Nezha is China’s smash hit this year, a heartwarming fantasy film that’s a contemporary interpretation of an ancient Chinese legend. Via Variety:
Chinese animation “Nezha” continues its meteoric ascent to become one of China’s top-performing titles of all time, leading the weekend box office for the third week in a row thanks to a $66.5 million haul — still more than double that of its closest competitor, despite already having been in theaters for 18 days.
Its success has been boosted by a serious lack of other contenders: Every film below the top four grossers earned less than $700,000 this weekend, not even 1% of “Nezha’s” takings. The uneven performance highlights the struggles facing China’s box office this summer, as the pipeline of popular local titles dries up because of regulatory changes and a highly sensitive political anniversary coming up in October that has sent censors into overdrive.
With a total gross so far of $503 million (RMB3.55 billion), “Nezha” is already the fifth-highest-grossing title in Chinese film history, falling just behind last year’s “Operation Red Sea,” which grossed $576 million. The Maoyan ticketing platforms projects that it will earn a cumulative $671 million (RMB4.74 billion) over the course of its run, making it the second-highest earning film ever to hit Chinese theaters, more than sci-fi epic “The Wandering Earth,” which captured the No. 2 spot, behind all-time leader “Wolf Warrior II,” earlier this year.