China Box Office: Peter Chan's AMERICAN DREAMS Keeps Hollywood Blockbusters at Bay

Rank	Title	Origin	20/5-26/5	Total (US$)	Days on Release
1	American Dreams in China	China	$33.30	$50.50	10
2	Iron Man 3	USA	$7.13	$118.07	26
3	The Croods	USA	$4.85	$56.29	37
4	Oblivion	USA	$4.26	$22.29	17
5	So Young	China	$3.63	$113.20	31
6	Christmas Rose	China	$2.17	$2.17	3
7	Running All The Way	China	$0.54	$0.54	3
8	Django Unchained	USA	$0.49	$2.65	15
9	Mortician	China	$0.45	$1.04	11
10	Xi Bai Po 2:Wang Er Xiao	China	$0.04	$0.07	29

The film, Chan's first since 2011's Wu Xia (aka Dragon), has pulled in a whopping US$50 million (RMB309 million) in just 10 days, pulling well clear of the competition. Second placed Iron Man 3 could only muster around 20% of Dreams' total last week, bringing its haul to US$118 million, after nearly a month on release. Fox's surprise animated hit The Croods enjoyed its sixth week in the top 5, netting another US$5 million to push its total to US$56 million. Tom Cruise starring sci-fi spectacle Oblivion continues to draw modest returns, while Zhao Wei's nostalgia juggernaut So Young rounds out the top 5, and has now taken a staggering US$113 million (RMB691 million) in just a month. 

In the bottom half of the chart, Charlie Young's directorial debut Christmas Rose opened quietly to a US$2.17 million weekend, but is already close to surpassing Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, which has only managed a paltry US$2.65 million after 15 days. Clearly Tarantino's mainland fanbase tired of SARFT's on-again off-again handling of the film's release and looked elsewhere for their uncut, untainted versions of the director's Oscar-winning Western. 

This weekend sees a bevvy of child-centric local fare hit China's screens, including three animated movies: Happy Little Submarine 3 - Rainbow Treasure, Kui Ba 2 and Xin Ba Da Li Xian Ji 2013, as well as Sun Face, a children's war movie from director Zhu Xinyun. The only Hollywood offering on the immediate horizon appears to be Antoine Fuqua's Olympus Has Fallen, while J.A. Bayona's hugely successful The Impossible should also hit the mainland soon.