Universal’s Jurassic World Dominion broke the $100 million barrier in China, becoming the first Hollywood production to do so since Legendary’s Godzilla Vs. Kong in early 2021. The uplifting Chinese film Lighting Up the Stars, which debuted on Friday, quickly overtook the dinosaur sequel during the weekend, pushing it into second place.
According to estimations from Artisan Gateway, Dominion earned $12.5 million in its third frame while Lighting Up the Stars won the weekend with $31.8 million. Dominion has made a total of $114.6 million in China out of its $746.7 million global revenue. In 2018, when Hollywood blockbusters were still doing brisk business in the nation, the franchise’s precursor Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom made more than double that amount ($261 million).
Producing Lighting Up the Stars is Beijing-based Lian Ray Pictures, which has created the box office successes Little Red Flower and Peter Chan’s Leap in addition to Derek Tsang’s Better Days, an Oscar candidate. Jiangjiang Liu is the writer and director of Lighting Up the Stars, a film about an unexpected bond between an orphaned child and a funeral director. Local moviegoers gave the movie high social ratings, giving it a 9.6 on Maoyan and a 7.5 on Douban. Maoyan anticipates that the movie will gain popularity over the upcoming weeks and max out at around $130 million.
Due to China’s dynamic zero-COVID response to the epidemic, the country’s box office is still having trouble in 2022. In comparison to the same period in 2021, overall ticket sales were down 38.3 percent as of Monday. The number of foreign films released in the nation has also decreased as a result of rising nationalism and tense diplomatic ties. No Hollywood movies are currently planned for release in the upcoming weeks or months.
