Homecoming, a patriotic rescue movie, dominated the mainland China box office for the third successive weekend. Overall numbers remained anemic in the first full week after the National Day holiday period, sometimes referred to as a ‘Golden Week’.
“Homecoming” garnered $12.1 million (RMB85.6 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy and research firm Artisan Gateway. That gave the film a 64% share of the nationwide weekend aggregate.
Accordingly, it was far ahead of second-placed film “Give Me Five,” which released on Sept. 9, 2022. “Give Me Five” earned just $1.9 million over the weekend, for a six-week cumulative of $63.8 million.
Third place belonged to “Ordinary Hero,” which like “Homecoming” had been released in time for the National Day festivities. It earned $1.8 million over the latest weekend for a three-week cumulative of $23.0 million.
Chinese-made animation film “New Gods: Yang Jian,” which release as far back as Aug. 19, 2022, held fourth place with RMB5 million (approximately $700,000). After nine weeks on release, it has amassed $76.8 million. Another animation franchise title, “New Happy Dad and Son 5: My Alien Friend” earned RMB4.2 million ($600,000) for a 16-day cumulative of $10.2 million.
Box office in China remains deeply depressed and labors under mass of problems. These include: a shortage of significant new release titles, either local or foreign; a sagging economy, weighed by high youth unemployment and a property market crisis; and the ongoing COVID-zero policy, which causes lockdowns and mass testing over leisure.
Sunday figures may also have been hit by people tuning in to the keynote speech of President Xi Jinping on the first day of the once every five years Communist Party National Congress. Local reports suggest that several forms of entertainment were suspended during the president’s address.
Artisan Gateway calculates that China’s year to date box office now stands at $3.88 billion, some 33% below 2021 levels.
However, the figures look worse in dollar terms than they do using local currency or admissions values. That is because of the fall of the Renminbi (or Chinese Yuan) against the U.S. dollar over the past 12 months. A year ago, the conversion rate was $1=RMB6.44. Today it is $1=RMB7.20.