China’s box office produced a headline that is easy to misread. A Marvel re-release took the top spot over the Sept. 25–27 frame, but the broader market remains deeply below last year’s pace.
A familiar title leads a light weekend
“Avengers: Endgame Encore” grossed RMB83.8 million, or about $12.5 million, in mainland China, according to Artisan Gateway. The result pushes the film’s lifetime China haul to $647.8 million.
It was not a deep slate. “Once Upon a Time in the Middle East,” the long-running war comedy-drama from Dirty Monkeys, earned $7.6 million in its seventh weekend for a $341.2 million cume since its Aug. 11 release. Pearl Studio’s animated “All Wishes Come True!” added $4.6 million in its eleventh frame, reaching $296 million.
Two other titles rounded out the top five:
- The Old Fox, a crime comedy, debuted with $3.6 million.
- V, a crime thriller in its sixth weekend, added $2.8 million for a $96 million cume.
The number that matters more
Mainland China’s overall weekend grosses reached $39.9 million ahead of Golden Week. That is a thin total even by pre-holiday standards, and it fits the annual trend: 2026 year-to-date box office stands at $4.34 billion, down 29.4% from the same period in 2025.
For media planners and distribution teams, the frame is a useful reminder that a number-one finish does not equal a healthy market. A catalogue or fan-event title can top a quiet corridor with a modest gross, while the underlying comparison keeps moving the wrong direction.
What to do with the data
Treat the pre-holiday window as a placement opportunity, not a recovery signal. If you hold re-release, anniversary or fandom event titles, a quiet frame before Golden Week can deliver a chart win at a lower competitive cost. But reset annual planning around the larger gap: the holiday corridor will need to do significant work to close a 29.4% deficit.
Source: Variety
