Dead to Rights, a wartime drama about the Nanjing Massacre, sprinted to first place in China over the July 25‑27 frame with an estimated RMB 315.1 million ($43.8 million) weekend and more than RMB 400 million including previews, pushing Sunday’s nationwide takings past the RMB 300 million threshold for the first time since February.
Maoyan now projects the film to finish above RMB 3.2 billion, a forecast raised sharply after its opening‑day momentum and 8.6 Douban rating. Director Feng Xiaoning said audiences sat “unmoving until the credits had fully rolled,” calling the picture “a new high point for Chinese cinema.”
Local titles continued to dominate the chart: comedy The Lychee Road added nearly RMB 140 million in its second weekend, while family animation The Legend of Hei 2 held fourth place. Hollywood’s latest tent‑pole fared poorly by comparison. Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps bowed in fifth with just $4.44 million, one of the franchise’s weakest Chinese openings on record. Analysts blame a crowded local slate and lukewarm pre‑release buzz, noting that the film attracted fewer than 720,000 admissions despite wide screen availability.
The weekend boom arrives as authorities and city governments pour subsidies into moviegoing. Beijing’s ten‑million‑yuan “Midsummer Film Carnival” offers up to RMB 30 off each ticket, while Zhejiang and Guangdong run parallel voucher schemes worth tens of millions more. Industry trackers say such incentives, combined with attractive local content, have lifted summer box‑office revenue to roughly RMB 4.7 billion so far, narrowing the gap with last year’s haul.
Yet challenges remain: 2024’s summer season ended at RMB 11.6 billion, far below the record RMB 20.6 billion set in 2023. Trade consultants argue that a single home‑grown blockbuster surpassing RMB 3 billion could still restore confidence—and Dead to Rights now looks positioned to be that film.
