million since releasing on April 28.

While Hollywood can take some cheer from scooping the top four places in Chinas box office chart, the films performance is lackluster and Chinas nationwide theatrical recovery momentum is slowing. Across all of China, cinema box office fell to $45.5 million over the weekend, down from $61 million a week earlier.

Artisan Gateway calculates that the year-to-date aggregate is $3.37 billion. That is a 46% improvement on a miserable COVID-affected 2022 and currently some 20% below 2019 levels.