China Box Office: ‘Schemes in Antiques’ Takes Weekend Honors

Adding $30 million on Thursday from 4,336 locations, “No Way Home” has a domestic box office total of $386 million and $876 million worldwide, passing the $821 million total of the Chinese film “Hi, Mom” for second place on the global charts for the year.

China will be the world’s largest box office market for the second year running, overturning the decade-long rankings and staying ahead of the North American market as it did in for the first time in 2020.And, even if “Spider-Man: No Way Home” avoids becoming caught in a web of omicron-related shutdowns to become the highest grossing film of 2021, Chinese movies “The Battle at Lake Changjin” and “Hi, Mom” are certain to account for at least two of the year’s top five.Such a new world order has

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentLocally-made films, especially animated titles, dominated the Japanese box office in 2021.

Rebecca Davis editorIn another quiet weekend in China, Korean War blockbuster “The Battle at Lake Changjin” was at last eased out of the top five for the first time since its Sept. 30 debut.

Refresh for latest…: Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home has become the third biggest global opener of all-time with $587.2M. Crossing the $500M mark makes it only the sixth film ever to the milestone in a launch frame.

Tom Holland had big plans to surprise audiences at screenings of Spider-Man: No Way Home on opening night, but the plans had to be canceled.

Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home grossed an estimated $5.28M in Korea on its first day today. This is significant for a number of reasons: Korea has been extremely soft of late, yet the launch day is 11% over the first day of 2019’s pre-pandemic Spider-Man: Far From Home and is the biggest day-one figure for any title of the pandemic era.

Taking an early look at 2022, Gower Street Analytics is projecting global box office to reach $33.2B next year. That would rep a 58% increase on 2021 if the current year stays on track for the London-based firm’s projected approximate $21B (this is a slightly revised number from its October prediction for the year, in part owing to some Hollywood films not securing China dates through December).

The original “Avatar” was a massive hit for 20th Century Fox (pre-Disney merger) and most recently recovered its all-time global box office record from “Avengers: Endgame” thanks to a re-release in China. It’s still unknown if the four, yes four, “Avatar” sequels will replicate that landmark success at the box office, given that the current box office climate makes it seem unlikely we’ll see films being able to reach $2.73 billion again anytime soon.

Rebecca Davis editorChinese action-adventure title “Schemes in Antiques” conspired to hold its own at the top of the China box office with a $14.7 million second weekend, having opened first last week with a solid $25.6 million three-day debut.Originally set to premiere in April, the tale of intrigue around real and counterfeit artifacts from Hong Kong director Derek Kwok Chi-kin (“Wukong”) has now grossed $52 million (RMB331 million) of a projected $66.6 million, according to data from Maoyan.