The Chinese box office is now experiencing a close race between the “Running Man” and the final installment of “The Hobbit,” while Liongate’s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1” makes a strong debut.
Last week, China saw how the feature spin-off of the hit reality show "Running Man" took over the top spot of the box office charts with total gross earnings of $61.96 million after 10 days from release, knocking Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" to second place.
Meanwhile, the third leg of the film the "Hunger Games" based on Suzanne Collins's post-apocalyptic epic trilogy of the same titles opens strong with almost $10 million when it was finally released in China on Sunday following several postponements.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the flick featuring Katniss Everdeen, who was portrayed by Hollywood actress Jennifer Lawrence, recorded 1.64 million admissions all in all out of the 40,382 screenings nationwide.
Taking into consideration the long months that allowed pirates to flood the market with unlicensed copies of the movie, "Mockingjay-Part 1" performed very well in the world's second-biggest movie market.
The film, which was shown in about 28 percent of all movie screens in China, had been featured both in 2D and 3D where a special version of it was showcased.
Aside from these three blockbuster flicks, the animated children's movie "Boonie Bears: Mystical Winter" also gained a spot at the leading box office hits in China after it took an additional $14.6 million to its cume of $31.65 million collected during its first 10 days in Chinese theaters.