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The highly-anticipated Japanese animated feature film “The First Slam Dunk” dominated the mainland China cinema box office in its opening weekend. It broke multiple records as it did so.
The film scored $38.5 million (RMB266 million) over the Friday to Sunday weekend, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. However, it opened on Thursday, a day earlier than is the norm in China, and has accumulated $55.2 million over the opening four-day frame.
The film is based on IP that is well-known to a generation of comic book fans and TV audiences in China (early middle-aged men were reported to have been particularly interested) and has already proved a hit in other parts of Asia. (Comscore estimates that the film has grossed $211 million worldwide.)
Approval went wider than a single demographic segment, however. “The First Slam Dunk” received strong acclaim across China’s major movie rating platforms, including a 9.2 out of 10 score from Douban users and 9.4 out of 10 on ticketing platforms Maoyan and Taopiaopiao.
The film played especially well at Imax venues, occupying 731 Imax screens in China. Imax China reported that the film earned RMB38 million ($5.51 million) over four days. That was the biggest opening for any foreign animation title on Imax and for any Japanese film on Imax in China. Imax screens also accounted for 10% of the China box office weekend total, a figure which the company referred to as its index.
Artisan Gateway figures show “The First Slam Dunk” enjoyed a nearly 74% share of the total China box office market on a (Friday to Sunday) weekend worth $52.3 million.
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The high-scoring newcomer easily edged aside Jackie Chan vehicle “Ride On,” which had led the China box office for the two previous weekends. “Ride On” earned $2.9 million over the weekend for a 19-day cumulative of $28.3 million.
“Hachiko,” a Chinese retelling of a Japanese dog-human loyalty tale, earned $2.4 million on its fourth weekend of release. That helped it to a cumulative of $39.4 million since releasing on March 31.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” held on to fourth place. It earned $1.8 million in its third weekend frame. While the film powered to an $877 million global cumulative, just $19.4 million of that has come from China.
Fifth place over the weekend was another Japanese animation, “Suzume.” It earned $1.7 million for a cumulative of $112 million since releasing in China on March 24.
The latest weekend lifted the year-to-date box office total in China to $2.58 billion, according to Artisan Gateway’s calculation. That is 23% ahead of a COVID-affected 2022 and 15% behind the same point in 2019.
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