After it displaced “Kung Fu Panda 3” as the top-grossing animated film in China, Disney’s "Zootopia" is set to break again another record, this time as the leggiest movie in China.
The film is only $20 million away from the $240 million record set by "Avengers: Age of Ultron" in May, reported Forbes. With its 62x multiple from its opening day box office of 22.9 million yuan ($3.5 million), “Zootopia” has overtaken the 61.9x opening day multiple of “Goodbye Mr. Loser” set in October 2015 and 53.1x multiple established by “Monkey King: Hero is Back” in summer.
The recent weekend was its fourth week, but the animal movie’s box office went down by only 25 percent and earned $11.9 million for its three-day showing. On Sunday, “Zootopia” even beat “Batman v Superman” which earned only $5 million on its second weekend, while the animation earned $6.5 million.
The movie was supposed to end on Monday, but China’s film authorities gave “Zootopia” two more weeks extension, so it’s last day would still be on April 17, giving it a chance to beat “Ultron’s” record.
In contrast, “Batman v Superman,” which has been heavily criticized even overseas, got a multiple of only around 5.1x in China on its second week even if its opening day box office was $18.6 million.
However, “Zootopia” is far from beating the $523 million record set by Stephen Chow’s “The Mermaid” which just ended its run after it first opened on Lunar New Year.
Although “Batman v Superman” topped the South Korea film market and “Zootopia” came in second, the superhero movie suffered a sharp 71 percent weekly decline. In contrast, the animation enjoyed a 16 percent week-on-week increase in box office, reported Variety.