China Box Office: 'Mission: Impossible — Fallout' Adds $32M, Alpha Opens to $10M

During the third-slowest weekend of the year so far for filmgoing in China, Tom Cruise managed a respectable hold but Studio 8's prehistoric adventure pic didn't manage to break out.


Paramount's Mission: Impossible — Fallout came out on top again during one of the sleepiest weekends of the year at the Chinese box office.


The Tom Cruise global smash slipped 57 percent in its second frame, earning $32.4 million for a $137.7 million Chinese total. The blockbuster has now eclipsed the $136 million China total of its predecessor, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation. With word of mouth exceptionally positive, M:I 6 should race past $150 million sometime later this week on its way to a finishing total in the $160 million to $175 million range.


Studio 8's prehistoric adventure pic Alpha, meanwhile, opened to a modest $10.2 million. As in the U.S., the film has been reasonably well received by critics — it has a score of 6.5/10 on reviews site Douban and 8.3/10 on ticketing platform Maoyan — but it hasn't caught fire in a major way with filmgoers.


Both of the weekend's frontrunners had marketing support from deep-pocketed local corporate giants. Fallout is backed by a major online marketing campaign from Alibaba, which took a minority equity stake in the film, while Alpha is supported by Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group, which is the majority owner of Jeff Robinov's production banner Studio 8. Alpha was distributed by Sony in most parts of the world, but Studio 8 and Fosun partnered with local marketing specialist Leomus Pictures on the Chinese release.


Marvel and Disney's Ant-Man and the Wasp scored third in its third weekend in China, adding $4.5 million for a 15-day total of $113 million, according to data from Beijing-based box-office tracker EntGroup. The Paul Rudd franchise sequel now stands slightly taller than the first Ant-Man title, which earned $105 million in China in 2015.


Imported sports biopic Pele: Birth of a Legend, produced by Imagine Entertainment, opened in fourth place, earning $2.5 million. The film, released in late 2016 and 2017 in most international markets, previously had a worldwide total of just $3.7 million. After one weekend, soccer-crazy China is already the film's biggest territory, surpassing the $2.2 million earned in Italy.


It was a decidedly downbeat weekend at the Chinese multiplex, with none of the other holdover titles on release managing to earn more than $1 million per day. Overall, it was the third-slowest frame of the year, with the top 10 releases totaling just $54.6 million, according to EntGroup.