Fast and Furious X tops China box office with $51.1m earning

Fast and Furious X has dominated the China Box Office as it action movie opened to sky-high earnings in its first five days.

Data from consultancy firm Artisan has revealed that the movie earned  $51.1 million between Friday and Sunday, scoring highest in box office with a 58% market share.

The film opened on a Wednesday, it has been over five days and it accumulated $771.4 Million globally. 

Imax reported that the film brought in $8.4 million from China, from less than 1% of the screens in the market. The figures reflect the five day score, not conventional weekend.

The drive away win was the biggest opening for a non-Chinese film this year, the biggest non-holiday opening in China by a film of any nationality this year and was very close to the opening weekend score by Avatar 2 in December.

Heartening for Hollywood that has mostly seen unspectacular results for their titles in China over the past two years, the rest of the year holds the prospect of a further few months of outings that are largely coordinated with international release schedules.

But the Fast franchise has performed far more strongly in China in the past. In 2015, Fast 7 earned RMB346 Million ($49.4 million at today’s currency conversion rates) on its opening day.

In 2018, Fast 8 sped off with RMB417 million ($59.6 million) on its opening day.

After its Wednesday opening, Maoyan predicted RMB728 million ($104 million). It now says the film could achieve RMB840 million ($120 million) in China.

China’s Hollywood titles increase, so too does the risk of cannibalization.

 Over the recent weekend, the biggest faller among the top five titles was Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 from a $19.1 million second weekend to a $9.1 million third weekend. 

Godspeed held on to second place. It earned $10.3 million for a $134 million four weekend total.

Dadi Media’s Too Beautiful to Lie opened on a Saturday. In just two days, it earned $6.2 million and stands in fourth place.

Chinese aviation action title Born to Fly lost and it dropped two ranks; third to fifth place with a weekend score of $4.0 million. Since releasing of April 28, its bombing run has hit $112 million.