Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” didn’t manage to catch a swift current in its China debut, drifting to a slow $3.3 million first three-day weekend, according to data from the Artisan Gateway consultancy. The Maoyan data platform currently estimates it will gross a total of just $6.19 million.
The adventure tale has clearly lost steam since its simultaneous release in U.S. theaters and on Disney+ in July, and even Dwayne Johnson’s star power hasn’t helped the park attraction vehicle paddle to farther reaches in the “Fast & Furious” franchise-loving country.
Instead, the local parodic thriller “Be Somebody” took the lead, earning $19.9 million in its first weekend following a Thursday opening day. It has earned $21.9 million in total so far and is predicted to ultimately go nearly ten times the distance of “Jungle Cruise” with a $54 million cume.
The movie directed by Liu Xunzi Mo is a send-up of crime drama tropes, making fun of the genre through the story of a group of filmmakers trying to please a wealthy patron by creating a sufficiently blood-thirsty crime thriller when things begin to go awry in the mansion where they are cloistered to work on the project. It stars Zheng Yin (“Goodbye Mr. Loser”), Deng Jiajia, Yu Entai, and Yang Haoyu (“The Wandering Earth”). It was produced by Maoyan Pictures.
In second spot this week was Edko Films’ “Anita,” a sleek biopic about the iconic Hong Kong singer and actress Anita Mui, which grossed $6.3 million in its opening weekend, according to Artisan Gateway figures. Directed and produced by Bill Kong (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), the film celebrates the life and music of the glamorous woman known in her time as the queen of Cantopop and the “Madonna of the East,” whose career ended early and abruptly at age 40 due to her death from cervical cancer.
“Anita” managed to wrest its spot from reigning world box office champ of the year “The Battle at Lake Changjin,” which grossed a further $4.8 million this week to bring its cume up to $882 million. It narrowly beat out “No Time to Die,” which grossed $4.4 million to hit fourth. The Daniel Craig-starring Bond flick has grossed $58 million so far in China.
China’s box office so far this year remains highly depressed, and has fallen to nearly 26% below its level at the same point in 2019.
