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Fantasy adventure movie Monster Hunt has become the highest-grossing Chinese movie of all time.
Now in its second week in theaters, Monster Hunt grabbed another $46 million at the Chinese box office this weekend to give it a worldwide cume of $211 million, taking it past Lost in Thailand, which grossed $185 million back in 2013.
A phenomenon in China, Monster Hunt is also the fastest local film to pass the symbolic 1 billion RMB ($169 million) figure in domestic box office, passing that milestone in only eight days.
Including Hollywood movies, Monster Hunt now ranks fifth in the all-time list of highest-grossing films in China, notably surpassing Avatar, but behind the recently released Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Transformers: Age of Extinction and the top film at the Chinese box office, Furious 7, which made almost $400 million in the second-largest box-office market in the world.
Last week, the $40 million 3D film, which mixes live-action with CGI monsters, broke the opening weekend record for a Chinese film after bringing in a massive $109 million (RMB 669 million), while also setting records for the biggest opening-day gross ($26.45 million) and biggest single-day gross ($29.84 million), vaulting the marks set by The Monkey King in 2014. Monster Hunt also grabbed $8.7 million from Imax screens, yet another Chinese record.
Monster Hunt‘s figures have been impressive, but its success has come in the absence of Hollywood competition. Chinese films have benefited greatly from the clear run at the box office during July because of an unofficial blackout period when Hollywood films are put on the back burner to give domestic fare a chance to thrive.
Set in a world where monsters and humans co-exist, Monster Hunt tells the story of Wuba, a monster born to be king. Wuba becomes the central figure in stopping an all-out monster civil war.
Produced by Hong Kong’s Edko Films, Monster Hunt is directed by Raman Hui, who co-directed Shrek The Third, and stars an ensemble cast of Hong Kong and Chinese actors, including Jiang Wu, Eric Tsang, Elaine Jin, Tang Wei, Sandra Ng and Bai Baihe.
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