Spider-Man: Brand New Day held its grip atop China‘s box office for a second weekend, pulling in $28.9 million (RMB 196.6 million) over the Aug. 7-9 frame for a local total of $185.4 million (RMB 1.26 billion) in 12 days.
The Sony tentpole launched in China with a massive $121.3 million five-day haul, of which $19 million came from Imax, a record for the format in the market. The film is now days away from surpassing the $199 million earned by 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, the last U.S. superhero release to clear $100 million in China.
But it was Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which doesn’t officially open in Chinese theaters until Friday, that arguably delivered the weekend’s most surprising number. Playing Saturday and Sunday only, and exclusively on Imax and CINITY screens, Universal’s adaptation of the Greek classic took $6.9 million (RMB 46.8 million) in previews — enough for fifth place and roughly 7 percent of the entire weekend’s business from a tiny sliver of the nation’s screens. Earlier four-city previews on Aug. 1-2 drew a 95.2 percent occupancy rate, which local media reports, citing Dengta, described as an all-time high for the market.
The 177-minute epic, the first feature shot entirely on Imax film cameras, has scored 8.3 on review site Douban, the summer’s highest rating for a live-action release. The Matt Damon-starring epic crossed $1 billion worldwide last week, and China now appears poised to boost its global sales significantly.
