China Box Office: ‘Crossing’ Debuts at No. 1 as ‘Toy Story 5’ Places Second
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- Bona Film Group's "Crossing" opened at #1 with $11.7 million (RMB79.3M), a historical war epic commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Long March, directed by Xu Zhanxiong with Liu Ye as Mao Zedong and Wang Lei as Zhou Enlai.
- Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 5" slipped to #2 in its second weekend with $7.4 million, pushing its cumulative China total to $29.6 million — a steep drop from its opening frame.
- A24's "Backrooms" debuted at #3 with $5.3 million, the only other new entry to crack the top five.
- Jinant Film & TV's "Dear You" held at #4 in its ninth weekend with $4.8 million, extending its lifetime gross to $281.8 million — the weekend's standout performer by total earnings, a Teochew-dialect family drama about a Chaoshan matriarch.
- Damai Entertainment's "I Know Who You Are" placed #5 with $2.6 million, a Feng Xiaogang-directed adaptation starring Lei Jiayin and Hu Ge, bringing its cumulative to $14.6 million.
- Mainland China's 2026 box office stands at $2.54 billion year-to-date, down 40.5% from the same period in 2025, with this weekend's overall grosses totaling $38.3 million.
Why it matters: The 40.5% year-to-date revenue collapse reframes "Crossing's" $11.7 million debut as a sign of market weakness rather than triumph — a figure that would have been mid-tier in pre-pandemic years. Local productions like "Dear You" sustaining $281.8 million over nine weekends prove Chinese audiences still turn out for culturally specific stories, but Hollywood tentpoles and new Chinese releases alike are struggling to fill seats.
