China Box Office: ‘Big Hero 6’ on Top as ‘Jupiter Ascending’ Opens Strongly

With overseas movies back in contention after Lunar New Year, Oscar winner Big Hero 6 took the top spot in the Chinese box office charts last week, while Jupiter Ascending somewhat offset its poor performance in North America with a strong opening weekend in the world’s second-biggest film market.

In what was a relatively slow week after the holiday season, Big Hero 6 notched up another $29.88 million its first full week in Chinese theaters, bringing its cume to $43.49 million after nine days with 149,416 screenings and 5.01 million admissions, according to data from Entgroup.

The Disney Animation title is celebrating crossing the $600 million mark at the worldwide box office.

The Man From Macau II, featuring Hong Kong action star Chow Yun-fat, which last week took more than $70 million, was in second place, adding $27.4 million for a gross of $139.65 million after 18 days on release. The movie had 165,740 screenings and 4.52 admissions.

The casino movie, from Bona Film, was written and directed by Wong Jing and also features Nick Cheung and Carina Lau.

Jupiter Ascending took $23.06 million in its opening three days, with 99,596 screenings and 3.77 million admissions, according to Entgroup, a figure in line with the studio figure of $23.2 million.

The expensive sci-fi adventure from directors Lana and Andy Wachowski earned a total of $25.3 million last weekend from 53 markets for a foreign total of $107 million.

The movie needed good news from overseas, as it had a lackluster opening in North America.

In fourth place was the $40 million Sino-French epic from Jean-Jacques Annaud, Wolf Totem, which added another $20.66 million for a gross of $99.71 million after 18 days.

Backed by China Film Group, the movie had 124,814 screenings and 3.43 million admissions.

In fifth place was Jackie Chan‘s historical epic Dragon Blade, which took another $13.13 million for a gross of $113.36 million after 18 days on release.

Featuring Chan, John Cusack and Adrien Brody, the movie had 100,581 screenings and 2.1 million admissions.

Behind that was StudioCanal’s CGI live-action film Paddington, which took $7.48 million in its opening four days.

The premiere of the movie in Shanghai was attended by Britain’s Prince William. The movie about a marmalade-scoffing Peruvian bear had a relatively low number of screenings at 66,554.

Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal, a $30 million, 3D VFX fantasy action adventure co-directed by Peter Pau and Zhao Tianyu and produced by Ann An of Desen International Media, added $5.42 million for a gross of $63.62 million after 18 days on release.

Wang Ning‘s romantic comedy The Right Mistake took $3.65 million in its opening four days, while Rain Li‘s Beijing, New York earned $1.93 million in its opening weekend.

Rounding out the top 10 was the Hong Kong movie Triumph in the Skies, directed by Wilson Yip and Matt Chow and starring Louis Koo, Sammi Cheng, Charmaine Sheh and Amber Kuo, which took another $1.63 million for a cume of $24.59 million.

Twitter: @cliffordcoonan