'Skiptrace' Jackie Chan's Biggest Chinese Box Office Debut

Asian superstar Jackie Chan proved why he is still considered as the king of action comedies, as his latest offering "Skiptrace" raked in an impressive $60 million at the Chinese box office over the weekend.

The film, which also stars Johnny Knoxville alongside Chan, opened strongly in china despite receiving mixed reviews from fans, China Daily reported. The 400 million ($60 million) opening weekend gross is the biggest debut in the Chinese market for the martial arts superstar. The film Rush Hour, which he starred with American comedian Chris Tucker, still remains

Skiptrace follows Chan as a retired Hong Kong cop who must join forces with an American gambler (Knoxville) to take down a notorious criminal, in an adventure that spans from Hong Kong to Mongolia.

However, the movie was also met with mixed reactions from critics, with some saying that the movie was more like a hodgepodge of cliches, with the plot and even the stunts being too similar to Chan's previous offerings, and that the humor often does not work.

Despite the criticisms, Chan said that he is happy with the results of the movie. He added that Skiptrace is very much part of his effort to showcase China. He said that he has always wanted to showcase more of his native country's landscape and culture even when he was still doing "The Karate Kid" in 2010.

The 62-year old actor also revealed that he first thought of the plot of Skiptrace around 25 years ago and initially wanted to cast fellow martial arts superstar Jet Li. However, with Westerners becoming more interested in China, he decided to cast a Western actor instead.

With Skiptrace's success, Chan said that he will continue with his current filming model of casting foreign, particularly Western, actors with Chinese stars. For his latest film "Bleeding Steel", Australian actors Tess Haubrich and Callan Mulvey have been added to the cast, Variety reported. They will be joining Chan, Nana Ouyang, Erica Xia-Hou and Snow Lou.