🥋 'Kung Fu Soccer' Invigorates Chinese Box Office

Midway through the summer season, mainland China’s cinema market is experiencing a massive surge in audience engagement. The definitive champion of the weekend was the sports comedy Kung Fu Soccer, produced by Shenzhen Film Studio. The film delivered an exceptional debut, grossing ¥500.3 million ($73.6 million) in just under two days of release, according to the box office tracking agency Artisan Gateway.

The film was written and directed by Stephen Chow. For the maestro, this project marks a highly anticipated return to the sports-comedy genre more than twenty years after the release of his cult classic Shaolin Soccer. The plot follows a grassroots women’s soccer team that utilizes physics-defying martial arts techniques to fight their way to victory in a prestigious tournament.

Amid Stephen Chow’s triumph, the previous box office leader—Universal’s animated sequel Minions & Monsters—slipped to the number two spot. The animated feature added $8.1 million in its sophomore weekend, bringing its cumulative total in China to $32.4 million.

Rounding out the top three was an ambitious newcomer: the historical animated epic Three Kingdoms: The Beginning from Light Chaser Animation. The film brought in $4.7 million over three days (and a total of $6.4 million including advanced previews).

Fourth place was held by A24’s atmospheric horror hit Backrooms, which pulled in an additional $3.2 million, pushing its cumulative Chinese box office to $21.8 million. Closing out the top five was the satirical comedy Keep Real from Taopiaopiao, which earned $3 million in its second weekend, bringing its total to $18.5 million.

In aggregate, the mainland Chinese box office generated $101.2 million over the weekend. Nonetheless, the industry’s overall performance for 2026 continues to trail behind last year’s figures: the year-to-date box office currently stands at $2.74 billion, down 38.6% compared to the same period in 2025. Industry analysts remain hopeful that the success of Kung Fu Soccer will ignite a long-awaited market recovery.