China’s Sept. 11–13 box office followed a familiar pattern: local titles locked down the top three positions while a Hollywood tentpole crossed a quiet milestone. Dirty Monkeys’ war comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in the Middle East held No. 1 for a fifth straight weekend with RMB52.9 million ($7.8 million), according to Artisan Gateway.
Directed by Wen Muye and starring Shen Teng, the film has lifted its China cume to $318.4 million since its Aug. 11 opening. Its story of a Chinese chef whose Middle East eatery becomes a civilian refuge during armed conflict is the kind of high-emotion, star-driven local title that continues to control screen time.
Top five at the mainland China box office
- No. 1: Once Upon a Time in the Middle East — $7.8 million weekend; $318.4 million cume.
- No. 2: V — $4.7 million weekend; $84.1 million cume.
- No. 3: All Wishes Come True! — $4.0 million weekend; $283.4 million cume.
- No. 4: The Odyssey — $3.5 million weekend; $102.9 million cume.
- No. 5: My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday — $1.7 million two-day debut.
Pearl River Film Group’s crime thriller V added $4.7 million in its fourth frame, while Pearl Studio’s animated fantasy comedy All Wishes Come True! earned $4.0 million in its ninth frame. Both are long-running local holdovers that have stayed in theaters well past their opening weekends.
The Odyssey crosses a China import milestone
Universal’s The Odyssey placed fourth with $3.5 million, enough to push its China cumulative total to $102.9 million. That moves it past the China runs of Oppenheimer, Tenet and Inception, and leaves it second in Christopher Nolan’s local catalog only to Interstellar at $122 million.
The milestone matters because it shows an import can still reach nine figures in China even in a soft market. But the scale is limited: The Odyssey accounted for roughly 12% of the total weekend gross, while the top three local films together delivered about $16.5 million.
Phoenix Legend Films’ My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday opened in fifth with $1.7 million over two days. The time-bending fantasy romance, adapted from Takafumi Nanatsuki’s Japanese novel, is a smaller counter-programming play in a market that is currently favoring familiar local talent and high-concept domestic stories.
What media teams should watch
Mainland China’s overall weekend gross reached $28.8 million, and the 2026 year-to-date box office stands at $4.26 billion — down 27.6% from the same period in 2025. The top-line holdovers can obscure that contraction, but the annual trend is the more important planning input.
For release and media planners, the takeaway is to budget conservatively against a shrinking theatrical base, treat local holdovers as the primary competition, and view Hollywood imports as upside rather than a guaranteed China growth lever. Event films can still find a ceiling; the floor across the wider market is lower than last year.
Source: Variety
