{"id":4931,"date":"2026-07-13T10:03:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T05:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=4931"},"modified":"2026-07-13T10:03:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T05:03:06","slug":"stephen-chows-kung-fu-soccer-opens-to-74m-at-china-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=4931","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Chow&#8217;s Kung Fu Soccer Opens to $74M at China Box Office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/stephen-chow\/\" id=\"auto-tag_stephen-chow_1\" data-tag=\"stephen-chow\">Stephen Chow<\/a> is officially back! <em>Kung Fu Soccer<\/em>, the comedy legend\u2019s long-awaited <em>Shaolin Soccer<\/em> spinoff and his first film as director in seven years, dominated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/china\/\" id=\"auto-tag_china_1\" data-tag=\"china\">China<\/a>\u2018s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/box-office\/\" id=\"auto-tag_box-office_1\" data-tag=\"box-office\">box office<\/a> with a mighty $73.6 million (RMB 500.3 million) haul over the weekend, according to data from Artisan Gateway. The two-day tally accounted for nearly three-quarters of all ticket sales in the world\u2019s second-largest movie market, and nine times the takings of its nearest competitor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe film opened Saturday across mainland China, including on Imax screens, earning $38.3 million (RMB 260.6 million) on day one, according to ticketing giant Maoyan, where users have awarded it a solid 9.4 out of 10 score. Maoyan\u2019s forecast currently projects a total haul of $368 million (RMB 2.5 billion) \u2014 though such early projections routinely come under revision as a title moves deeper into its run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tChow, 64, wrote and directed the Hong Kong-China co-production \u2014 his first feature behind the camera since 2019\u2019s <em>The New King of Comedy<\/em> \u2014 but does not appear onscreen, having stepped away from acting after 2008\u2019s <em>CJ7<\/em>. The film reboots the beloved <em>Shaolin Soccer<\/em> setup around an all-female squad, following the underdog Emei team, whose players infuse martial arts into their game during an improbable run through a tournament dubbed the Supreme Invincible Cup. Zhang Xiaofei (<em>Hi, Mom<\/em>) leads the cast as the team\u2019s captain, alongside Dilraba Dilmurat as its star striker and Lay Zhang as the squad\u2019s kung fu coach. Other supporting and guest appearances range from Hong Kong screen icon Carina Lau and Japanese star Takeru Satoh to former Chinese women\u2019s national team goalkeeper Zhao Lina and U.S. comedian Jimmy O. Yang.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe China release, handled by Maoyan Entertainment, was timed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original \u2014 and to tap into this summer\u2019s FIFA World Cup fever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<em>Shaolin Soccer<\/em> smashed Hong Kong box office records upon release in 2001, becoming the city\u2019s highest-grossing local film at the time before growing into a global cult favorite.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tPlans for <em>Kung Fu Soccer<\/em>\u2018s global rollout are still in the works. Singapore\u2019s Encore Films <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/stephen-chows-shaolin-soccer-spin-off-kung-fu-soccer-1236628114\/\">acquired worldwide rights outside the mainland last month<\/a>, but the film has no U.S. release date. Encore, which handled the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/international\/\" id=\"auto-tag_international_1\" data-tag=\"international\">international<\/a> release of China\u2019s record-setting animation <em>Ne Zha 2<\/em> last year, is lining up territory-by-territory deals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tUniversal\u2019s <em>Minions &amp; Monsters<\/em>, the latest entry in Illumination\u2019s blockbuster <em>Minions<\/em> franchise, slid to second place in its sophomore weekend in China, adding $8.1 million (RMB 55.4 million) \u2014 down roughly 50 percent from its $16.4 million debut \u2014 for a 10-day local total of $32.4 million (RMB 220 million).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn third, <em>Three Kingdoms: The Beginning<\/em> \u2014 the opening installment of a planned animated saga from Light Chaser Animation, the studio behind 2023 smash <em>Chang An<\/em> \u2014 bowed to a relatively muted $4.7 million (RMB 31.7 million) from its Friday start, for a cume of $6.4 million (RMB 43.4 million).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tA24\u2019s <em>Backrooms<\/em> held in fourth with $3.2 million (RMB 21.9 million), lifting its three-week China total to $21.8 million (RMB 148 million). Directed by 20-year-old YouTube phenom Kane Parsons and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, the liminal-space horror sensation has grossed more than $330 million worldwide against a $10 million budget, making it the highest-grossing release in A24\u2019s history. The China haul is also the indie label\u2019s biggest total to date in an Asian market. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tRounding out the top five, Taopiaopiao\u2019s satirical sci-fi comedy <em>Keep Real<\/em> took $3 million (RMB 20.7 million) for an 11-day total of $18.5 million (RMB 126 million). Directed by Xing Wenxiong, the local satire stars Bai Jingting as a superhero dispatched back to his provincial hometown, where he discovers that his most fearsome adversaries are bureaucracy, banquet etiquette and small-town social politics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThrough Sunday, China\u2019s 2026 box office stands at $2.74 billion, down 38.6 percent from the same point last year \u2014 a comparison skewed by the historic early-2025 run of all-time record-holder <em>Ne Zha 2<\/em> ($2.26 billion) \u2014 though Chow\u2019s return should help narrow the deficit somewhat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen Chow is officially back! Kung Fu Soccer, the comedy legend\u2019s long-awaited Shaolin Soccer spinoff and his first film as director in seven years, dominated China\u2018s box office with a mighty $73.6 million (RMB 500.3 million) haul over the weekend, according to data from Artisan Gateway. The two-day tally accounted for nearly three-quarters of all&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-452511546.jpeg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}