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I’m not quite sure what to make of No More Bets, the latest Chinese blockbuster that has just dropped on Netflix. On one hand, the movie has a positive message. Well, more of a good warning than a message—don’t fall prey to online scams. But the depiction of it on screen is unintentionally hilarious and can’t be taken seriously, at least as cinema. Of course, it’s evident that the Chinese government made their influence felt, given how the film is so desperate to make the police the ultimate savior in the end. And it’s never great when politicians start dictating cinema in this manner. No More Bets is no exception. It did make a lot of money in the box office, which is understandable, as quite often this kind of ‘message-oriented movies’ trick people into believing they are actually good. Anyway, since you’re here,...

Five Chinese productions are being presented in market screenings on the sidelines of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival in an effort, organizers of the program say, to give North American audiences a “three-dimensional” view into contemporary China.

Put together by the China Film Co-Production Corporation (Cfcc), the selection includes comedian Da Peng’s box office hit Post Truth ($98 million), which focuses on how a former gang boss-turned-burial plot salesman deals with online rumors.

There’s also the pandemic lockdown-themed romance Embrace Again from director Xue Xiaolu, whose breakthrough rom-com Finding Mr. Right (2013) was famously credited with an upsurge in Chinese tourism to Seattle.

Two romance-tinged films from director Yan are also screening this week: Love Never Ends, a tale of old-age friendship and love with a winning turn from Hong Kong action veteran Tony Leung Ka-fai (Election), and Viva La Vida, which follows the relationship that develops between...

Covid, changing money flows and a new superpower Cold War of sorts may have, over the past few years, helped to reduce the connections between the film and TV industries of China and the rest of the world — so, will the 2024 edition of FilMart, whose organizers continue to claim bridgehead status, be the market to increase those connections?

Candas Yeung, the Trade Development Council associate director who takes over as head of FilMart this year, says that visitor and exhibitor numbers have crept up again this year — to an anticipated 7,500 and 715, respectively — and that fully 40% of market participants hail from mainland China.

“That’s a pretty significant proportion and they are very active in the market, both buying and selling, and making some announcements,” Yeung says. “Clearly, Hong Kong remains a crucial intermediate link between mainland Chinese and the rest of the world’s entertainment industry. We will try to...

Andy Lau starrer The Movie Emperor and romantic drama Viva La Vida have had their releases cut short in China amid stiff competition, while Yolo and Pegasus 2 are among four local breakout hits that contributed to a record-breaking $1.1bn box office over Chinese New Year.

Satirical comedy The Movie Emperor earned just $11.1m (RMB80m) after one week following its release on the first day of Chinese New Year (February 10), which also saw the opening of a string of hot local titles.

Chinese producer Huanxi Media issued a statement on social media to say it would be pulled from...

“In Broad Daylight,” an expose of real events in a care home for the elderly, dominated the nominations for the Hong Kong Film Awards.

The Lawrence Kan-directed comedy-drama received 16 nominations, at the Tuesday nominations event, including best picture and best new director as well as others for cinematography, editing sound design and original song.

The story sees an investigative reporter go under cover to expose cruelty and other wrong-doings at the Rainbow Bridge Care Home. It premiered last year at the Shanghai film festival and was a highlight of the New York Asian Film Festival, but came away empty-handed from the Golden Horse Film Awards, where it had been nominated in five categories. It enjoyed its commercial release in Hong Kong in November.

Other contenders in the Hkfa best film category are: Nick Cheung’s “Time Still Turns the Pages,” Soi Cheang’s “Mad Fate,” Felix Chong’s “The Goldfinger...

“Citizen of a Kind,” a comedy-drama about a woman who takes matters into her own hands after becoming the victim of a scam, fulfilled its promise from an earlier week of previews. “Citizen” topped the South Korean box office on its opening weekend, accounting for a more than 40% market share. But, with few other fresh titles reaching cinemas, overall theatrical revenues were at their lowest for several months.

