Drama film “To Gather Around” topped the mainland Chinese box office over the weekend, beating out “Venom: The Last Dance.”
The film, also titled “Brave New World,” is directed by Liu Xunshimo and stars Deng Chao and Deng Jiajia, and tells the story of an Internet company employee caught up in a workplace dispute. He joins forces with others to protect his rights, but ends up falling into an even bigger spiral of trouble.
“To Gather Around” grossed RMB 63.8 million ($9 million) over the weekend from Friday to Sunday, according to data from consulting firm Artisan Gateway.
Venom: The Last Dance grossed $4.9 million in its fifth weekend in China. Since its release in China on October 23, its total has risen to $90.7 million. The film was the top title in China in its first, second, and fourth weeks, and is currently the third-highest performing Hollywood film of the year in China. Only “Godzilla x Kong: New Empire” and “Alien Romulus” did better.
Columbia Pictures reported over the weekend that the film had grossed $309 million outside of North America, surpassing its predecessor, Venom: Let There Be Carnage. China’s contribution represents 29% of the international amount and 21% of the global total of $436 million.
Hong Kong-made nuclear disaster film “Cesium Fallout” came in third with $4.1 million. This brings the total to $32.8 million since its release in China on November 1st.
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is the sixth consecutive “Harry Potter” re-release title, and has reached the top five in mainland China. It earned $2.9 million.
Fifth place for the weekend was the Chinese horror film “Yuanyang Tower.” The film, directed by Wang Shenghe, grossed $2.6 million in its third weekend of release and now has a cumulative gross of $11.3 million.
The weekend total across China was $32.5 million, bringing the year-to-date total to $5.56 billion. According to Artisan Gateway’s calculations, this is approximately 21% below 2023 levels.
