Art-House Film ‘Return to Dust’ Wins Weekend as China Box Office Dips to Three Month Low

Patrick Frater
·2 min read
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Art-house title “Return to Dust” was a surprise weekend winner, topping the mainland China box office in its ninth weekend of release.

The astonishing feat occurred on an otherwise depressed weekend in which China’s cinema box office dipped to a three-month low. This reflected the summer season winding to an end and anti-COVID measures once again forcing major Chinese cities into retreat.

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Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed “Return” grossing $5.3 million (RMB36.2 million) between Friday and Sunday. Those three days accounted for nearly half of the $12.7 million (RMB87.4 million) cumulative total it has earned since release on July 8, 2022.

Directed by Li Ruijun, the film tells the tale of two middle-aged adults who agree to an arranged marriage in a rural town where state-ordered demolition is under way. It premiered in competition at the Berlin festival in February this year and subsequently played at the Udine and Hong Kong festivals.

“ ‘Return to Dust’s’ streaming release may have created higher awareness for the film lifting it to #1 in its ninth week,” said Artisan Gateway.

A lack of significant competition may also have helped. No new release title penetrated the top five chart positions.

Nationwide box office over the weekend was just $22.7 million, the fifth successive weekend of decline and a small fraction of the $144 million when “Moon Man” was released on July 29.

China continues to fight the COVID disease in a fashion that disrupts normal life – using compulsory testing, mass quarantines and lockdowns – so the discovery of new disease clusters in Chengdu and Shenzhen have hit huge cities and cinema-going audiences. One researcher this weekend calculated that places accounting for 35% of China’s GDP are now under some form of COVID restriction.

At the cinema, local animation “New Gods: Yang Jian” ranked second with a weekend score of $5.1 million (RMB35.1 million). That gives it a cumulative of $54.3 million (RMB375 million) since release on Aug. 19, 2022.

“Moon Man” placed third with $5.0 million, giving it a six-week cumulative of $426 million (RMB2.94 million).

“Minions: The Rise of Gru” earned $2.6 million (RMB17.9 million) in its third weekend at the China box office. Its cumulative now stands at $29.7 million (RMB205 million).

Hong Kong-made sci-fi fantasy “Warriors of Future” earned RMB17.7 million in fifth place. Its running total is $93.5 million (RMB645 million) since releasing five weeks agon on Aug. 5, 2022.

Artisan Gateway calculates China’s year-to-date box office at $3.57 billion when expressed in US dollars. That figure is lower than a week earlier, reflecting the weakness of the Chinese currency against the greenback.

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