“Citizen” earned $2.59 million between Friday and Sunday, according to figures from Kobis, the data service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Over five days since release on Wednesday, and with the addition of its earlier previews, “Citizen” finished its opening weekend with a cumulative of $3.58 million.

Directed by Park Young-ju, “Citizen” tells the tale of woman whose business has gone up in flames and takes a hefty loan in an attempt to restart it. When she discovers that the loan is...

The country recorded its highest cinema admissions in four years.

China took $7.7bn (RMB54.9b) at the box office in 2023, representing an 83% year-on-year increase and the highest cinema admissions in four years, but still 14.5% behind pre-pandemic 2019.

Local audiences continued to show their unwavering support for local productions, which claimed all the top 10 slots in the annual chart. The biggest among them were two Chinese New Year releases, historical mystery Full River Red and sci-fi The Wandering Earth 2, which both surpassed the landmark RMB4bn ($562m) mark.

Half of the top 10 were local summer hits, including crime drama No More Bets,...

The crime drama will be released on December 30.

Trinity CineAsia has acquired Hong Kong tentpole The Goldfinger for the UK and Ireland after striking a deal with Emperor Motion Pictures.

The crime drama will reunite Hong Kong superstars Andy Lau and Tony Leung with writer/director Felix Chong for the first time since 2002’s Infernal Affairs. That film, co-written by Chong and directed by Lau and Alan Mak, spawned a trilogy of films and inspired Martin Scorsese’s 2006 Oscar-winning crime thriller The Departed.

UK-based Trinity CineAsia will theatrically release The Goldfinger in UK and Irish cinemas on December 30, co-ordinated with...

Christopher Nolan deserves a really nice fruit basket.

The director’s latest blockbuster, “Oppenheimer,” was shot with Imax cameras, something that Nolan talked up during the film’s press tour last summer. That advocacy contributed to $180 million in global ticket sales for Imax venues, lifting the big screen company’s latest earnings results. Overall, Imax’s revenues jumped 51% during the most recent quarter to $103.9 million. Gross margins increased 98% to $62.7 million, while adjusted earnings per share increased to 35 cents. That beat Wall Street’s projections.

“Imax financial results for the third quarter are spectacular by any measure — versus budget, versus our historical performance and in the context of a highly dynamic business environment for media and entertainment,” said Richard Gelfond, CEO of Imax. “We are programming by far the strongest and most diverse content portfolio in our history — Hollywood blockbusters, local language films, marquee theatrical releases by streamers, concert films, docs,...

Imax swung to a profit and saw revenue revenue jump in the Septembers quarter, buoyed by Oppenheimer and other content from Hollywood to local language films, concert films, docs and live events.

The big screen exhibitor and tech company posted a net profit of $12 million versus a loss of $9 million the year earlier on revenue of $104 million, up 51%. It was the second highest grossing quarter of all time at the global Imax box office, the company said. Oppenheimer led with $180 million in Imax gross box office (20% of the total), followed by Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Local language titles were led by China’s Creation of the Gods: Kingdom of Storms ($32.3 million), with strong contributions coming from No More Bets, Lost in the Stars, and Jawan. The remasterd and rereleased Talking Heads’ concert film Stop Making Sense, which premiered at TIFF, was...

Lay Zhang is opening up about his acting goals.

The 32-year-old No More Bets actor and Chinese rapper and singer-songwriter, who was an original member of the powerhouse K-pop boy band Exo, got candid in a new interview with Variety, out now.

During the discussion, he talked about his acting ambitions, dream collaborators, working with Jackie Chan, and more.

Keep reading to find out more…

On wanting to work with British director Joe Wright:

“I loved The Darkest Hour and would like to have the opportunity to work with [him]. I like a movie that can dig into the personality and conflict.”

On his acting ambitions stateside:

“I want to be an actor who can bridge between Chinese and American culture. I hope that the success of No More Bets in China is just the beginning of being able to be recognized as an actor in the U.S.”

