While we can bask in the great news that The Last Jedi has now reached the peak of the pile of 2017’s cinematic releases, it can’t be ignored that the film has crashed and burned horrendously in the world’s second largest cinema market, China.
By comparison, Jumanji racked up superb numbers in China, with $40 million for the weekend and $667 million worldwide so far on a $90 million budget. Episode 8 dropped a frightening 92%, down to a second weekend of $2.4 million from an already disappointing opening frame of $28.7 million.
To put that into some kind of context, the biggest drop in recorded US box office history was the 2017 film Collide, which dropped 88.5% in its second weekend.
Disney’s and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, meanwhile, didn’t even put up a fight. Only in its second weekend on Chinese screens, The Last Jedi pulled in a paltry $2.4 million — a 92 percent decline from its disappointing $28.7 million debut, according to data from EntGroup.
The Star Wars franchise, never popular in China, appears to be on a precipitous decline in the Middle Kingdom, the world’s second-largest film territory. With $39 million after two weekends and shedding screens by the day, it’s clear that Last Jedi won’t make even half of The Force Awakens‘ $124 million China total, and won’t even come close to matching Rogue One‘s $69 million haul. The global picture is far better, of course: As of Sunday, Last Jedi had a worldwide haul of $1.264 billion, making it the biggest film of 2017.
The real acid test will be in the summer when Solo: A Star Wars Story arrives. A billion dollar worldwide total is certainly no longer a guarantee, and it will be interesting to see just how well the film does in its once traditional May slot, coming soon after Avengers Infinity War which is almost certain to end the year as the number one film and ahead of Jurassic World: Lost Kingdom which will surely be chasing Infinity War hard on its heels.
Indeed, with Black Panther looking set to post huge numbers and Mary Poppins coming in out on Christmas Day, Solo will do well to be in or around the top five come the end of the year.
