“F9” raises $137 million in first round

“F9” raced to the top of the Chinese box office, where the “Fast and Furious” series has repeatedly posted faster lap times than in North America.

According to data from consulting firm Artisan Gateway, the film grossed $137 million in China in its opening weekend.

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That gave the film an 83% share of the Chinese box office over the weekend, a share that has remained remarkably stable since Friday, with the country's total gross between Friday and Sunday coming in at $165 million.

About $12.45 million of “F9's” total gross came from Imax theaters in China. That was Imax's third-highest May opening (behind “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron”) and Universal's second-best opening weekend in China in Imax theaters behind “Fate of the Furious.” The big-screen company calculated that 9% of the nationwide box office coming from just 1% of theaters showing the film is the best result of the entire series.

The overwhelming victory was achieved despite a mediocre critical response in China. On fan review website Douban, “F9” received a rating of just 5.6 out of 10. On the more generous ticketing platforms Mtime and Taopiaopiao, it received only slightly better ratings of 6.2 and 7.8, respectively.

Artisan Gateway still reckons the strong performance was good for the overall health of the theater industry. Its data shows year-to-date box office cumulatives are at $3.86 billion, down just 6.5% from pre-COVID 2019. A week earlier, the gap was 10%.

Dark Chinese romance “Love Will Tear Us Apart” was released a day earlier than “F9” on Thursday to coincide with (yet another) local Valentine's Day. The film grossed $15.6 million on Thursday and another $15.1 million between Friday and Sunday, good enough for second place on the local charts.

Previous chart-topper Zhang Yimou's Cliff Walkers was pushed into third place by the two new releases, grossing $5.1 million over the weekend, bringing its total since its pre-May 1 release to $164 million on April 30.

The Japanese film “Love Letter” was re-released on Thursday and grossed $4.1 million over the weekend and $7.4 million over four days.

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