On...

Chinese director Ning Hao has flown directly from Busan film festival in South Korea to China’s Pingyao International Film Festival (Pyiff) with his latest film, The Movie Emperor, starring Andy Lau.

After premiering in Toronto, the satirical comedy played as the closing film in Busan; one of two ‘Pingyao Surprise’ films at Pyiff, and will next screen at Tokyo International Film Festival. It will receive a wide theatrical release in China and international territories, including North America, on November 17.

In a thinly veiled satire of China’s film industry, Lau plays an old school movie star trying to regain relevance in the TikTok era by playing a pig farmer in a ‘serious’ Chinese drama aiming for film festival exposure. In order to get into character, he immerses himself in rural life, while still madly schmoozing to bring in investment, and insists on doing all his own stunts. Ning also...

China’s remarkable box office recovery this year took a pause on a weekend with no new releases and the quietest attendance levels since January.

Next week’s crop of blockbuster holiday releases will show if the latest weekend was aberration attributable to timing.

Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway showed nationwide box office worth just $25 million – from a population of 1.3 billion people and some 100,000 commercial cinema screens. The figure was the second lowest of 2023 and only fractionally higher than the second week of January, which was a time when China’s post-covid recovery was only just gearing up and major film releases were targeting the late-January Chinese New Year festivities.

Since that time, China’s box office has mostly been on a roll. The Chinese New Year period was worth $1 billion to cinemas. Hollywood films have been allowed to return in quantity. And the summer season was buoyed by...

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer nudged near the $60 million mark in China during a somewhat downbeat weekend for moviegoing in the world’s second-largest theatrical territory.

The Universal Pictures-backed historical blockbuster added $2.5 million from Friday to Sunday, taking its total to $58.1 million, according to data from box office tracker Artisan Gateway. Oppenheimer came in fourth place for the frame behind local crime thriller Dust to Dust, Millennium Pictures’ action franchise misfire Expend4bles and Chinese comedy blockbuster No More Bets.

Oppenheimer has been huge on Imax in China. The film earned $740,000 this past weekend for a $17 million total in the format, which is a whopping 30 percent of its nationwide cume to date.

Oppenheimer opened in China nearly a month ago and its staying power has been considerable. Nolan has a strong following in China — a fact that Universal leveraged with a very well-received prerelease promotional visit to Beijing by the director in late August.

Range Media Partners has signed Chinese actor, singer-songwriter, dancer and fashion icon Lay Zhang and will represent him globally across all areas.

The 31-year-old star, who operates under multiple pseudonyms including Lay and Little Sheep, rose to fame as a former member of K-Pop boyband Exo before launching a solo career, already is a household name in Asia, boasting more than 80 million followers across social media.

As an actor, he stars under his full name Zhang Yixing in the Chinese box office smash “No More Bets,” which has earned more than $527 million in China to date, becoming the country’s biggest hit of the summer. Zhang is now the youngest and fifth-ever Chinese actor to reach this box office milestone. “No More Bets” also received a limited release in the U.S. on Sept. 1.

Next year, he will be seen starring opposite Jackie Chan in the film “A Legend.

‘Expendables 4’ narrowly took top place at the mainland China box office on a quiet weekend preceding the National Day holiday season at the end of the month. “A Haunting in Venice” opened outside the top five.

Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows “Expendables 4” earning $10.9 million (RMB78.6 million) over its debut weekend. The latest instalment in the “Expendables” franchise lacks an above-the title Chinese star, but includes Jason Statham, who is also to be seen in China-u.S. co-production “Meg 2: The Trench.”

The new release title was fractionally ahead of Chinese crime thriller “Dust to Dust,” which picked up $10.6 million (RMB76.2 million) in its second week of release. “Dust” breathed in a 52% week-on-week decline, but advanced its total to $44.2 million after ten days on release.

