"xXx: Return of Xander Cage" on the record flopped in the United States making only $41 million after its January release date. However, it seems that the Vin Diesel movie has new life in China. It's Friday unveiling in China tops at the box office which ended a run of Chinese titles being in the lead.
The Hong Kong Cast Experience On Taping
According to Variety, the movie made closely half of its North American earnings. Not bad for just one weekend. The film doles from the popularity in China of both Vin Diesel and Donnie Yen, the Hong Kong-based jam- action star who also appreciated the role in "Rogue One." "xXx" is the first major Hollywood statement since the beginning of the lunar new year holidays, which industry watchdogs normally reserve for local films.
The Film's Enormous Expenses
If you sum it up, with the presumption that this could go either way, we could be looking at a $60m weekend and (using the standard 2.17x weekend-to-final multiplier) a $131m total in said territory. This one could very well be leggier than usual, thanks to the Vin Diesel's fan base and the fact that the film stars Donnie Yen (among others). If it plays like Specter, it ends with $113m. If it plays like Rogue Nation, the xXx sequel ends its China run with $153m, or about what Kung Fu Panda 3 earned last year.
Combined with the rest of its all-inclusive grosses ($151 million worldwide-and-counting) pushes the film over the $300m mark. Inflation nevertheless, that would be better than the $277m worldwide come of the first xXx back in 2002 and would be 3.5x its $85m production budget. Obviously, it may well do more than that (or less than that), as it still must open in Japan and Poland on Feb. 24, but it just ripped the biggest opening day in China for a Hollywood import since Warcraft.
Talk about earnings, even if the Vin Diesel/Donnie Yen/Deepika Padukone/Tony Jaa/Ruby Rose/Toni Collette/etc. result is as front loaded as that video game fantasy ($46 million opening day, $220m total), it still gets to around $97m total. This one's story is not yet done, but if it does go nuts in China past a merely terrific opening day, we may get the second chapter out of this one yet. And, considering that Return of Xander Cage was better than anticipated, there might be a relative market for the film and a return adventure for its ensemble cast. And if all that happens, a big reason is because Revolution and friends kept that budget under $90m. But we'll see.
