The likely contenders for the box-office in China this weekend are two video games that have been adapted into films. It is a “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” battle against “Assassin’s Creed” for the wallets of Chinese moviegoers.
Both movies would premiere on Friday, Feb. 24. Since both films have been shown in other markets, the numbers indicate that “Assassin’s Creed” is slightly ahead in terms of box-office results since the Michael Fassbender-starrer has so far grossed $212 million, on one hand.
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On the other hand, “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” has grossed $147 million. Their China exhibition could still drastically affect the numbers as what had happened to other Hollywood movies which fared poorly in the U.S. and other markets but could benefit from the big number of moviegoers in China, the world’s second-largest film market.
Since the “Assassin’s Creed” is an action film based on the bestselling game of Ubisoft with more than 93 million copies sold since 2007 to June 2015, it could attract more Chinese moviegoers who prefer action films over other genre. “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter,” starring Milla Jovovich, is based on a popular survival horror video game initially released in 1996 and has sold about 75 million units globally, China.org reported.
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However, based on presale statistics, “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” leads. Video games adapted into movies are popular among Chinese audience. “Warcraft” earned $213 million, while “Angry Birds” grossed $74.65 million in China. The potential audience of both movies is high since China gross game sales in 2016 was $24.04 billion.
But both movies failed to impressed critics who gave “Assassin’s Creed” an approval rating of 18 percent based on 171 reviews. “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” got 33 percent based on 79 reviews. The Beijinger reported that “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” was likely censored since the approval notice showed the movie runtime at 99 minutes, or eight minutes less than the one hour, 47 minutes original version.