“Oppenheimer” played on in third place with $4.3 million in its third week in China. After 17 days on release, it has accumulated $54.3 million in the Middle Kingdom.

That the Toronto world premiere of “The Movie Emperor” is sponsored by high-end home appliance manufacturer Dyson is deliciously and understatedly ironic. In the movie, innocuous-seeming domestic equipment — from the humble suitcase to floor sweeping robots — run quietly amok.

So, too, do other forms of supposedly convenient technology, from dashboard cameras to smartphone apps, which seem to conspire to crush the ego of the film’s protagonist, a major movie star trying to get into his role as an angry pig farmer.

That the analog pigs and their distracted human owners are just as much of a handful makes the film an inky, black-humored pastiche on modern high-tech society, our obsessions with self-image and the arrogance of the movie industry.

Chinese director Ning Hao, previously the purveyor of arty satire “Mongolian Ping Pong” and the more scattershot (and commercially successful) “Crazy Racer” and “Crazy Alien,” has always had a cruelly funny streak.

’My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3’ failed to crack the top five in its opening weekend.

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Sep 8-10)Total gross to date Week 1. The Nun II (Warner Bros) £1.7m £1.7m 1 2. Jawan (Yash Raj Films) £1m £1.3m 1 3. The Equalizer 3 (Sony) £1m £4.7m 2 4. Barbie (Warner Bros) £560,378 £93.8m 8 5. Oppenheimer (Universal) £482,121 £56.4m 8

Warner Bros’ horror title The Nun II prised the UK-Ireland box office top spot away this weekend from The Equalizer 3, as Barbenheimer’s box office dominance continues to wane, while Hindi-language thriller Jawan enjoyed a superb opening weekend.

The Nun II brought in £1.7m from 572 sites,...

“Dust to Dust,” a low-key crime thriller, topped the mainland Chinese box office over the weekend, despite only being released on Saturday.

The film, directed by Jonathan Li, recounts how 21 years after a major armed robbery, a video of the crime resurfaces and causes the police to reopen their investigation. It had its world premiere in June, in competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

With Da Peng, a former talk show host, required to age significantly for the lead role, the film earned $22.2 million (RMB160 million) in just two days, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway. The film replaced “Oppenheimer” which had led the chart for the previous two (Friday-Sunday) weekends.

“Oppenheimer,” which has been an unusual hit in China, earned $9.6 million (RMB68.8 million) over the latest weekend, to achieve a cumulative of $47.2 million.

Giant screen provider, Imax reported that some $3 million of “Oppenheimer’s” weekend total came from its venues,...

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer climbed to $47.2 million in China over the weekend, continuing a better-than-expected run in the world’s second-biggest box office territory. But the blockbuster biopic ceded first place to Chinese crime thriller Dust to Dust, which came on strong with a $22.2 million two-day opening starting Saturday, topping Oppenheimer‘s $9.6 million Friday-to-Sunday total, according to data from box office tracker Artisan Gateway.

Chinese ticketing app Maoyan forecasts Oppenheimer will finish its local run with approximately $57 million, which will make it the fourth-biggest U.S. film release in China in 2023 behind Fast X ($139.5 million), Meg 2: The Trench ($116.5 million, but a China co-production) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($86.9 million).

Despite its long runtime and weighty historical subject matter — which many analysts expected would be a drag in China — Oppenheimer has been boosted by a rave local reception. On the influential fan platform Douban, it has received nearly...

Strong summer season performances by movies across the world have sped up the movie industry’s global recovery.

And for the second time this year, analysis firm Gower Street Analytics has revised its forecast for the 2023 cinema year upwards.

The London-based firm is now forecasting that the full-year global gross box office will weigh in at $34.5 billion, a $2.5 billion increase on its April forecast. The upgrade reflects a strong July-August period globally, but with the majority of the increase due to the summer movie season boom in China.

