{"id":28393,"date":"2025-07-28T09:41:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T09:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/28393\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T09:41:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T09:41:31","slug":"dead-to-rights-opens-on-top-as-local-films-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/28393\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Dead to Rights’ Opens on Top as Local Films Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tChina\u2019s weekend box office continued to be driven by local-language releases, with four out of the top five titles produced locally.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDead to Rights<\/a>\u201d (China Film) opened at No.\u202f1 with RMB315.1\u202fmillion ($43.8\u202fmillion) over the weekend, reaching a cumulative total of $57.2\u202fmillion, according to data from Artisan Gateway. Directed by Shen Ao and written by Shen Ao, Zhang Ke, and Xu Luyang, the film stars Liu Haoran, Wang Guanghai, Gao Ye, Wang Xiao, Zhou You, and Yang Enyou. Set in 1937 during the Nanjing Massacre, it follows a group of civilians taking refuge in a Japanese-controlled photo studio. As they\u2019re forced to develop images for the occupiers, they secretly document atrocities, risking their lives to preserve the truth.<\/p>\n

\n\tHolding well in second place was \u201cThe Lychee Road<\/a>\u201d, which added $19.8 million in its second frame for a running total of $68.3 million. Produced by Aimmedia Pictures and directed by Dong Chengpeng, and scripted by Si\u2019ao Dai and Yuyue Shen (based on Ma Boyong\u2019s novel), the film 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

\n\tThird place went to \u201cThe Stage,\u201d which grossed $14.8 million for the weekend and has reached $24.4 million cumulatively. Directed and written by Chen Pei\u2011si, the film is set during the Republican era and focuses on a Peking opera troupe navigating personal hardship, audience expectations and political unrest. The ensemble cast includes Chen himself, Hou Xiting, Huang Bo, Jiang Wu, Yin Zheng, Yang Haoyu, and Yu Shaoqun.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn fourth, \u201cThe Legend of Hei 2\u201d (Qianwanjian Media) earned $10.5 million, pushing its total to $33.9 million. The animated fantasy sequel is co-directed by MTJJ (Zhang Ping) and Gu Jie. It follows cat spirit Luo Xiaohei, who has been living peacefully in the human world for two years. When the Spirit Hall is attacked, he and his mentor Wuxian are called back into action to protect the fragile peace between humans and spirits.<\/p>\n

\n\tRounding out the top five was Disney\u2019s \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps<\/a>,\u201d which debuted with $4.3 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeekend takings totaled $108.2 million. That brings China\u2019s year-to-date box office total to $4.52 billion, representing a 14.1% increase over the same period in 2024. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s weekend box office continued to be driven by local-language releases, with four out of the top five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[17667,96,2839,5397,17668,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-28393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-dead-to-rights","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-the-fantastic-four-first-steps","tag-the-lychee-road","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}