{"id":798905,"date":"2026-07-13T10:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T10:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/798905\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T10:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T10:52:09","slug":"stephen-chows-kung-fu-soccer-scores-big-at-china-box-office-with-74m-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/798905\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Chow\u2019s \u2018Kung Fu Soccer\u2019 Scores Big At China Box Office With $74M Opening\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tStephen Chow<\/a>\u2019s first film in seven years, Kung Fu Soccer, scored a mighty opening at the China box office<\/a> this past weekend grossing $73.6M (RMB500.3M) in just two days (July 11-12), according to figures from Artisan Gateway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe spin-off of 2001 hit Shaolin Soccer follows an all-female soccer squad who add martial arts techniques to their game during a major tournament. The film has a 9.4 rating on the Maoyan ticketing platform, which is predicting a $369M (RMB2.5BN) final gross.<\/p>\n

\n\tChow directs but does not star in the film as he stepped away from acting following sci-fi comedy CJ7 in 2008. Kung Fu Soccer\u2019s cast is headed by Zhang Xiaofei, Dilraba Dilmurat and Lay Zhang with guest appearances by Hong Kong star Carina Lau, Japan\u2019s Takeru Satoh and U.S. comedian Jimmy O. Yang.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMaoyan, a Beijing-based ticketing platform, investor and distributor, is handling the China distribution of the film, releasing it this month to mark the 25th anniversary of Shaolin Soccer and to capitalise on FIFA World Cup 2026 fever. Singapore-based Encore Films has international rights and is lining up territory-by-territory distribution.<\/p>\n

\n\tChow is one of Hong Kong\u2019s most bankable filmmakers with hits over the decades including The God Of Cookery (1996), King Of Comedy (1999), Shaolin Soccer (2001) and Kung Fu Hustle (2004), with the latter film co-produced with Sony, although he hasn\u2019t directed a film since The New King Of Comedy in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKung Fu Soccer\u2019s success may help close the year-on-year decline in China\u2019s 2026 box office, which was down around 40% in the first half, compared to the first half of 2025, a period that was bolstered by the record-breaking box office of Lunar New Year hit animation Nezha 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Kung Fu Soccer accounted for nearly three quarters of all ticket sales in China over the weekend, Minions & Monsters came in second in its second weekend with $8.1M, according to Artisan Gateway figures, while Light Chaser\u2019s animated movie Three Kingdoms: The Beginning opened in third with $4.7M over three days. A24\u2019s Backrooms, which opened June 26, came in fourth with $3.2M for a $21.8M cumulative gross. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Chow\u2019s first film in seven years, Kung Fu Soccer, scored a mighty opening at the China box…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,165546,561,82,269840],"class_list":["post-798905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china-box-office","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-stephen-chow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798905","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=798905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}