$105 Million Ticket Sales on First Day

On Friday, I had blogged about the good pre-sales recorded by the war epic "The Battle at Lake Changjin 2: Watergate Bridge”. 

The movie has lived up to its blockbuster billing with a box office haul touching $105 million on Tuesday, the first day of the Chinese New Year and its opening day in mainland Chinese theaters. 

It is even speculated that the 149-minute cinematic production could eventually become the highest-grossing film of all time in China. To do that, it would have to surpass “The Battle at Lake Changjin” which was released on October 01, 2021 and, over a prolonged run in cinemas, earned $913 million (according to a Variety report dated January 31, 2022) to become the second biggest film worldwide in 2021, behind “Spider-Man: No Way Home”. 

Despite the short interval between the two outings, there is a growing belief that the sequel can outperform its predecessor.

Covid restrictions, travel patterns during this Spring Festival period and competition for eyeballs from the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics starting today, are the limiting factors, rather than other movies. 

Already, audience feedback, channeled through Taopiaopiao ticketing firm, rated the film 9.6 out of ten. Maoyan reported an identical score with 21,000 users expressing an opinion.

On Thursday, a goalless draw between Egypt and hosts Cameroon saw the former win 3-1 on penalties to set up an Africa Cup of Nations final against Senegal. A day earlier, Senegal had ousted Burkina Faso to earn the right to meet Egypt. 

Sunday's final sets up a tantalising meeting between Liverpool forwards Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane at the same venue – the Olembe Stadium in Cameroon's capital Yaounde

In fact, the final will be the first of three meetings between Egypt and Senegal over the next two months as they also contest a two-legged play-off for a place at the World Cup in Qatar.