Chinese animation “White Snake” slithered to a weekend win, as theatrical box office in China, ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, slipped to the lowest total of the past two years. “Snake” scored with just $9 million.
The film has now accumulated $64.5 million since its Jan. 11 release, according to data from entertainment consultancy Artisan Gateway. That makes “Snake” the biggest film to date from producer Lightchaser Animation Studios, and one of the top performing Chinese-made animation films.
In the absence of competition from new releases, “Once Upon a Deadpool” and “Bumblebee” kept going. “Deadpool 2” earned $7.3 million for a cumulative of $41.8 million, while “Transformers” spinoff “Bumblebee” earned $5.2 million, to advance its total to $170 million, and confirm its status as the biggest film released in 2019 in China. “Escape Room” added $5.2 million for a $33.9 total. Chinese-made “The Big Shot” added $2.7 million to its total, lifting its cumulative to $56.3 million.
Nationwide, Chinese theaters earned only $32.7 million between Friday and Sunday, the quietest weekend since September 2016. Artisan Gateway points to a year to date total of $535 million, down some 32% from the $790 million accumulated at this point last year.
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Even though businesses have been on slowdown since Friday, distributors avoided putting out new releases this weekend. They preferred instead to wait for the official first day of the holidays.
Whether that strategy was a wise one will become clear over the next week. From Tuesday, more than a dozen new films will compete for screens and the favors of Chinese viewers. They range from comedies, to animation, to Jackie Chan in costume targeting family audience.
Word of mouth – driven by social media – is hugely important in China. Last year it took viewers just two days to switch favor from the early favorite (“Monster Hunt 2”) to Dante Lam’s well-made patriotic actioner, “Operation Red Sea.” But the scores that can be obtained in those few days may dwarf the past weekend’s total.