Harry Potter returns to China’s box office, facing off against new films in a cinematic showdown!
The re-release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone had a successful debut in China, finishing in second place at the box office over the weekend. This marks the beginning of a series of re-releases for all the Harry Potter films in the country over the next few weeks.
The top movie of the weekend was The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death, which earned RMB 77.4 million ($10.9 million). This film, directed by Chen Kaige, has been doing well since it opened on September 30, just in time for China’s National Day celebrations. So far, it has made a total of $139 million. It’s the second movie in a trilogy that started last year with The Volunteers: To the War.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone earned $6.6 million during its first weekend. Warner Bros. announced that the film is being shown in 3,400 theaters across 295 cities in China. It’s available in regular 2D as well as premium formats like IMAX, CINITY, and Dolby Cinema. IMAX theaters alone brought in $1.8 million of the film’s earnings over the weekend.
The Harry Potter movies were originally released between 2001 and 2011, at a time when China’s movie theaters were still new and the country’s film industry was just beginning to grow. Because of this, comparing how well the films did then to now isn’t really fair. Over the next few weeks, the rest of the Harry Potter movies will be released one by one, continuing into November.
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Another movie doing well in China is Tiger Wolf Rabbit, a Chinese crime drama that took third place with $4.1 million. Since its release on October 1, it has earned $58 million.
In fourth place is High Forces, starring Andy Lau, which made $3.6 million over the weekend and has earned a total of $33 million since September 30.
Finally, Jackie Chan’s movie Panda Plan fell from third to fifth place. It earned $3 million this weekend, bringing its total to $34.9 million since it was released on October 1.
Overall, these films are keeping the Chinese box office busy this fall.
