Battle of the sci-fi blockbusters as China’s Wandering Earth meets Hollywood’s Alita: Battle Angel
- James Cameron’s manga-based cyborg takes box office crown on its opening day in Chinese cinemas
- Patriotic themes of China’s sci-fi jewel continue to stir debate among audiences
After two weeks at the top of the Chinese box office chart, domestic science-fiction hit The Wandering Earth was knocked off its perch on Friday by the opening day take of James Cameron’s Alita: Battle Angel.
The Hollywood CGI blockbuster earned 132 million yuan (US$19.7 million) on its first day in China’s cinemas, compared with The Wandering Earth’s 60 million yuan on the same day.
The Chinese sci-fi blockbuster has raked in 3.8 billion yuan (US$566 million) in total since its Lunar New Year holiday debut, and is among China’s highest-grossing films, second only to Wolf Warrior 2.
Industry analysts and moviegoers have been anticipating the box office battle between the two films. Both are sci-fi stories with big names attached. Alita is co-produced and co-written by Cameron, director of 2009’s smash hit Avatar, while The Wandering Earth is based on a short story by China’s Hugo-winning author Liu Cixin.
Alita uses facial performance capture – the same techniques developed for Avatar – to render the protagonist completely in CGI. The cyberpunk action film is based on a 1990 Japanese manga series directed by Robert Rodriguez and features as its protagonist a disembodied female cyborg with a fully intact human brain.