Jennifer Lawrence (L) and Chris Pratt attend the premiere of Columbia Pictures' "Passengers" at Regency Village Theatre on Dec. 14, 2016 in Westwood, California. (Photo : Getty Images)
Hollywood heartthrobs Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt's romantic space adventure "Passengers" dominated China's box office last week, in the run-up to the Lunar New Year weekend when theaters are packed with vacationers.
The pair is popular in China, with the film adding $17.1 million to its gross of $34.5 million since opening in cinemas Jan. 13, according to film industry consulting firm Artisan Gateway.
The Chinese romantic comedy, "Some Like It Hot," came in second with $12.8 million, dropping nearly 40 percent at the box office from the previous week. Its 24-day ticket sales reached a total of $28.7 million.
Disney's "Star Wars" spinoff "Rogue One" earned $8.7 million, bringing its cumulative total to $61.5 million since the end of December.
It did better than the new sci-fi "Arrival," which opened Friday and took in $7.3 million. The sixth Hollywood movie and the third sci-fi film released in China in January, it only earned a quarter of what "Rogue One" grossed when it opened in theaters two weeks ago.
Paramount Pictures' "Arrival" failed to draw in Chinese audiences as they imagine Hollywood sci-fi films are like the "Transformer" series, which "contain amazing visual effects," said He Yan, a film critic. For arrival, the effects were "not the selling point of the film."
The Chinese animated film "Bonnie Bears: Entangled Worlds," received $7 million in ticket sales. It is expected to sweep the children's market over the weeklong holiday.
The Lunar New Year is expected by analysts to invigorate China's lukewarm box office landscape with high-profile domestic films such as Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons"; "Buddies in India," directed by Chinese comedian Wang Baoqiang; Jackie Chan's "Kungfu Yoga"; and "Plough Through," the second film of renowned Chinese screenwriter Han Han, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Last year, "The Mermaid," "The Monkey King 2" and "The Man From Macau 3" raked in more than 3 billion yuan at the Chinese box office, a nearly 70-percent increase compared with 2015. This made the New Year holiday the most important period in film ticket receipts last year, especially when the country's film watchdog bans imported titles during this period.
Artisan says the holiday will result in a 30-percent increase in box office sales compared from last year as more people go to the movies in China, which boasts the distinction as the largest theater operator in the world.
