China's Box Office This Week: Auteurs, Blockbusters and One Big Cast Reunion
Chinese cinemas are unusually crowded this week, with a mix of big-budget Chinese productions and imported Hollywood titles competing for screens. The most talked-about new entry is Dunhuang Heroes, a 123-minute historical epic directed by Cao Dun, best known for the acclaimed Tang-dynasty series The Longest Day in Chang’an. It stars Zhang Yu, Dou Xiao and veteran Lü Liang, and retells a frontier legend from the Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang — a setting Chinese audiences know well from history class and tourism advertising alike.
The week’s other major domestic release is Old Jianghu, a 100-minute crime comedy from directors Liu Yu and Li Taige. Its chief selling point is a rare on-screen pairing of two beloved figures from opposite ends of Chinese entertainment: veteran Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka-fai, a fixture of art-house and commercial cinema since the 1980s, and mainland comedian Yu Qian, best known as the deadpan half of the country’s most famous crosstalk duo. Wang Yinglu co-stars.
Audiences looking for something heavier have Empty Gun, a 160-minute crime drama from director Han Yan, whose previous hits include the illness romance A Little Red Flower. It stars Zhu Yilong, Tan Jianci and — once again — Tony Leung Ka-fai, who appears in two of the week’s biggest Chinese films. Han’s film currently holds a 7.2 rating on Douban, the country’s most influential film-review platform, a solid but not spectacular score by local standards.
On the imported side, the headline event is Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, a 173-minute adaptation of Homer’s epic shot across Morocco, Iceland, New Zealand and the UK. Matt Damon leads a cast that includes Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway. It sits at 8.6 on Douban, a strong score for a Hollywood title in a market where imported films often struggle to connect. Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, the 276-minute recut of both volumes, is also playing and holds an 8.7.
Meanwhile, director Wen Muye — the filmmaker behind Dying to Survive and Miracle in Cell No. 7 — returns with Welcome to Dragon Restaurant, a 140-minute comedy-drama starring Shen Teng, one of China’s most bankable comic actors. It has quickly become one of the highest-rated Chinese films in cinemas this week at 8.7. Two smaller domestic thrillers, Death Zone Footage and the mainland-Hong Kong co-production, round out the slate.
Also in theaters is a re-release of The Shawshank Redemption, which holds a remarkable 9.7 on Douban — the highest rating of any film currently showing in China. The Frank Darabont classic has long been a favorite among Chinese cinephiles, and its continued presence in cinemas says something about local viewing habits: audiences here reward emotional, character-driven storytelling as much as spectacle.
Taken together, the week’s lineup shows a market that is neither purely domestic nor purely imported. Chinese studios are betting on historical spectacle and star-driven comedies, while distributors keep importing prestige Hollywood titles — even a three-hour Nolan epic — for an audience that has grown pickier and more review-conscious. For now, the screens belong to a Tang frontier, a Hong Kong gangster, and a Greek hero, all in the same weekend.