Heart battles aliens at China BO

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Box Office News

Johnnie To's (杜琪峰) Don't Go Breaking My Heart (單身男女, pictured) was the highest new entry at China's box office at the weekend.

To's return to the romantic comedy genre — starring Gao Yuanyuan (高圓圓) opposite Louis Koo (古天樂) and Daniel Wu (吳彥祖) — made RMB31.5 million ($4.8 million) over four days in cinemas.

The highest grossing film last week remained alien invasion film Battle: Los Angeles which made RMB38.1 million ($5.8 million) over seven days, reaching RMB193.6 million ($29.6 million) by Sunday night.

In third place, was another American film, Robert Schwentke's action-comedy Red starring Bruce Willis. Over three days in cinemas, on a belated theatrical release, it took RMB10 million ($1.5 million).

Still in cinemas, Wuershan's (烏爾善) anarchic The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman (刀見笑) added RMB2 million ($306,000) to its current haul of RMB21.8 million ($3.3 million) after 18 days on release.

New releases included several local movies: action-romance He-Man (硬漢2 奉陪到底), horror The Frightening Night (夜驚魂), romance Chase Our Love (宅男總動員) and drama Stand By Me (奮鬥).

He-Man, Ding Sheng's (丁晟) sequel to his own The Underdog Knight (硬漢, 2008) again headlined by actor Liu Ye (劉燁), took RMB7.8 million ($1.2 million) over three days in cinemas.

Night, the directorial debut of cinematographer Xu Bin (許斌), made RMB2 million ($306,000) at the weekend, narrowly ahead of Chase Our Love on RMB1.9 million ($290,000) and Stand By Me on RMB1.8 million ($275,000).

New releases this coming weekend are 3-D animation Rio, character drama The Law of Attraction (萬有引力), romantic drama Once Upon a Time in Tibet (西藏往事) and romantic comedy Mr & Mrs Single (隱婚男女).

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