If the new projection holds good, it would see global box office finish 33% ahead of 2022 (35% at current exchange rates). It would also come in just 12% behind the average of the last three pre-pandemic years, 2017-2019, the firm said.

The forecast is based on the currently known release calendar for the remaining four months of the year. This could change significantly if studios...

“No More Bets,” the smash hit Chinese crime thriller that has earned more than half a billion dollars in its home market, is hurriedly adding new territories to release.

It will release in the U.K. and Ireland from Friday through distributor Trinity Cine Asia. It will release in Hong Kong, on Sept. 21, through Haven Productions, Mandarin Entertainment and Intercontinental. It was given a limited release in the U.S. on Sept. 1.

Said to be based on actual events, the story involves a computer programmer and a model who are lured abroad by a job offer that turns out to be a scam. Instead, they are prevented from leaving and are obliged to work as online scammers, ripping off other unknowing victims.

The film was released in China in early August and spent three weeks at the top of the box office chart. It has amassed $547 million in 31 days of release,...

The gambling film is synonymous with the Hong Kong movie industry. From “Games Gamblers Play” through to the “From Vegas to Macau” series, they encapsulate the desire for financial gain that would filter through society. Whist the films may often be violent, in the main they showed a glamour to the lifestyle even if the consequences could be dire. “No More Bets” from the mainland then comes across as a riposte to this with the dangers of online gambling and the devastation it causes at the forefront of its thriller narrative. Yet it is so much more than just a simple damnation, as Western audiences will discover as it arrives on their shores this month.

No More Bets will be screening in UK and Ireland cinemas starting September 8, courtesy of Trinity Asia

Sheng (Lay Zhang) after being rejected for promotion, takes up another opportunity in Singapore. After arriving, he and...

Sony’s “The Equalizer 3” has finally toppled the six-week reign of “Barbie” atop the U.K. and Ireland box office.

Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller, headlined by Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning, debuted with £2.7 million ($3.4 million), per numbers from Comscore.

In its seventh weekend, Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” slid down to second place with £1.6 million for a mighty total of £92.5 million. It is the highest grossing film of 2023 and occupies seventh position on the all-time charts for the territory behind “Spectre,” which has £95.2 million.

Also in its seventh weekend, Universal’s “Oppenheimer” slid down a spot to third with £960,504. With £55.4 million, it is the second highest grossing film of 2023 and is level with “Bohemian Rhapsody” at No. 34 on the all-time chart.

Angel’s “Sound of Freedom,” a massive success Stateside, debuted in fourth place with £760,060. Rounding off the top five was Paramount’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” which...

“Oppenheimer” landed on top of the mainland China cinema box office with an impressive score for a Hollywood movie in the current climate. More typically, gaming adaptation “Gran Turismo” failed to get far off the start line.

While most films open in China on Fridays, Christopher Nolan’s nuclear opus was given a wide release from Wednesday.

It scored $21.3 million (RMB154 million) over the conventional Friday to Sunday weekend and $30.7 million (RMB221 million) over its opening five days, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. Local data providers show that the film topped the charts on all five days of its run.

Universal Pictures reports that the film opened on 35,000 screens at 11,000 locations in China, including 761 Imax venues.

Local data providers estimate that, in contrast, “Gran Turismo” made just $1.2 million over its more conventional three-day getaway.

Universal claimed that “Oppenheimer” enjoyed the third biggest Hollywood opening this year behind...

China’s summer box office has crossed the RMB20bn ($2.75bn) threshold for the first time, taking the country’s year-to-date gross to nearly $6bn.

According to official data published by government agency China Film Administration, $2.87bn (RMB20.62bn) box office sales were generated from 505 million cinema admission from June 1 – August 31. The star performers were all local productions, which occupied the top six spots at the box office and accounted for 87.6% of the market share.

According to ticketing platform Maoyan, the runaway champion was No More Bets, directed by Shen Ao and produced by Ning Hao. The crime drama, which...

