China Box Office: ‘Schemes in Antiques’ Conspires to Hold Top Spot

The Sony/Marvel Studios film is now the first film of the pandemic era to hit the $1 billion mark after just 12 days in theaters, tying “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” as the third fastest film to hit that milestone in just 11 days in theaters. And unlike “Infinity War,” “No Way Home” was able to do this without a release in China, though Spidey will need a Chinese opening date to have a chance to join “Force Awakens” in the $2 billion club.

Refresh for latest…: Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home is having a very happy holiday as it is now officially the first movie of the pandemic-era to pass the $1B mark at the global box office. The worldwide gross through Sunday is $1.05B which makes this installment Sony’s No. 2 film of all time, behind only Spider-Man: Far From Home ($1.13B). No Way Home is the No. 1 film of the year worldwide — and one of the only movies of the modern era to ever reach $1B without China. Simply amazing.

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.

Variety, a dozen producers, studio executives and industry org representatives have said that 2022 will be a chapter marked not only by bilateral friction between the two superpowers, but by the Chinese film industry’s decoupling from the broader global film industry as a whole, as the country turns inward under President Xi Jinping.Under the veil of COVID-19 isolationism, the past two years have seen Beijing unwinding the Deng Xiaoping-era policies of reform, opening up its economy and shifting

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.