Mojin won't face any competition from Hollywood until
Force Awakens is released on Jan. 9, thanks to China's year-end blackout on foreign film imports. With its starry cast — Huang Bo (
Lost in Thailand), Shu Qi (
The Assassin), and Angelababy (
Young Detective Dee) — and warm critical reception (the film has scored 8.0 and 7.7, respectively, on leading reviews sites Douban and Mtime), many local industry watchers are predicting that the film has a solid chance of unseating
Monster Hunt as the
.
Coming in second for the weekend, slapstick period comedy
Surprise earned $23.5 million over its official first three days. Anticipating
Mojin's impending dominance,
Surprise's distributor Bona Film Group gave the movie a record number of preview screenings the weekend prior (Dec. 12-13) in what amounted to a temporary wide release, grabbing the film an early $17.3 million.
Surprise is based on an online comedy series produced by streaming video giant Youku Tudou (which was recently
). The big screen adaptation was developed and co-produced by Youku's fledgling film imprint, Heyi Pictures, with Bona and other partners. After the weekend, the film's cumulative gross stands at $41 million.
Slipping to third for the full week, DMG and Alcon entertainment's
Point Break remake is ending its China run with a very respectable $37.9 million after 17 days. The film added $7.34 million before
Mojin stormed into cinemas and took most of its remaining screens.
Point Break's
— which involved unfurling the film across China a record three weeks before its U.S. premiere — seems to have paid off handsomely and could herald a new approach to managing China's difficult and highly regulated release calendar.
