[2017.02.02] JOURNEY TO THE WEST: THE DEMONS STRIKE BACK TOPS LUNAR NEW YEAR BOX OFFICE

courtesy of singtao.com

courtesy of mingpao.com

Hong Kong film has been considered thriving in the Year of the Rooster. Although this Lunar New Year films did not have big stars or super productions, after the four day Spring Festival holiday Hong Kong film box office looked decent. The Mainland Spring Festival film box office even had fierce competition.

The Stephen Chow Sing Chi produced and Tsui Hark directed JOURNEY TO THE WEST: THE DEMONS STRIKE BACK opened on the Lunar New Year's Day with HK$5.01 million to be the Spring Festival Hong Kong box office champion. From second to fourth place were the Hollywood film RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER with HK$ 2.78 million, MOANA with HK$ 2.22 million, the Golden Globe Award big winner LA LA LAND with HK$ 2.04 million, and the Lawrence Cheng Tan Shui directed and starred with Chrissie Chau Sau Na Hong Kong film YUPPIE FANTASIA 3 (SIU NAM YUN JAU GEI 3 ji NG GA YAU HEI) made in fifth with HK$ 1.66 million. The four day holiday cumulative box office as of the 31st was still the Chow Sing Chi and Tsui Hark collaboration JOURNEY TO THE WEST: THE DEMONS STRIKE BACK with HK$ 16.6 million, RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER with 16.26 million, LA LA LAND with HK$ 12.97 million, MOANA with HK$ 11.88 million, YUPPIE FANTASIA 3 with HK$ 8.1 million. Only the third and fourth place switched places.

In the Mainland, Chow Sing Chi and Tsui Hark's JOURNEY TO THE WEST: THE DEMONS STRIKE BACK on the Lunar New Year's Day made 365 million RMB. It broke the Chow Sing Chi produced and directed MERMAID (MEI YUN YU)'s single day box office of 276 million RMB last year for the Chinese film single day box office record. In second was the Wang Baoqiang starred BUDDIES IN INDIA with 193 million RMB. In third was the Jackie Chan and Aarif Rahman (Lee Chi Ting) starred KUNG FU YOGA with 141 million RMB. After the four day holiday, the Mainland cumulative box office top three already had changes. JOURNEY TO THE WEST: THE DEMONS STRIKE BACK accumulated 907 million RMB, KUNG FU YOGA advanced to second place with 559 million RMB. BUDDIES IN INDIA fell to third with 464 million RMB. Jackie Chan's KUNG FU YOGA on the Lunar 4th rose to the single day box office champion with 152 million and defeated Chow Sing Chi's JOURNEY TO THE WEST THE DEMONS STRIKE BACK and its 148 million RMB. The future box office would depend on whether Jackie Chan would endure or Chow Sing Chi would be able to defend.