Once Upon a Time in the Middle East Holds China Crown for Fifth Weekend
Once Upon a Time in the Middle East stayed No. 1 at the mainland China box office for a fifth straight weekend, earning RMB52.9 million ($7.8 million) over Sept. 11-13 and lifting its running total to $318.4 million since opening on Aug. 11, according to Artisan Gateway data reported by Variety.
Five weekends on top. The film is directed by Wen Muye and stars Shen Teng, Jiang Qiming, Aarif Rahman and Omar Sherif. Box office means ticket sales, and in mainland China that crown is decided Friday to Sunday.
The chasing pack could not close the gap. V finished second in mainland China in its fourth weekend with $4.7 million over Sept. 11-13, taking its total to $84.1 million since opening on Aug. 19, according to the same Artisan Gateway count.
All Wishes Come True! placed third with $4 million in its ninth weekend in mainland China. That run, now nine weeks long, has built a cumulative total — the full amount to date — of $283.4 million since the film debuted on July 18.
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey added $3.5 million in mainland China over Sept. 11-13 to reach $102.9 million, crossing the $100 million mark in the market, as reported by Variety. That puts it second among Nolan's films in China, behind Interstellar's $122 million lifetime gross and ahead of Oppenheimer, Tenet and Inception.
The only new entry in the top five was My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday. It opened in fifth place in mainland China with $1.7 million across a two-day debut.
Overall takings in mainland China totalled $28.8 million for the Sept. 11-13 weekend. The organised national count for 2026 to date stands at $4.26 billion, down 27.6% from the same point in 2025, with finalised Monday figures confirming the slower year.
What makes this stand out is staying power. Most large releases fade after two or three weekends as audiences move on. To lead through five weekends, while rivals open and hold, is unusual in any big cinema market.
