Matching its strong debut in major markets around the world, Warner Bros’ Wonder Woman charged out of the gates in China over the weekend, opening to a healthy $38 million.
The Patty Jenkins-directed superhero picture received over 80,000 showings per day and accounted for about 34 percent of China’s total screen share for the weekend. Approximately $4.5 million of the film’s debut haul came from 401 Imax screens.
The first major female superhero film since the disappointing Catwoman and Elektra franchises of the mid-2000s, Wonder Woman was made for $150 million and stars Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. So far, local word of mouth in China appears robust; the movie has a score of 7.4/10 on reviews aggregator Duban and 8.4/10 on Weying.
After opening to a strong $68 million last week over the long holiday weekend, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales slipped 74 percent to $17.6 million in its second frame. It has earned $144.3 million in the Middle Kingdom after 10 days, according to box-office tracker Ent Group.
Aamir Khan’s Bollywood sensation Dangal added $9.17 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its total to $170 million — an unprecedented overseas number for an Indian film. Beijing regulators recently gave the movie a rare 30-day screening extension.
Meanwhile, the latest Doraemon animated movie from Japan — the unwieldily titled Doraemon the Movie 2017: Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi — opened Tuesday in China and had earned just shy of $17 million as of Sunday.
Upcoming major Hollywood releases in China include Universal’s The Mummy on Friday, 20th Century Fox’s Alien: Covenant on June 16 and Paramount’s Transformers: The Last Knight on June 23.
