Los Angeles, Oct 11 (IANS): Chinese war film 'The Battle at Lake Changjin' became the fourth most successful film in the world this year as it maintained its grip on the China box office for a second weekend.
The film has raked in $109 million over the weekend according to data from Artisan Gateway. That gave it a cumulative total of $633 million, earned since September 30, reports Variety.
Second placed film over the weekend, 'My Country, My Parents' made $19.6 million. Its cumulative was extended to $182 million.
The score for 'The Battle at Lake Changjin' puts it far ahead of 'The Legend of Shang-Chi' which stood on $402 million worldwide prior to the latest weekend, according to data from Box Office Mojo, and the $468 million worldwide total earned by 'Godzilla Vs. Kong'.
The only 2021 films outscoring 'The Battle at Lake Changjin' in the global rankings are 'Hi, Mom' with $822 million, 'F9' with $717 million and 'Detective Chinatown 3' with $686 million.
The film about Chinese heroics during the early days of the Korean War benefited significantly from the so-called Golden Week seven-day holiday period that follows China's annual October 1 celebrations. The weekend-to-weekend comparison shows 48 per cent drop that is still in the range of normal second frame performances.
Day-by-day figures from China Box Office show that grosses tumbled to $25.6 million on October 8 when many folks had to return to work, compared to $60.7 million on Thursday, the last day of official holiday. But the numbers rebounded over the weekend proper.
Saturday saw 'The Battle at Lake Changjin' score $36.8 million and Sunday a further $46.6 million.
Within the weekend total, 'The Battle at Lake Changjin' earned $4.6m from Imax giant screens. With an Imax cumulative of $30.4, it is now the fourth highest grossing local language title of all time for Imax.
Chinese online ticketing agency Maoyan has increased its forecast of the film's lifetime score.
It is now predicting that 'The Battle at Lake Changjin' will finish its run with RMB5.34 billion ($824 million).
China's overall box office haul over the weekend was worth $133 million, according to Artisan Gateway. That lifted the 2021 running total to $6.175 billion.