China Box Office: 'Cold War 2' Wins Second Weekend During Hollywood Release Break

As holdover 'Now You See Me 2' inches towards $100 million, Lionsgate has announced it will co-produce a Chinese-language spinoff.

Cold War 2 won its second consecutive weekend at the Chinese box office during an ongoing break in the release of imported Hollywood films.

The Hong Kong-set crime thriller starring Aaron Kwok, Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung and Eddie Pang earned $15.73 million from Friday to Sunday, a 64 percent slip from last week. Its 10-day gross stands at $86 million.

Huayi Brothers' When Larry Met Mary debuted in second place, collecting $15.7 million. Produced by Peter Chan and helmed by actor turned first-time director Wen Zhang, the romantic comedy beat Cold War 2 on Friday but fell to third place on Sunday.

In third place for the full weekend, holdover Big Fish & Begonia, produced and distributed by Beijing Enlight Media, added $14.7 million for a 10-day total of $69.1 million. The film is now China's second-biggest local animation ever, behind only Monkey King: Hero Is Back, which earned a historic $153 million last July.

Local horror-thriller Tik Tok bowed with $7.9 million, edging out holdover Never Gone to take fourth place.

Never Gone took in another $6.7 million for a 10-day cume of $46.2 million. Loosely branded as a sequel to Vicky Zhao's So Young (2013), the movie looks unlikely to come close to catching its predecessor's landmark $114.7 million gross.

Wanda Media's comedy Western For a Few Bullets opened at No. 6 with a disappointing $6 million, while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows added $2.4 million for seventh place, bumping its 16-day total to $57.6 million. At No. 8, Chinese-Russian animation film Sun Duck, the final new release this week, took in $2.26 million.

In ninth place, Lionsgate's Now You See Me 2 earned another $870,000 for an impressive 24-day total of $96.5 million, considerably more than its North American haul of $63.5 million. After the franchise's potent success in the Middle Kingdom — now the world's No. 2 movie market — Lionsgate and local film company Leomus Pictures have partnered to co-produce a Chinese spinoff of Now You See Me.

Rounding out the bottom of the charts was Huayi Brothers' animation flop Rock Dog, which earned just $540,000 for a 10-day cume of $5.7 million. The pic cost an estimated $60 million to produce.

The next Hollywood movie to open in China will be Warner Bros.' The Legend of Tarzan on Tuesday.