Festival For All

The third edition of Fragments Festival (Sept. 28-Oct. 1) – set up as a platform for underrepresented filmmakers and as a showcase of films featuring unique individuals and minority groups – returns to London’s Genesis cinema and will open with Ken Loach‘s “The Old Oak.” The film centers on struggling pub The Old Oak, where tensions mount following the sudden arrival of Syrian refugees who have been housed in the area. The festival closes with Anna Hints‘ “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” the Estonian entry for the 2024 Oscars that documents a space where women can share their innermost secrets and intimate experiences.

This year’s festival comprises eight features, 26 shorts and 11 events highlighting stories by and of women, non-binary people and other members of the Lgbtqia+ community, disabled people, working class individuals, and Black, Asian and Arab communities.

Genesis owner Tyrone Walker-Hebborn said: “With the world increasingly opening up to diversity,...

Chinese crime action film “No More Bets” headed the mainland China box office for the fourth consecutive weekend, cementing its place as one of the biggest films in the world this year.

Between Friday and Sunday, it earned $33.5 million (RMB241 million), according to data from specialist consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. Global data provider Comscore ranked that as the third highest performance of the weekend anywhere in the world, narrowly behind “Barbie’s” $35.3 million.

The latest increment advanced “No More Bets’” cumulative score to $469 million (RMB3.37 billion).

“Papa,” a comedy about parental efforts to improve their son’s education, held an unchanged second place in its second week. It earned $14.9 million over the weekend, a 37% week-on-week decline that gives it a 10-day cumulative of $59.2 million. The film is produced by comedian Huang Bo, who also stars. Huang appears in two of this year’s other hits, “Creation of the Gods” and “One and Only.

Mexico, Brazil and France were strongest international markets for ‘Blue Beetle’.

World box office August 18-20 RankFilm (distributor) 3-day (world)Cume (world)3-day (int’l)Cume (int’l) Territories 1. No More Bets (various) $58m $371m $58m $371m 1 2. Barbie (Warner Bros) $48.2m $1.2bn $26.7m $711m 76 3. Blue Beetle (Warner Bros) $43.4m $43.4m $18m $18m 64 4. Oppenheimer (Universal) $42.6m $717.8m $32m $432.6m 81 5. Meg 2: The Trench (Warner Bros) $28.6m $316.6m $21.9m $250.1m 77 6. Papa (various) $20.7m $20.8m $20.7m $20.8m 1 7. Creation Of The Gods: Part I (various) $15.1m $310.2m $15.1m $310.2m 1 8. Tmnt: Mayhem (Paramount) $13.2m $118.4m $4.8m $30.3m 48 9. Strays (Universal) $10.2m $10.2m $1.9m $1.9m 22 10. M: I...

The box office in mainland China reached an all-time high in the summer season, according to figures from ticketing agency Maoyan Entertainment. The record was achieved with minimal input from Hollywood.

Maoyan, which defines China’s cinematic summer as running from the beginning of June to the end of August, says that the previous record of RMB17.8 billion, set in 2018, was beaten on Thursday evening (local time) – some two weeks before the end of the current season.

China’s cinema-going rebound started with a jolt after mainland authorities abruptly dropped anti-covid restrictions in mid-December 2022 allowing “Avatar: The Way of Water” to profit from a wave of revenge consumption. The late January to early February Chinese New Year period also delivered a record box office of about $1 billion, before the gravitational pull of China’s slowing economy flattened the recovery.

The summer season has witnessed a succession of locally-produced films across...

Universal’s ‘Oppenheimer’ nears $650m worldwide.

