Chinese animated film Nezha surpasses lifetime earnings of Avengers: Infinity War, Furious 7 in PRC

China’s surprise local animated film Nezha has set the cash registers ringing at the Middle Kingdom box-office with a mind-blowing running total of 3.75 billion yuan ($535 million) from 19 days of theatrical run. The film topped the mainland box-office chart for the 19th consecutive day and has currently become the fourth highest-grossing film of all-time in China. Now, Nezha is the third top-grossing release of 2019 in the PRC after local sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth ($690 million) and Disney/Marvel’s box-office juggernaut Avengers: Endgame ($614.3 million). [caption id=“attachment_7180991” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from Nezha. Image via Twitter[/caption] Maoyan, China’s popular movie ticketing and box-office database platform, has pegged the lifetime forecast of Nezha at a humongous 4.625 billion Yuan ($659 million) on 14 August. If Maoyan’s prediction becomes true over the next few days, Nezha will dethrone Avengers: Endgame to become the third top-performing title ever in the Chinese mainland. Earlier, Maoyan projected the lifetime earnings of Nezha as 4.74 billion yuan ($671 million) which would have made the Yangyu-directed film the second highest-earning release ever in the Middle Kingdom, only behind all-time box-office champion, Wolf Warrior 2. For the weekend of 9 to 11 August, Nezha surpassed Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs And Shaw ($60.8 million) at the international box-office by hauling in a total of $66.5 million. Hobbs and Shaw is all set to hit Chinese theatres on 23 August, and it will be interesting to see whether it would outshine other films in the franchise such as The Fate of the Furious and Furious 7. In the last one week, Nezha outgrossed 2018 Chinese New Year blockbusters such as Operation Red Sea (3.65 billion yuan) and Detective Chinatown 2 (3.39 billion yuan). At the end of the fourth weekend, Nezha is expected to join the 4 billion yuan club in China after Wolf Warrior 2, The Wandering Earth and Avengers: Endgame.  According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, Nezha is a mythical male figure created in ancient China and is widely known as the incarnation of a lotus. Currently, Nezha holds a fantastic score of 8.6 on 10 from 7,36,932 viewers on Douban, China’s popular social networking platform, and movie database. It is rated better than 97% of comedy films and 89% of animated movies on Douban. The Maoyan score for Nezha stands at an excellent 9.7 out of 10 from 2.27 million viewers. In its first opening weekend, Nezha raked in $91.5 million and broke the earlier opening frame record for an animated film set by Despicable Me 3($65.2 million). With $33.53 million cumulative total on its second day of theatrical release, it also set a new record for the biggest single-day gross for an animated title by surpassing Hollywood sensation Zootopia. Nezha just took eight days to topple Zootopia to become the biggest animation title of all-time in China. According to a recent audience satisfaction survey conducted by China Film Archive, Nezha earned a whopping 87.5 points outs of 100 with the fourth-highest score ever behind such movies as Wolf Warrior 2 and Dying to Survive. It is also the best-rated film out of all 26 animated films ever surveyed by China Film Archive. While American animated titles such as Despicable Me 3, Kung Fu Panda 3, Zootopia and Coco have traditionally enjoyed greater box-office success in the PRC, 2015 local blockbuster Monkey King: Hero is Back remains the highest-earning homegrown title with 956 million yuan. Now, the monstrous success of Enlight Media’s Nezha has revived the market for local animated films in mainland China. 20 local animation studios in China and more than 1,600 people have worked on the film, which has made moviegoers in the Middle Kingdom sit up and take notice of the country’s burgeoning animation workforce.