Chow's 'Kung Fu Soccer' Opens With $74M In China
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- Kung Fu Soccer grossed $73.6M (RMB500.3M) in just two days (July 11–12) in China, per Artisan Gateway, capturing nearly three-quarters of all domestic ticket sales for the weekend.
- Maoyan, which handles China distribution, is projecting a $369M (RMB2.5BN) final gross and reports a 9.4 rating on its ticketing platform for the film.
- Stephen Chow directs but does not star — the all-female soccer squad film is headlined by Zhang Xiaofei, Dilraba Dilmurat, and Lay Zhang, with guest turns from Carina Lau, Takeru Satoh, and Jimmy O. Yang.
- Encore Films holds international rights and is rolling out the film territory-by-territory; the release is timed to the 25th anniversary of Chow's 2001 hit Shaolin Soccer and to tap FIFA World Cup 2026 interest.
- The film's outsized opening arrives against a weak 2026 China box office, which was down roughly 40% in the first half compared to a 2025 first half fueled by record-breaker Nezha 2.
- Minions & Monsters ($8.1M) and Light Chaser's Three Kingdoms: The Beginning ($4.7M debut) trailed far behind, underscoring how completely Kung Fu Soccer cleared the field in its launch frame.
Why it matters: A single film capturing three-quarters of a national weekend is unusual even for China's hit-driven market, and Kung Fu Soccer's $73.6M two-day start gives the country's battered 2026 box office its first genuine tentpole at a time when H1 grosses were running ~40% behind 2025's *Nezha 2*-boosted comparable period — if Maoyan's $369M projection holds, it would meaningfully close that year-on-year gap on its own.
