LOS ANGELES, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese box-office hit "Ne Zha," the highest-grossing animated film ever by China, brought in more than 880,000 U.S. dollars in its second weekend in North America, pushing its North American cume to 2.67 million dollars.
According to studio figures released by U.S. analytics firm Comscore on Monday, the film adapted from an ancient Chinese myth grossed 888,868 dollars from 135 locations through Sunday with a modest 6,584 dollars per-theater average, climbing from No. 19 to No. 15 on the weekend box-office chart.
Well Go USA Entertainment released the fantasy film in Mandarin with English and Chinese subtitles in select 3D IMAX theaters across the United States and Canada on Aug. 29, followed by other theaters on Sept. 6. The film collected 1.486 million dollars from 66 locations with a strong per-theater average of 22,528 dollars in its North American debut weekend.
Earlier this month, "Ne Zha" rose to the second place in the box office for all films ever screened on the Chinese mainland, second only to "Wolf Warrior II." Data from China's movie-ticketing platform Maoyan as of Monday showed that "Ne Zha" grossed a total box office of around 4.8 billion yuan (674 million U.S. dollars) in the 46 days since its July 26 debut on the Chinese mainland.
Directed and written by Yang Yu (also known as Jiao Zi, meaning dumpling) in his feature film directorial debut, the home-grown animation features a popular young hero from ancient Chinese legends and literature such as the literary classic "Journey to the West."
Born with unique powers, Ne Zha finds himself to be an outcast who is hated and feared. Destined by prophecy to bring destruction to the world, the boy must choose between good and evil in order to break the shackles of fate and become the hero he wants to be.
