"Shock Wave 2" surpasses "Wonder Woman 1984" at China box office

Writer: Heidi Hsia

"Shock Wave 2" blasts at China's box office

4 Jan – Despite previous anticipation for the movie, "Wonder Woman 1984" did not do as well as hoped at China's box office, falling second to the Andy Lau-starrer, "Shock Wave 2".

According to Variety, the Herman Yau directed stand-alone sequel of the 2017 movie made RMB 187 million (USD$28.6 million) at the box office since its release on Christmas Eve, as opposed to the DC female superhero movie, which earned RMB 151 million (USD$23 million) at the box office in the two weeks following its release.

The Hong Kong movie, which stars Andy Lau as a former bomb disposal expert, also stars one of Hong Kong's best actors Sean Lau, and Chinese actress Ni Ni.

The original 2017 movie earned around USD$ 68 million at the box office from a budget of USD$ 23 million, and earned it seven nominations at the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards - where one of its actors Philip Keung won his first HKFA Best Supporting Actor accolade.

The film stars Andy Lau and Sean Lau for the first time in 18 years

On the other hand, Guo Jingming's "The Ying-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity" and Dante Lam's "The Rescue" made it to second and third place - with the latter earning a cumulative RMB 421 million (USD$65 million) so far.

As for "Wonder Woman 1984", the movie had a better result in North America, opening to USD$16.7 million. However, it was not universally loved as its predecessor, with critics claiming that the movie lacked the same emotional impact of the first movie.

"Wonder Woman 1984" was criticised for having fewer action scenes than the original

Cinema Online, 04 January 2021