Weekly Box Office: Canine Comedy “Bring Happiness Home” Becomes Surprise Hit

Above: Xie Na stars in mainland comedy, “Bring Happiness Home”.

Wong Kar Wai’s (王家衛) The Grandmaster <一代宗師> held its strength at the box office in its second week of release. The film maintained its top box office position in mainland China and Hong Kong, raking 252.11 million RMB and $14.86 million HKD respectively.

The biggest surprise was low-budget comedy, Bring Happiness Home <快乐到家>, opening with 84.15 million RMB, sliding smoothly behind The Grandmaster in weekly box office sales.  Bring Happiness Home stars mainland’s He Jiong (何炅) and Xie Na (谢娜) and Hong Kong’s Chapman To (杜汶澤). The comedy chronicles the adventures of a lost poodle, as it struggles to find its way home to its beloved wealthy owner.

The 1.2 billion RMB success of Lost in Thailand has already sparked plans to film a sequel, which will take place in Hong Kong. The film is already the highest grossing Chinese language film and may challenge box office champion of all time, Avatar’s 1.38 billion RMB record in China. The sequel for Lost in Thailand will film this year and see the return of Xu Zheng (徐峥), Wang Baoqiang (王宝强), and Huang Bo (黄渤).

Aside from The Grandmaster, Hollywood films continue to dominate the Hong Kong box office, with The Impossible and Les Miserables garnering strong sales.

Mainland China Box Office 

Week Ending January 20, 2013
(in millions RMB)

Hong Kong Box Office 
Week Ending January 20, 2013
$ in millions HKD

Box Office figures from Sohu.com and HKFilmart.com

“Bring Happiness Home” Trailer

[vsw id=”58ZB8zK9Mn0″ source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Related Articles

• Weekly Box Office: “The Grandmaster” Earns 162 Million RMB on Opening Weekend (January 17, 2013)
• Weekly Box Office: “Lost in Thailand” Tops 1 Billion RMB; “CZ12″ Reaps 600 Million RMB (January 2, 2013)