China Box Office: ‘The Marvels’ Disappoints With $11.5 Million, Second Place, Opening Weekend

The Marvels narrowly missed the top spot at the mainland China box office on its opening weekend. And its debut was far short of its blockbuster predecessor.

Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows The Marvels earning RMB82.7 million or $11.5 million between Friday and Sunday in Chinese cinemas. Of that some $2 million or 17%, was earned in Imax theaters.

The films debut weekend haul was a fraction below the RMB84.2 million ($11.7 million) earned by Chinese film Last Suspect in its second weekend of release. Crime drama title, Last Suspect now has a cumulative of $51.5 million after ten days on release.

Figures for The Marvels compare badly with the $88.9 million earned by Captain Marvel when it opened in Chinese theaters in March 2019. Local ticketing service, Maoyan forecasts that The Marvels will have a career total of RMB152 million or $21 million in China. It opened poorly in other territories too.

Third place over the weekend belonged to Be My Family, a Chinese-produced family drama backed by Alibaba and its Taopiaopiao unit. It managed $6.8 million in three days.

The fourth spot was claimed by The Abandoned, a Taiwanese-produced crime drama that had a round of festival play including dates at Singapore and Rotterdam at the end of 2022 and the beginning of this year. While most films open in China on a Friday, The Abandoned opened on Saturday and grossed $1.8 million (RMB13.3 million) in two days.

Only the River Flows, which topped the chart for two weeks in October, held on to fifth spot over the latest weekend. It earned $1.2 million for a five-week cumulative of $40 million.

Box office China-wide was worth $37.2 million. That increment advanced the year-to-date total in China to $9.94 billion. Artisan Gateway reports that as 78% ahead of a miserable 2022 and 14% below the comparable running total in 2019.