China Box Office: ‘Article 20’ Goes Top After Third Weekend as ‘Argylle’ Flops

Patrick Frater

25 February 2024 at 10:53 pm·2-min read

The four strongest Chinese titles that launched over the Lunar New Year holidays continued to dominate the mainland China and global office charts for a third successive weekend, albeit with a change of order that put Zhang Yimou’s “Article 20” in top spot.

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Global box office tracking service ComScore showed “Article 20,” “Pegasus 2,” “YOLO” and “Boonie Bears: Time Twist” as ranking first, second, fifth and sixth, respectively, in the world over the latest weekend.

Within mainland China, the quartet’s numbers were sufficiently solid that the year-to-date aggregate is now closely comparable to 2023’s. And, even in their third week, the four were many miles ahead of the top newcomer, “Argylle.”

China data, provided by consultancy Artisan Gateway, showed “Article 20” earned $40.1 million (RMB285 million) between Friday and Sunday. Having placed fourth on opening and third in its second weekend, the latest weekend win means that the gaps between the cumulative scores of the top four titles are now narrowing. “Article 20” has a running total of $290 million and has overtaken animation franchise film “Boonie Bears.”

“Pegasus 2” has headed the daily box office charts on a few occasions, but it has not enjoyed a weekend win. Over the latest weekend, it scored $35.6 million, for a cumulative of $432 million.

“YOLO,” which headed the chart for the past two weekends, dipped to third place with a Friday to Sunday score of $25.2 million. It remains the top scorer of the holiday period with a running total of $463 million.

“Boonie Bears: Time Twist” is the tenth feature in the film and TV franchise from Fantawild that launched in 2014. The latest week’s performance also makes it the series’ biggest. Artisan Gateway shows the film earning $22.5 million over the weekend for a cumulative of $257 million.

The dominance by the top four was such that Chinese media reported that some of the other Lunar New Year-released titles – “The Movie Emperor,” “Viva La Vida,” “Huang Pi – God of Money” and “Bai Jie” – were pulled out of cinemas early by their distributors in order that they may be re-released later, at a time when market conditions are more favorable.

“Argylle,” a box office disappointment in most other territories, was no different in China. Opening as the weekend’s top new release, it earned just $1.4 million in China.

The year-to-date China box office aggregate now stands as $1.89 billion. That is just 3% behind the equivalent point in 2023, Artisan Gateway reports.

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