China Box Office: ‘Need for Speed’ Races to $60 Million

DreamWorks’ Need for Speed, starring Aaron Paul, took another $13.86 million at the China box office over the past week for a cumulative total of $59.56 million, shrugging off a sluggish haul back home. As of Sunday, Need for Speed had grossed just $37 million in North America. 

The high-octane race movie easily faced down the challenge of Dreamworks’ Mr. Peabody & Sherman, which took $7.86 million in its opening three days (compare this to the $17.38 million Frozen took when it opened in China).

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Car culture has powerful appeal in contemporary China. During the past two decades of rapid development in the country, car ownership and weekend driving has come to be seen as a potent symbol of one’s ascension into the new middle class. 

Diao Yinan’s Golden Bear-winning Black Coal, Thin Ice took $6.65 million in its first full week, to bring its cume to $13.4 million, an eminently respectable performance for an arthouse piece, even given its noir elements.

This is a fairly slow period at the box office in China, although it is expected to pick up toward the end of the week with the Qingming, or “Tomb-Sweeping” holiday, during which people honor their ancestors. Schools and offices are closed, and many take the opportunity to go to the movies.

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George Clooney’s The Monuments Men took $4.96 million in its opening three days, just ahead of domestic movie Fighting, according to data from the research group Entgroup.

Fighting took $6.44 million in its opening weekend amid controversy over the pre-sale of tickets, but it appears to have held its own at the box office, taking another $4.21 million in its first full week for a cume after 10 days of $10.69 million.

Slipping to sixth place was Horse Trader, which took $4.03 million for a cume of $8.81 million after its first 10 days, while the South Korean action film Snowpiercer was in sixth place, with a cume of $11.11 million after two weeks in cinemas.

In eighth place was Last Flight, which took another $2.36 million for a cume of $5.41 million after 10 days,

On the Way, a Chinese-South Korean romantic comedy which pairs Chinese actress Huang Shengyi with South Korea’s Ji Jin-hee, was in ninth place after its opening weekend, during which it took $1.86 million, while the Spanish animated feature Justin and the Knights of Valour was in 10th place, taking $1.38 million in its opening weekend.