Resurrection takes China BO record

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Box Office News

Painted Skin: The Resurrection 畫皮Ⅱ is officially China's highest grossing domestic film. In 25 days, Wuershan 烏爾善's action fantasy has taken RMB686 million ($107 million) in China.

Resurrection has taken the box office record from Let the Bullets Fly 讓子彈飛 (2010) which made RMB674 million. It had narrowly taken the record from Aftershock 唐山大地震 (2010), which had taken RMB665 million a few months earlier.

Due to the higher ticket prices of the 3-D Resurrection, it has yet to match the admission records of either film. At an average ticket price of RMB44 ($6.90), it has been viewed by 15.5 million people in cinemas.

Resurrection was ranked second at the box office last week behind another action-fantasy, The Four 四大名捕. The 2-D film has now made RMB151.9 million ($23.8m million) in China. A sequel is currently shooting.

In third place, CHEN Kaige 陳凱歌's contemporary drama Caught in the Web 搜索 has now taken RMB147 million (US$23 million) in 16 days. His most recent film, the historical drama Sacrifice 趙氏孤兒 (2010), made RMB199 million (US$31.1 million).

The strongest new film last week was Bunshinsaba 筆仙 (pictured), South Korea's AN Byung-ki 안병기 | 安兵基's Chinese-language remake of his own Bunshinsaba: Ouija Board 분신사바 (2004). The horror took RMB32.0 million (US$5.01 million) in 7 days.

The highly-anticipated remake features a Chinese cast and local scriptwriters, but employs a South Korean cinematographer, CHOI Sang-muk 최상묵 | 崔相默, and composer, JEONG Yong-jin 정용진 | 丁庸鎭.

Another local horror, The Death Is Here 筆仙驚魂, released in June used a similar Chinese name and poster art inspired by the original South Korean horror. It made RMB23.3 million ($3.64 million) in cinemas.

Also newly released last week was GAO Qunshu 高群書's award-winning Beijing Blues 神探亨特張. The docu-drama made RMB4.30 million (US$670,000) over 3 days.

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