Warring States wins first battle at China BO

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Box Office News

Historical drama The Warring States (戰國) topped China's box office chart last week with RMB48.1 million ($7.36 million) after six days in cinemas.

Directed by Jin Chen (金琛), the HD-shot film is a historical drama about the friendship and rivalry between two military strategists played by Sun Honglei (孫紅雷) and Francis Ng (吳鎮宇).

The local marketing campaign has proved controversial for highlighting the role of relative newcomer Jing Tian (景甜, pictured), who headlined last year's romantic comedy My Belle Boss (我的美女老闆).

In its first full week in cinemas, 3-D animation Rio climbed to second place with RMB28.8 million ($4.4 million). After ten days on screens it had made RMB51.2 million ($7.8 million) by Sunday night.

Other new releases last week were Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch with RMB22.0 million ($3.4 million) and Nimród Antal's 2009 crime thriller Armored with RMB10.0 million ($1.5 million).

Johnnie To's romantic comedy Don't Go Breaking My Heart (單身男女) added RMB14.0 million ($2.1 million) to its RMB90.6 ($13.9 million) box office takings after 18 days in cinemas.

The Warring States has already lost significant screen space to A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂), Wilson Yip's (葉偉信) reinterpretation of the 1987 classic, which was released yesterday, 19 April.

States is set to open this weekend in North America through China Lion Entertainment.

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