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Easternlight’s Wolf Warriors, directed by and starring martial artist Wu Jing, kicked and punched its way to the top of the Chinese box office over the Tomb Sweeping holiday weekend, taking $32.58 million in its first four days on release.
In the film, which is playing in China in 3D and Imax, Wu plays a Chinese Special Forces soldier who is kicked out of the army and then joins a mysterious group of insurgents known as the Wolf Warriors. It also stars Yu Nan and the British martial artist Scott Adkins.
According to data from the research group Entgroup, the movie had 153,284 screenings and chalked up 5.87 million admissions over Qingming, or Tomb Sweeping Day, when people return to their ancestral homes to pay tribute at the graves of their forebears.
Behind that was Matthew Vaughn‘s comic book adaptation Kingsman: The Secret Service, which added another $30.84 million in its first full week in China for a gross of $55.23 million.
Directed, co-produced and co-written by Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass), Kingsman‘s performance was boosted by a visit to China by the movie’s top spy, Colin Firth.
The film, which also features Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Caine, Mark Strong, Mark Hamill and Sofia Boutella, had 193,531 screenings and 5.63 million admissions.
Let’s Get Married was directed by Liu Jiang, and it featured Gao Yuanyuan and, in a somewhat unlikely role, Jiang Wen.
The romance took $22.91 million in four days, with 137,054 screenings and 4.27 million admissions, not far off the number of screenings Wolf Warriors had.
In fourth place was the psychological thriller Insanity from Hong Kong’s Distribution Workshop, which pitches Lau Ching Wan as a psychopath against his star psychiatrist, played by Huang Xiaoming.
Produced by Derek Yee Tung Sing of Shinjuku Incident fame, the movie is helmed by first-time director David Lee Kuan Yew, features Fiona Sit and Alex Fong, and took $4.33 million in its opening three days.
Behind that was Disney’s Cinderella, which took another $3.42 million for a cume of $69.45 million after 24 days.
Kenneth Branagh‘s live-action take on the fairy-tale classic notched up another 74,231 screenings and 683,510 million admissions.
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In sixth place was the Belgian animation House of Magic, which took $2.98 million in its opening two days, followed by Andy Lau‘s abduction tale Lost and Love, which added $2.4 million for a cume of $34.18 million after 17 days on release.
Liam Neeson was still going strong in eighth place in Taken 3, which took another $2.29 million in its first full week for a gross of $32.2 million after 17 days.
Arclight Films’ 12th-century war romance Outcast, featuring Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen and directed by Nick Powell, finally arrived in Chinese theaters after a series of stops and starts. The movie had a take of $2.43 million after three days.
Rounding out the top 10 was the Hong Kong action movie Two Thumbs Up, which took $1.56 million in its opening weekend.
Twitter: @cliffordcoonan
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