China Box Office: ‘Doraemon the Movie: Nobita’s Earth Symphony’ Wins Opening Weekend, Ahead of ‘Garfield’

Two foreign-made animation movies opened on top of the mainland China box office over the latest weekend. Japanese film, “Doraemon the Movie: Nobita’s Earth Symphony” landed in first place, ahead of “The Garfield Movie,” though the match-up was not like-for-like.

According to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway, “Doraemon” earned $12.6 million (RMB89.5 million) over the three days from its Friday release. “Garfield” was released on Saturday and earned $8.2 million or RMB58.3 million.

“Earth Symphony” is the 43rd film in the franchise and was released in Japan in March. Comscore says that it now has a global box office total of $40.5 million.

Both of the animated newcomers were comfortably ahead of “The Last Frenzy,” the comedy action film that had been on top in China for the previous two weeks. In third place, it earned $4.5 million over the latest weekend. That lifted its cumulative total to $106 million since releasing on May 1.

Chinese title “Walk the Line” is set to open on June 8. Its previews this weekend were good enough for fourth place and totaled $3.3 million.

“Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In,” the Hong Kong-produced crime actioner that released on May 1, took fifth place. It earned $3.1 million for a cumulative total of $92.3 million.

Artisan Gateway calculates that the aggregate national box office over the latest weekend was $45.4 million. That lifts the year-to-date running total to $3.09 billion, some 2% lower than the 2023 equivalent.

The month of May represented stasis. Weighing in with $415 million of revenue, it represented a 32% improvement on April, but a 14% decline compared with May last year.

A trio of Chinese language films took May’s top honors: “The Last Frenzy,” “Twilight of the Warriors” and “Formed Police Unit, the latter with $71.5 million. Japanese animation “Spy x Family Code: White” was the top-performing import title in May, with $32.5 million. Hollywood’s top title in China in May was “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” with $27.1 million.