Jackie Chan took the Chinese box office / “Super Mario” failed
Jackie Chan won the Chinese box office with his new movie, leaving “Super Mario Brothers” behind.
Charso Press: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jackie Chan can still revive the box office after 60 years of working in the movie industry. This action movie legend added another successful chapter to his book of achievements this past weekend with the release of his new film in China. He won this competition with his latest action film “Ride On” in competition with the best-selling Japanese anime “Suzumi” and the Hollywood animation “Super Mario Brothers” from Universal Pictures.
In Ride On, directed by Larry Young and produced by Alibaba Pictures, Chan plays an old stuntman who has run up a lot of debt and is now losing his horse, which he pledged as collateral. The film grossed $11.7 million in its 3-day opening weekend in China, surpassing the $8 million of “Suzumi” and the low $6.3 million opening of “Super Mario Bros.”
Jackie Chan’s new film has quickly reached 30 million dollars worldwide in a few days. The screenplay of this movie was written by Larry Yang, who is a fan of Jackie Chan and wrote the screenplay after watching a documentary about kung fu stunts. Jackie Chan did not accept the first draft of the script and asked him to spend time rewriting it, and Yang did a complete revision within 5 days and sent it to Chan once again and met with his approval.
The shooting of this movie started in the fall of 2021 and ended in November 2022.
While the animated Super Mario Bros. set several records over the long Easter weekend in the US and worldwide, it was a commercial disappointment in China. Meanwhile, the score he got on Chinese social networks was quite good, scoring 9.4 on Maoyan and 9.5 on Tao Piao Piao.
Universal had planned to release the film and by releasing it on Wednesday, April 5, which was a Chinese national holiday and festival, it intended to draw more numbers to theaters.
In North America, Super Mario grossed $204.6 million over the five-day weekend. Before the corona pandemic, Hollywood movies with extensive advertising usually sold as much in China as in America.
Meanwhile, Japanese anime master Makoto Shinkai’s “Suzumi” continues to sell well in China, taking in another $8 million in its third weekend to bring its total to $102.6 million. The film is expected to set a new record for Japanese animation sales in China.