The latest installment in the adrenaline-fueled franchise, “Fast & Furious 10” (also known as “Fast X”), has taken the mainland China box office by storm, delivering a powerhouse opening weekend and an impressive five-day start.
According to data from Artisan Gateway, the movie generated a whopping $51.1 million from Friday to Sunday, securing a commanding 58% market share and comfortably claiming the top spot in the Chinese box office rankings.
What sets this release apart is its non-traditional Wednesday opening, allowing it to accumulate a remarkable $77.4 million over five days. Even more remarkable is that Imax reported a substantial contribution of $8.4 million from China alone, accounting for 11% of the film’s market opening, despite being shown on fewer than 1% of the total screens available. It’s worth noting that these figures represent the film’s five-day performance rather than the conventional weekend results.
This exceptional debut marks the biggest opening for a non-Chinese film in 2023 and the largest non-holiday opening of the year in China for any film, coming close to rivaling the opening weekend figures of “Avatar 2” in December. These impressive numbers will undoubtedly provide encouragement to Hollywood studios, as they have experienced mostly underwhelming results for their titles in China over the past couple of years. The remainder of the year holds the promise of several more releases that will align with international schedules.
However, it’s worth mentioning that the Fast franchise has achieved even greater success in China in the past. In 2015, “Fast 7” raked in RMB346 million ($49.4 million) on its opening day, while in 2018, “Fast 8” raced ahead with RMB417 million ($59.6 million) on its opening day.
Maoyan, a leading Chinese ticketing agency, has revised its initial forecast for the lifetime total of “Fast X” in China. Initially predicting RMB728 million ($104 million) after the Wednesday premiere, Maoyan now anticipates the film could reach an impressive RMB840 million ($120 million).
As the number of Hollywood releases imported into China continues to rise, the risk of cannibalization also increases. During the latest weekend, “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3” experienced the sharpest decline among the top five films, dropping from $19.1 million in its second weekend to $9.1 million in its third, securing third place.
Meanwhile, the Chinese title “Godspeed” held onto second place, amassing $10.3 million and bringing its four-weekend total to an impressive $134 million.
In a swift ascent to fourth place, Dadi Media’s “Too Beautiful to Lie” opened on Saturday and earned an impressive $6.2 million in just two days.
On the other hand, the Chinese aviation action film “Born to Fly” experienced a further descent, slipping from third to fifth place with a weekend score of $4.0 million. Since its release on April 28, the film has accumulated $112 million in box office revenue.
Overall, the weekend box office registered $88 million, driving the year-to-date nationwide cumulative past the $3 billion mark, now standing at $3.08 billion. This figure represents a remarkable 43% increase compared to the challenging year of 2022, although it falls 18% behind the numbers achieved in 2019.
