Flowers widens lead on Swords

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Box Office News

ZHANG Yimou 張藝謀's The Flowers of War 金陵十三釵 (2011) made RMB204.4 million ($32.4 million) in China last week. By Sunday night, the war epic had taken RMB356.5 million ($56.4 million) after eleven days in cinemas.

It widened its lead on TSUI Hark 徐克's 3-D action-fantasy Flying Swords of Dragon Gate 龍門飛甲 (2011) that made RMB175.4 million ($27.8 million) in the same time frame for a current gross of RMB317.1 million ($50.2 million).

By comparison, in its first eleven days, JIANG Wen 姜文's Let the Bullets Fly 讓子彈飛 (2010) had taken RMB382.3 million ($60.5 million), however its second week box office was slightly lower than that of Flowers at RMB200.8 million ($31.8 million).

At RMB674.3 million ($106.7 million), Bullets is China's highest grossing local film.

New releases included XU Jinglei 徐靜蕾's Dear Enemy 親密敵人 (2011) (pictured) re-teaming her with Taiwan's Stanley HUANG 黃立行, her co-star in her previous film as a director, Go! Lala Go! 杜拉拉升職記 (2010).

Enemy made RMB41.4 million ($6.5 million) in its first three days. The office drama Lala, which ended its theatrical run with RMB131.3 million ($20.8 million), made a comparable RMB46.0 million in its first four days in cinemas.

Another new release, Barbara WONG 黃真真's The Allure of Tears 傾城之淚 (2011) starring ZHOU Dongyu 周冬雨, Aarif LEE 李治廷 and Shawn DOU 竇驍, was runner-up to Enemy with RMB24.0 million ($3.8 million) after four days on release.

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