{"id":12814,"date":"2025-07-21T11:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T11:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/12814\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T11:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T11:37:11","slug":"the-lychee-road-at-no-1-as-local-films-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/12814\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;The Lychee Road&#8217; at No. 1 as Local Films Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tChina\u2019s box office surged over the July 18\u201320 weekend, led by a strong showing from local-language titles. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/the-lychee-road\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-lychee-road\" data-tag=\"the-lychee-road\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Lychee Road<\/a>,\u201d a period drama distributed by Aimmedia Pictures, opened in first place with RMB170.3 million ($23.7 million), according to data from Artisan Gateway. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIncluding previews, the film has amassed a $31.7 million cumulative total. Directed by Dong Chengpeng and scripted by Si\u2019ao Dai and Yuyue Shen (based on Ma Boyong\u2019s novel), \u201cThe Lychee Road\u201d follows petty official Li\u202fShande (Dong Chengpeng) as he embarks on a nearly impossible mission: delivering fresh lychees across 5,000 miles during the Tang Dynasty to appease the imperial court\u2019s demand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAnimated fantasy sequel \u201cThe Legend of Hei 2\u201d (Qianwanjian Media) took second place with $14.4 million. Co-directed and co-written by MTJJ (Ping Zhang) and Gu Jie, the sequel follows Luo Xiaohei, a cat spirit who, two years after settling into the human world alongside his mentor Wuxian, faces a renewed conflict at the Spirit Hall and must confront new threats. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDebuting in third place, Dachong Media\u2019s \u201cYou Are the Best\u201d earned $7.6 million over the weekend. Its cumulative gross stands at $9.1 million. Directed by and starring Jiang Wen alongside Ma Li, the film follows a young man who leaves home with his father to pursue his musical dream. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLight Chaser Animation\u2019s \u201cCurious Tales of a Temple\u201d ranked fourth with $7.3 million for the frame. Its cumulative total climbed to $20 million. The animated anthology is based on Pu Songling\u2019s classic \u201cStrange Tales from a Chinese Studio.\u201d The film features six interlinked ghost stories all tied to the mysterious Lanruo Temple, and is co-directed by Cui Yuemei, Liu Yuan, Xie Junwei, Zou Jing, Huang Heyu, and Liu Yilin. The voice cast includes Lu Lifeng, Lin Qiang, Zhang He, and Chen Ziping.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tRounding out the top five, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/brad-pitt\/\" id=\"auto-tag_brad-pitt\" data-tag=\"brad-pitt\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brad Pitt<\/a>\u2018s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/f1\/\" id=\"auto-tag_f1\" data-tag=\"f1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1<\/a>: The Movie,\u201d from Apple Original Films and Warner Bros., added $5.1 million, bringing its running total to $45.1 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe weekend box office totalled $76.1 million, up from last week\u2019s $51.3 million, lifting the 2025 running total to $4.35 billion, a 15.5% gain over the same period in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s box office surged over the July 18\u201320 weekend, led by a strong showing from local-language titles. \u201cThe&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3491,49,48,75,578,337,12044],"class_list":["post-12814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-brad-pitt","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-f1","tag-movies","tag-the-lychee-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}