Worldwide box office Aug 11-13, 2023 Rank Film (distributor) 3-day (world) 3-day (world) 3-day (int’l) Cume (int’l) Territories 1. No More Bets (various) $87.9m $231.9m $87.9m $231.9m 1 2. Barbie (Warner Bros) $78.8m $1.18bn $45.1m $657.6m 76 3. Meg 2: The Trench (Warner Bros) $56.4m $256.9m $43.7m $202.8m 76 4. Oppenheimer (Universal) $50.7m $649m $31.9m $384.8m 80 5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Paramount) $26.2m $94.7m $10.4m $21.9m 48 6. Creation Of The Gods: Part 1 (various) $23.9m $275.6m $23.9m $275.6m 1 7. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (Paramount) $15.6m $522.5m $10.9m $362.9m 68 8. Gran Turismo: Based On A True Story (Sony) $10.7m $10.7m $10.7m...

Chinese crime action movie “No More Bets,” not “Barbie,” was the best performing film in the world this weekend.

Comscore calculates that “No More Bets,” earned $88 million between Friday and Sunday in China alone. That figure is greater than the $33.7 million that “Barbie” earned in its fourth weekend of release in North America and the $45.1 million that it earned in international territories. “Barbie” now has a $1.18 billion global cumulative.

Comscore also has another Chinese-financed movie “Meg 2: The Trench” in third place worldwide over the weekend, with $12.7 million in North America and $43.7 million (for a weekend total of $56.4 million).

China box office data from Artisan Gateway, used by studio distributors as definitive rather than estimates, shows “No More Bets” performing even more strongly over the weekend. Artisan Gateway reports that “No More Bets” million earned $101 million (RMB718 million) in China for a total of $248 (RMB1.76 million) at the end of...

Local crime thriller No More Bets dominated China’s box office during the Aug. 11-13 weekend, bringing in a boffo $101.1 million haul. The film enjoyed generous preview screenings ahead of its opening Wednesday and has earned an eye-popping $247.5 million already.

Meg 2: The Trench, the giant shark action sequel co-produced by Warner Bros. and China’s Cmc Pictures, slipped to third place in its second weekend with $16.7 for the frame and $91 million overall. Chinese fantasy blockbuster Creation of the Gods 1: Kingdom of Storms climbed back into second place, taking in $26.8 million for a hefty $283.4 million four-weekend total, according to data from Artisan Gateway.

Paramount Pictures’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, meanwhile, bombed with a three-day start of just under $1 million — despite the presence of Chinese action icon Jackie Chan in the starring voice cast. The flop continues a trend of Hollywood titles struggling to break through at China’s box office.

The top-earning film at the box office this weekend wasn’t “Barbie,” but rather “The Meg 2: The Trench.” The Warner Bros. Discovery/Cmc Pictures shark tale earned $142 million worldwide in its global debut, including a robust $53.3 million in China.

That opening weekend was already 11% higher than “Jurassic World Dominion,” 41% above “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and more than double “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” It is also higher than the $50 million first weekend posted by “The Meg” in China back in August 2018.

It’s a big deal that “The Meg 2: The Trench” is performing anything like a pre-covid business-as-usual Hollywood tentpole. The key advantage might be old-fashioned star power.

The earlier Jason Statham/Li Bingbing-led actioner eventually earned $153 million of its $530 million total in the Middle Kingdom. If the sequel, which swaps Li for Wu Jing, legs out accordingly, we could see a $162 million Chinese total.

“Meg 2: The Trench,” the second instalment in the Chinese-financed giant shark franchise, was the top film worldwide over the weekend. But in its China home market “Meg 2” was beaten by strong previews of “No More Bets.”

Nevertheless, the arrival of two popular films at the top of the chart meant that China enjoyed its third highest box office weekend of the year, with a $185 million haul. That score is the strongest weekend of 2023 outside the Chinese New Year holiday season.

It also meant that China had a bigger weekend box office total than North America (estimated at $176 million by Comscore). That is not unprecedented, but it is rare for a non-holiday weekend.

“Meg 2” opened on Friday and earned $53.7 million (RMB381 million) over three days, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

“No More Bets” does not open officially until Wednesday, but it enjoyed wide previews from Saturday. Those previews...