Fish out of water comedy film “Jonny Keep Walking” climbed to the top of the mainland China box office in its second weekend on release. Previous winner, “Shining for One Thing” dimmed quickly and tumbled to fifth place.
The first weekend of the new year and following a welter of Christmas-New Year releases, the latest weekend represented a reordering of holdover titles, rather than a session with an injection of significant fresh movies.
“Jonny,” in which a man from the countryside struggles to hold down a corporate job in a big city, earned $22.4 million (RMB159 million) from Friday to Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was a modest fall from the film’s $26.1 million opening frame and elevated its cumulative total to $77.5 million since debuting on Dec. 29.
The film is directed by Peng Da, aka Dong Pengcheng, the prolific actor-writer-director who released two other films in 2023: “Post Truth” and “One and Only.”
In second place over the latest weekend was “The Goldfinger,” which earned $8.5 million. Starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, the film is a throwback to the Hong Kong crime-action-drama genre of the early 2000s and represents the two stars’ first on-screen reunion since the “Infernal Affairs” trilogy. Having released on Dec. 30, “Th eGoldfinger” now has a cumulative total of $45.9 million. (On its first weekend it earned $22 million and placed fourth.)
Third spot belonged to “I Did It My Way,” another crime actioner from Hong Kong, with Andy Lau this time facing off against Eddie Peng. It earned $5.6 million over the weekend, for a running total of $31.4 million since release on Dec. 29.
Wanda Pictures and Alibaba Pictures pre-Christmas release “Endless Journey” took fourth place with $3.7 million over the weekend. Apparently based on real events, the film recounts how a disgraced former detective hunts down criminals as a private citizen. Its cumulative now stands at $87.5 million.
In fifth, “Shining for One Thing” registered $3.5 million. That represents a collapse from its $77.7 million debut weekend. Still, the film now has a cumulative of $92.7 million since releasing on Dec. 30.
Outside the top five, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” was the top imported title. It now has a cumulative of RMB390 million ($54.5 million) according to ticketing agency Maoyan.
One notch lower, but still performing strongly “Taylor Swift The Eras Tour” now has a cumulative of RMB67.7 million ($9.5 million), according to Maoyan. Giant screen company, Imax reports that “Eras” has earned $4.3 million at its mainland Chinese venues, or 45% of its box office total in the territory.
