Stephen Chow’s “Kung Fu Soccer” opened to $73.6 million in China over its first two days, claiming nearly three-quarters of the country’s ticket sales and outpacing its closest competitor ninefold, according to data from Artisan Gateway. The film marks Chow’s return to directing after a seven-year gap and revives the world he built in 2001’s “Shaolin Soccer,” this time centered on a women’s team.
The 64-year-old filmmaker wrote and directed the Hong Kong-China co-production without appearing onscreen, having retired from acting after 2008’s “CJ7.” He rebuilt the “Shaolin Soccer” formula around the fictional Emei squad, whose players fuse martial arts with match play during a run through a tournament called the Supreme Invincible Cup. Zhang Xiaofei plays team captain, Dilraba Dilmurat stars as its top striker, and Lay Zhang appears as the coach. Carina Lau and Japanese actor Takeru Satoh make cameo appearances, alongside former national team goalkeeper Zhao Lina.
Ticketing platform Maoyan gave the film a 9.4 rating out of 10 from opening-weekend audiences, and early box office trackers project a home-market total exceeding $350 million. Reaction has split sharply beyond the numbers. Some moviegoers praised the martial arts choreography and said Chow recaptured the manic energy of his earlier work; others called the visual effects dated and the jokes recycled. One Beijing viewer told the Global Times she left the theater disappointed, saying the story felt disorganized and rarely made her laugh.
Zhang Peng, a cultural researcher at Nanjing Normal University, attributed the strong debut to Chow’s enduring pull with audiences who grew up on his films, combined with pent-up demand for a spiritual sequel and a summer calendar that had produced no breakout hit before this release. The production reportedly cost 380 million yuan, roughly $54 million, with more than half funneled into over 1,200 visual effects shots.
A U.S. release remains unscheduled. Singapore’s Encore Films bought worldwide distribution rights outside mainland China last month and is now negotiating deals market by market, mirroring its earlier rollout of the animated hit “Ne Zha 2.”
