{"id":300573,"date":"2026-02-20T06:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/300573\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T06:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:56:07","slug":"chinese-new-year-titles-fueling-805m-weekend-pegasus-3-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/300573\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese New Year Titles Fueling $805M+ Weekend; ‘Pegasus 3’ No. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe biggest movies at this weekend\u2019s worldwide box office won\u2019t be from Hollywood \u2014 sorry, Wuthering Heights \u2014 but rather China<\/a>, where the Year of the Fire Horse has been in full swing since Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Overall, we\u2019re hearing from distribution sources that Gower sees the Top 5 movies alone doing a combined total of $805M for the six-day stretch of Tuesday through Sunday. Realize that Hollywood\u2019s highest week ever at the domestic B.O. was $536.4M, when Avengers: Endgame led the April 26-May 2, 2019, frame. We could never reach such scale.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Maoyan, total box office since opening across all titles screening during the Chinese New Year window has reached RMB 3.1 billion ($452.6M) to date. This figure also includes carryovers. Note that Hollywood films aren\u2019t allowed to open in China during the Chinese New Year stretch, but they can hold on to screens, read Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash. <\/p>\n

\n\tImax over Feb. 17-19 has collected $14.5M at its auditoriums. The large-format exhibitor\u2019s market share in the Middle Kingdom is 3.5%, achieved on less than 1% of the total screens.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt remains to be seen whether this year will rival last year\u2019s $965.4M New Year\u2019s mega-haul<\/a>, which was led by Yu Yang\u2019s animated sequel Ne Zha 2<\/a>\u00a0($430.3M). So far during the first 3 days of New Year 2026, Pegasus 3<\/a>, Han Han\u2019s F1-like racecar-driver movie starring Shen Teng, is leading the bunch with $219.5M, of which Imax is driving $13.4M. Imax indexed at 7%\u00a0on the pic\u2019s opening day\u00a0with $6.3 million, delivering a franchise-best opening day gross and opening index. The previous movie (unadjusted for inflation and currency swings) opened to $105.6M ($4.6M) from Imax and finaled at $422.3M off a 9.7 on Maoyan. This one has a 7.5M Douban score out of 10 with Gower predicting a No. 1 win at $400M for Pegasus 3 in a movie that is attracting everybody from kids to 80-year-olds. Interesting that AG China lifetime\u2019s forecast for the movie is at $420M to half-billion, but now sources believe it\u2019s much higher at $610M-$700M. The blurb for Pegasus 3: Bearing the glory of being the \u201cKing of Bayanbulak,\u201d Zhang Chi once again embarks on his racing journey, aiming not only to win the race but also to achieve something beyond the competition itself.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn second place is Zhang Yimou-directed espionage movie Scare Out<\/a>, which is aimed at ages 18-60, with a Feb. 17-19 box office of $70.5M. Gower is forecasting a $160M 6-day opening with a final cume of $300M. Imax is delivering $300K. Douban score is 6.3\/10. When vital intelligence is leaked, a national security team vows to find the traitor, but arrests failed repeatedly. As tension mounts, suspicion turns inward to the team itself. Chaos ensues. The Pic stars Jackson Yee (Yi Yangqianxi) and Zhu Yilong.<\/p>\n

\n\tFamily animated title Bonnie Bears: The Hidden Protector<\/a> is aiming for third with $54.2M over the last three days and a six-day projected at $110M. Huida Lin<\/a> directs the pic. Gower foresees the final B.O. for the pic at $189M. Logline: Briar, Bramble and Vick encounter the legendary Year Monster, Nian, who bestows them with mysterious powers, thrusting them into the hidden, chaotic, magic-infused realm of Eve City.<\/p>\n

\n\tFourth is Blades of the Guardians<\/a>: Wind Rises in the Desert starring Wu Jing and Jet Li (remember him?) and directed by Yuen Woo-Ping. The movie is based on a Chinese manga and pulling in a younger audiences ages 20-40, we hear, with a Feb. 17-19 cume of $49M (Imax $800K so far) and Gower projection of $95M for the weekend and ultimate end gross between $155M-$185M. Blurb for Blades of the Guardians: Dao Ma, the \u201csecond most wanted fugitive,\u201d who is entrusted by his benefactor, the chief of Mo family clan, to take on a mysterious escort mission-escorting the \u201cmost wanted fugitive,\u201d to Chang\u2019an.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn fifth is the Jackie Chan live-action movie Panda Plan 2<\/a>: The Magical Tribe with $17M over the last 3 days on its way to $40M per Gower, and $60M-$72M final. Families, yes, but older guys are still into Chan.<\/p>\n

\n\tSources tell us that Chinese audiences, whose moviegoing tastes change rapidly, are embracing more Hollywood-style local titles with broad stories and VFX versus the patriotic movies of yore, i.e. Wolf Warrior ($81.4M final, unadjusted for currency swings and inflation). Such politically themed fare would be hard sell to today\u2019s audiences. Although unemployment is high among the younger, college-educated demographic, moviegoing isn\u2019t that expensive and still has momentum. Tier 1 and 2 cities can charge around $10 (non large-format), while lower0tier cities can charge around $4-$7 per ticket.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn regards to box office trajectory of local Chinese New Year movies, they often can be back-loaded. Presales are less predictive than they used to be, and Day 2 or 3 holds \u2014 driven largely by word-of-mouth\u00a0\u2014 tend to determine the ultimate pecking order. As such, early audience scores matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest movies at this weekend\u2019s worldwide box office won\u2019t be from Hollywood \u2014 sorry, Wuthering Heights \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[148541,151684,1657,146,85,46,397,151685,151686,148452],"class_list":{"0":"post-300573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-blades-of-the-guardians","9":"tag-bonnie-bears-the-hidden-protector","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-panda-plan-2","16":"tag-pegasus-3","17":"tag-scare-out"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}