Stephen Chow is officially back! Kung Fu Soccer, the comedy legend’s long-awaited Shaolin Soccer spinoff and his first film as director in seven years, dominated China‘s 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 ticket sales in the world’s second-largest movie market, and nine times the takings of its nearest competitor.
The 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’s forecast currently projects a total haul of $368 million (RMB 2.5 billion) — though such early projections routinely come under revision as a title moves deeper into its run.
Chow, 64, wrote and directed the Hong Kong-China co-production — his first feature behind the camera since 2019’s The New King of Comedy — but does not appear onscreen, having stepped away from acting after 2008’s CJ7. The film reboots the beloved Shaolin Soccer 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 (Hi, Mom) leads the cast as the team’s captain, alongside Dilraba Dilmurat as its star striker and Lay Zhang as the squad’s 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’s national team goalkeeper Zhao Lina and U.S. comedian Jimmy O. Yang.
The China release, handled by Maoyan Entertainment, was timed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original — and to tap into this summer’s FIFA World Cup fever.
Shaolin Soccer smashed Hong Kong box office records upon release in 2001, becoming the city’s highest-grossing local film at the time before growing into a global cult favorite.
Plans for Kung Fu Soccer‘s global rollout are still in the works. Singapore’s Encore Films acquired worldwide rights outside the mainland last month, but the film has no U.S. release date. Encore, which handled the international release of China’s record-setting animation Ne Zha 2 last year, is lining up territory-by-territory deals.
Universal’s Minions & Monsters, the latest entry in Illumination’s blockbuster Minions franchise, slid to second place in its sophomore weekend in China, adding $8.1 million (RMB 55.4 million) — down roughly 50 percent from its $16.4 million debut — for a 10-day local total of $32.4 million (RMB 220 million).
In third, Three Kingdoms: The Beginning — the opening installment of a planned animated saga from Light Chaser Animation, the studio behind 2023 smash Chang An — 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).
A24’s Backrooms 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’s history. The China haul is also the indie label’s biggest total to date in an Asian market.
Rounding out the top five, Taopiaopiao’s satirical sci-fi comedy Keep Real 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.
Through Sunday, China’s 2026 box office stands at $2.74 billion, down 38.6 percent from the same point last year — a comparison skewed by the historic early-2025 run of all-time record-holder Ne Zha 2 ($2.26 billion) — though Chow’s return should help narrow the deficit somewhat.
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