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China’s cinema box office trod water in the weekend ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays and an imminent surge of new release titles. These mean that the next few days could add up to the biggest week in Chinese movie history.

Over the latest weekend, though, the nationwide aggregate was a paltry $21.4 million, the lowest weekend this year, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

“Fireflies in the Sun,” a Wanda Pictures-backed thriller, said to be a remake of “John Q,” climbed back to first place with a $4.1 million take. It was first released in mid-December and has now built a cumulative of $174 million.

Patriotic pandemic film “Embrace Again” slipped to second place with $3.9 million, giving a running total of $148 million. Comedy, “Another Me” took $2.9 million for a $73 million cumulative since release on Jan. 1, 2022. Chinese crime thriller “G Storm” earned $2.8 million over the weekend for a total...

“The Matrix: Resurrections” fell out of the top five chart positions at the mainland Chinese box office over the latest weekend. The top spots were reclaimed by local, holdover titles.

China Film Co.’s patriotic pandemic drama “Embrace Again” was the top film over the latest Friday to Sunday weekend, with a weekend score of $5.3 million, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. Since Dec. 31, 2021, the film has accumulated $139 million. The previous weekend, it had taken $6.8 million in second place.

In second place over the latest session was “Fireflies in the Sun,” a Wanda Pictures-backed thriller, said to be a remake of “John Q.” It was first released in mid-December but bubbled back with a $4.4 million weekend, lifting its cumulative to $169 million.

Chinese crime thriller “G Storm” earned $3.4 million over the weekend in third place for a cumulative of $93.2 million since releasing on Dec. 31.

Comedy, “Another Me” earned...

’No Way Home’ is now the biggest film of all time in Mexico.

Worldwide box office January 14-16 Rank Film (distributor) 3-day (World) Cume (World) 3-day (Int’l) Cume (Int’) Territories 1. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony) $54.2m $1.63bn $33.4m $926.3m 64 2. Scream (Paramount) $48.6m $48.6m $18m $18m 51 3. Sing 2 (Universal) $16.7m $215.7m $8.4m $96.2m 55 4. The King’s Man (Disney)

$12.5m $92.4m $10.2m $63.8m 45 5. The Matrix Resurrections (WB)

$11.9m $140m $11.1m $104.2m 79 6. Embrace Again (various)

$6.8m $126.5m $6.8m $126.5m 6 7. House Of Gucci (Universal) $4.9m $122.5m $4.2m $71.4m 50 8. G Storm (various) $4.2m $85.8m $4.2m $85.8m 6 9. The 355 (various) $4.1m $13.7m $1.8m $5.3m 25 10. Another Me (various...

Warner Bros.’ “The Matrix Resurrections” opened number one this weekend at the China box office thanks to $7.5 million in sales, according to data from the Artisan Gateway consultancy.

China’s national box office for 2022 is already off to a slow start, and currently sits at 15% below the same period last year. The country is currently struggling to contain the new threat of the omicron Covid-19 variant ahead of the upcoming Beijing Olympic games. As of Sunday, some 14 provinces had reported local omicron cases, including the cities of Beijing and Shanghai. Cinemas in high-risk areas like Tianjin and Xi’an have been closed for days, while those still operating in the country remain at 75% maximum capacity.

That’s bad news for exhibitors, who have been left for weeks without strong Hollywood content to get their turnstiles spinning. The Matrix franchise, like “Star Wars” and unlike the more recent Marvel Comic Universe,...

After a rocky 2021 in China, Hollywood kicked off 2022 with its first revenue-share studio release of the year in Disney’s lush animated movie “Encanto.” The musical family film conjured up $3.22 million in the Middle Kingdom, according to data from the Maoyan platform.

The Colombia-set musical about the boisterous Madrigal family and their magical gifts placed sixth at the box office, behind a slew of holdover local titles.

“Encanto” grossed $43.3 million in theaters over its five-day Thanksgiving weekend stateside back in November before releasing on Disney Plus near the Christmas holiday. It has grossed $92.4 million in the U.S. and $216 million globally since, with the biggest overseas market being France. The Disney Plus platform does not operate in China.

Maoyan currently estimates “Encanto” will gross $6.68 million over the course of its full mainland run, which may feel like a drop in the bucket for the well-received yet expensive film that has...