Weekly Box Office: “Life of Pi” Trumps “Back to 1942”

Note: “Weekly Box Office” is a new feature at JayneStars.com, providing box office figures and commentary on the latest blockbuster films in mainland China and Hong Kong.

Moviegoers continued to flock to see Life of Pi, pushing cumulative box office to $270.10 million RMB in mainland China after 11 days of release.  For the week ending December 2, Life of Pi raked weekly sales of $169 million RMB, a gain of 67 percent in sales compared to its premiere week. Reviews have been extremely positive over Ang Lee’s (李安) fablelike film, which crosses cultural boundaries and is a universal film about human nature.

Feng Xiaogang’s (馮小剛) Back to 1942 <一九四二> took in $133.80 million RMB in its opening weekend. The famine epic stars Hollywood actors, Adrien Brody and Tim Robbins, and drew strong box office sales from competitor, The Last Supper <王的盛宴>, which also opened on November 29.

After the premiere day of both films, the gap in sales was obvious: Back to 1942 earned $25 million RMB on premiere day, while The Last Supper lagged behind at $8 million RMB. With its dismal sales on opening day, the number of theater showings for The Last Supper was significantly scaled back, resulting in its poor box office sales of $39 million RMB for its opening weekend. The film, based on the historical Feast of Hong Gate during the Chu-Han Contention period in China, has been criticized as being difficult to follow with a murky plot.

Aaron Kwok’s (郭富城) Cold War <寒戰> grossed a cumulative total of $245.90 million RMB in mainland China since its release, while adding another $38.83 million from Hong Kong theaters.

New films opening this week in mainland theaters include Chinese film, The Flight of Youth <飛揚的青春> on December 5; and Korean science fiction horror film, Deranged, on December 6.

Mainland China Box Office 

Week Ending December 2, 2012 
$ in millions RMB

Hong Kong Box Office 
Week Ending December 2, 2012
$ in millions HKD

Box Office figures from Sohu.com and HKFilmart.com

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