Homegrown Chinese Blockbuster ‘Lost in the Stars’ Just Beat ‘Fast X’ at the Box Office | Analysis

Scott Mendelson
·4 min read
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The top movie at the global box office last weekend was not “The Flash” or “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.” It was China’s latest homegrown blockbuster, “Lost in the Stars,” which earned $70 million from Friday to Sunday, or $98 million over the four-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday weekend in the country. Counting Monday’s $23.3 million gross and $26 million on Tuesday, the mystery romance has $146.5 million thus far. That already puts it above every summer release in China including Hollywood’s “Fast X,” which has earned $138 million in China since its mid-May premiere.

It’s one more example of how Chinese audiences are showing a strong preference for homegrown movies over Hollywood fare, a conundrum for studios that once counted on China as a growth market. With theaters closed for the pandemic and Western streaming services mostly unwelcome in China’s tightly controlled internet market, there’s been little occasion to connect moviegoers with popular franchises, which has led to a weak reception for most American tentpoles there.

“The strong performance of ‘Lost in the Stars’ is an encouraging sign of momentum in Chinese moviegoing — particularly with a very promising mix of Chinese local language and Hollywood blockbusters on deck for July and August,” Imax CEO Rich Gelfond told TheWrap.

“Lost in the Stars” is a Chinese adaptation of Russian filmmaker Alexey Korenev’s 1990 film “A Trap for the Lonely Man,” which was itself adapted from the Robert Thomas stage play. The picture, co-directed by Rui Cui and Xiang Liu, concerns a woman (Janice Man) who disappears while on an overseas holiday with her husband (Zhu Yilong) only to reappear just as the search is nearing its grim end. However, the husband refuses to accept that his wife has returned and argues that the woman is an imposter.

The picture was penned by Chen Sicheng, who wrote and directed the blockbuster “Detective Chinatown” trilogy. That action-comedy caper franchise earned more money in China ($1.3 billion) than Chris Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy earned in North America ($1.19 billion). The most recent entry broke the single territory opening weekend record in early 2021 with $399 million in China alone, besting the $356 million domestic debut of “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019.

But the marketing campaign didn’t emphasize Chen’s contributions, instead focusing on the actors and actresses. The film also skewed 70% female, making it potent counterprogramming alongside the current batch of stereotypically male-driven Hollywood flicks including this weekend’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

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A solid year for Chinese films

For Chinese movies released this year, “Lost in the Stars” notched the biggest opening weekend since the Lunar New Year releases of “Wandering Earth 2” and “Full Red River,” which eventually topped $675 million and $605 million worldwide respectively, placing fourth and fifth globally for the year.

The overall Chinese box office topped $3 billion for the year in early May, meaning it has already passed the $3.1 billion total of 2020 and will soon pass the $4.4 billion total of 2022. More hits from China, and hopefully better results from Hollywood exports (“Rise of the Beasts” with $82 million is way behind the $170 million-$230 million cumes of the last two “Transformers” movies), are still required to reach the $7.4 billion total in 2021 and the $6.7 billion-$9.2 billion totals from the 2015-2019 peak period.

If you can’t beat them, join them?

China’s next smash could be “The Meg 2: The Trench,” a Hollywood-Chinese co-production starring Jason Statham and Wu Jing. The first “Meg” earned $155 million in China and $155 million in North America for a $530 million global cume. We’ll see if the addition of the “Wandering Earth” star can boost those numbers in China to somewhere between a Hollywood blockbuster breaking out in pre-COVID times and a Chinese blockbuster in China.

Considering the strong word of mouth and boffo Monday gross, it’s quite possible that “Lost in the Stars” could be the latest Chinese tentpole to top $500 million in China alone. It’s also a female-focused, star-driven “new to you” adaptation, while their “Top Gun: Maverick” knock-off “Born to Fly” earned “just” $124 million since opening in May.

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