China Box Office: ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ Enjoys Hollywood’s Second-Best Launch of the Year

“Venom: The Last Dance” delivered on its pre-release buzz in mainland China with an opening weekend that was the second biggest this year by a Hollywood movie.

The third film in the “Venom” trilogy earned RMB221 million ($31.1 million) in the conventional Friday-Sunday definition of the weekend in China, according to consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. But “Venom: The Last Dance” actually enjoyed an out of synch Wednesday opening and finished Sunday evening with a $45.9 million five-day cumulative.

Local data providers show that the film topped the box office charts on each of the five days it was on release, with Saturday by far the highest. On that day it played some 150,000 screening sessions and collected a fraction over $14 million.

Premium screen provider, Imax reported that the film earned $6 million, or roughly 14% of its China five-day total, on its screens.

The weekend opening is the second biggest this year by a Hollywood movie, behind “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” which had a three-day debut of $44.6 million in March. It opened bigger than the $26.2 million by “Alien: Romulus” which went on to gross over $100 million in China.

Sony Pictures reported that “Venom: The Last Dance” enjoyed the biggest opening by a Hollywood superhero film in China since 2019’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home.”

Chinese audiences have shunned many Hollywood titles in the past five years, with a modest handful of exceptions that each stand out for different reasons. Chinese media has praised “Venom: The Last Dance” for its greater emphasis on emotions compared with the two previous instalments of the franchise. On social media the new film was liked for its anti-hero status.

“Venom,” the first film in the three-picture franchise, scored a massive $262 million on its release in China in late 2018, a figure that exceeded its score in North America. The sequel, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” was initially allocated a China date but, with the country under various COVID restrictions, the release did not go ahead.

In second place over the latest weekend was “The Unseen Sister,” a suspense-drama film about an actress who receives anonymous threats and the visit of a long-estranged sister. It garnered RMB71.2 million ($10 million) in two days.

The film is directed by Midi Z, a Chinese-speaking director originally from Myanmar who has made most of his previous pictures in the art-house or documentary registers and has been largely based in Taiwan.

The film, backed by Linmon Pictures and adapted from a novel by Zhang Yueran, stars the popular Zhao Liying. It will make its international debut from Monday in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Patriotic war film “The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death,” took third place on its fourth weekend of release with a score of $4.6 million. Since releasing on Sept. 30, in time for the National Day holiday week, it has accumulated $161 million.

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” the third film in the “Harry Potter” franchise, which is being re-released in its entirety, earned $4.1 million in its opening three-day weekend.

Current-year Japanese animation film “Look Back” opened in fifth place in China, earning $4 million. The film depicts the friendship of two socially opposite girls who are brought together by their love of manga.