By Patrick Frater

According To The variety Chinese melodrama film “The Untold Story” opened on top of the mainland China box office on its debut weekend, despite playing for only two days.

It earned RMB80.8 million ($11.4 million), according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway.
Adapted from a novel, the film tells the story of an undercover drugs cop, who sometimes goes undercover as a taxi driver, and restorer of cultural relics. The film (aka “That Untold Story”) stars Roy Chiu and Lang Yue-ting and is directed by Zhang Yan.

In second place was “Venom: The Last Dance,” playing its third weekend in China. It scored $7.5 million between Friday and Sunday, for a running total of $83.2 million after 19 days in Chinese cinemas.
Close behind in third place was “Cesium Fallout,” a nuclear disaster film that opened a week earlier.

Produced through Hong Kong’s Edko Films and starring Hong Kongers Andy Lau and Karen Mok, the film was directed by Anthony Pun, with Alibaba Pictures handling the China release. It earned $7.4 million over the weekend and has a cumulative total of $25.4 million. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the latest reissue from the Hogwarts film franchise, opened in fourth place with $2.9 million.

In fifth place was “Road to Ninja – Naruto the Movie,” a 2012 TV Tokyo Japanese animation film. It released on Saturday and earned $2.7 million in two days.

Christmas-themed, Dwayne Johnson-starring “Red One” opened outside the top five that Artisan Gateway tracks. Local data providers, however, showed estimated earnings of $2.02 million in three days between Friday and Sunday. Warner Bros itself reported RMB14.5 million of $2.0 million from 11,900 playdates and noted that Christmas is generally not celebrated in mainland China.

Total weekend revenues in China were $42.2 million, giving a year-to-date running total of $5.51 billion. That is some 21% short of the last year’s figure, Artisan Gateway calculates.

October monthly gross box office concluded at $510.4 million (RMB3.6 billion) from 89.9 million admissions, on-par with 2023’s October monthly result (RMB3.7 billion and 88.9 million admissions).

On a year-to-date basis, Chinese films account for 79.3% of the year’s gross box office. Hollywood revenue sharing imports account for 13.6% while other imports (flat-fee imports and other foreign titles) have taken 7.1%.