Detective Chinatown 3 has officially beaten Avengers: Endgame for the biggest-ever single-territory opening weekend at the box office.
Writer-director Chen Sicheng’s buddy-cop action-comedy was initially scheduled for its Chinese release in late January last year. When COVID-19 shut down the Chinese movie market, Detective Chinatown 3 was delayed to coincide with the Lunar New Year period this year (a hugely lucrative period) and released Friday, February 12, 2021.
The 12-month delay certainly built hype for the film, as Detective Chinatown 3 has shattered the record for the biggest-ever opening weekend and opening day previously held by Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame.
According to Deadline, Detective Chinatown 3 grossed a truly astonishing estimated RMB 1.05B ($163M) to score the biggest, single-territory opening day ever of any movie in a single market. Avengers: Endgame, meanwhile, grossed $157 million in the same period.
Avengers: Endgame finished its opening weekend with a staggering $357 million launch. Detective Chinatown 3 finished its three-day debut grossing an estimated RMB 2.57B, which converts to $398 million, overtaking the world’s greatest superheroes by no less than $41 million in the same period
Detective Chinatown 3 was shot entirely on IMAX-certified cameras from Wanda Pictures and has also set a new record for the IMAX format in China, too. IMAX versions of the film grossed RMB 152M ($23.5M) over the weekend, making it also the best-ever debut for a Chinese IMAX release, too. The film is predicted by Maoyan, the largest ticketing website in China, to conclude its theatrical run having raked in RMB 4.84B ($750 million).
Detective Chinatown 3 is the latest instalment of the Detective Chinatown franchise which stars Wang Baoqiang and Liu Haoran as bumbling detectives Tang Ren and Qin Feng (Wang and Liu, respectively). In DC3, Tang Ren and Qin Feng have been invited to Tokyo to investigate a new mystery, bringing them into contact with a range of the best detectives from all across Asia.
