Avatar 3: Fire & Ash

Avatar 3 grossed ¥6.13M/$0.88M on Thursday. Another decent day.

4th weekend projections slightly increased to $6.5-7.5M in this upcoming weekend. A2 did $15.8M on the comparable weekend.

The movie will be crossing the ¥1B mark tomorrow.

Total projections increased by a tiny ammount to $164-167M

Here's its gross chart vs Avatar 2:

Avatar 3 continues to sharply lose ground to Avatar 2.

https://i.imgur.com/50INyoE.png

and the Admissions comparison:

Avatar 3 also continues to fall behind admissions wise.

https://i.imgur.com/NzjE7Fs.png

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Daily Box Office (January 8th 2026)

The market hits ¥31.0M/$5.0M which is down -5% from yesterday and down -91% from last week.

Anaconda opening day pre-sales hit $53k for tomorrow. Opening day projections downgraded again to just $0.18-0.19M opening day.

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Province map of the day:

https://imgsli.com/NDQwNTM4

The Fire Raven dominates.

In Metropolitan cities:

Avatar 3: Fire & Ash wins Beijing, Chongqing and Shanghai

Back to the Past wins Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Wuhan

The Fire Raven wins Hangzhou, Nanjing and Suzhou

City tiers:

Avatar 3: Fire & Ash climbs to 2nd in T2. Zootopia 2 climbs to 3rd in T3.

Tier 1: Back to the Past>Avatar 3: Fire & Ash>The Fire Raven

Tier 2: The Fire Raven>Avatar 3: Fire & Ash>Back to the Past

Tier 3: The Fire Raven>Back to the Past>Avatar 3: Fire & Ash

Tier 4: The Fire Raven>Back to the Past>Zootopia 2

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#	Movie	Gross	%YD	%LW	Screenings	Admisions(Today)	Total Gross	Projected Total Gross
1	The Fire Raven	$1.18M	-6%	-85%	76978	0.22M	$35.93M	$55M-$57M
2	Back to the Past	$0.93M	-14%	-87%	69685	0.18M	$29.25M	$43M-$45M
3	Avatar 3: Fire & Ash	$0.88M	-6%	-92%	49168	0.13M	$141.89M	$164M-$167M
4	Zootopia 2	$0.61M	+7%	-96%	65859	0.11M	$603.76M	$620M-$630M
5	Escape from The Outlands	$0.21M	-5%	-87%	23404	0.04M	$10.40M	$11M-$12M
6	Unexpected Family	$0.17M	-5%	-90%	21643	0.03M	$4.67M	$6M-$7M
7	Gezhi Town	$0.12M	-2%	-44%	6948	0.03M	$55.38M	$57M-$58M

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Pre-Sales map for tomorrow

https://i.imgur.com/uiwpGsk.png

Avatar 3 dominates pre-sales for tomorrow.

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IMAX Screenings distribution

Avatar 3 will continue to dominates IMAX screenings tomorrow.

	Movie	IMAX Screeninsgs Today	IMAX Screeninsgs Tomorrow	Change
1	Avatar 3: Fire & Ash	2433	2606	+173
2	Zootopia	151	179	+28

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Avatar 3

Screen Distribution Split: Regular: $97.08M , IMAX: $34.22M , Rest: $11.06M

WoM figures: Maoyan: 9.4, Taopiaopiao: 9.5 , Douban: 7.6

Scores continue to hold.

#	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	Total
Second Week	$5.17M	$11.04M	$7.58M	$2.23M	$2.30M	$6.06M	$11.68M	$121.94M
Third Week	$9.86M	$4.69M	$1.54M	$1.08M	$0.96M	$0.94M	$0.88M	$141.89M
%± LW	+91%	-57%	-80%	-52%	-58%	-84%	-92%	/

Scheduled showings update for Avatar 3 for the next few days:

Day	Number of Showings	Presales	Projection
Today	49733	$142k	$0.89M-$0.90M
Friday	48461	$235k	$1.27M-$1.49M
Saturday	379465	$233k	$2.87M-$3.36M
Sunday	24731	$85k	$2.35M-$2.40M

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Zootopia 2

Zootopia 2 very good today once again increasing from yesterday. The weekly drop is sharp but expected from last weeks New Years Day.

7th weekend projections slightly increased again around $6-8M

Here's its $ gross chart vs Endgame:

Zootopia contibues to nibble away at Endgames $ gross and will aim to cross at least $610M through this weekend leaving another $22-ish to go.

Do note that the total projections above for now do not factor in the extension. However with the extension i think the chances of overtaking Endgame's $ gross have increased massively.

https://i.imgur.com/8YmQJL4.png

Screen Distribution Split: Regular: $560.00M , IMAX: $32.75M , Rest: $11.00M

WoM figures:

Maoyan: 9.7 , Taopiaopiao: 9.7 , Douban: 8.4

#	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	Total
Sixth Week	$5.92M	$14.87M	$11.40M	$5.20M	$0.78M	$0.59M	$0.55M	$602.58M
Seventh Week	$0.57M	$0.61M						$603.76M
%± LW	-90%	-96%	/	/	/	/	/	/

Scheduled showings update for Zootopia 2 for the next few days:

Day	Number of Showings	Presales	Projection
Today	66298	$78k	$0.56M-$0.60M
Friday	67226	$150k	$1.03M-$1.11M
Saturday	63738	$104k	$2.92M-$3.35M
Sunday	40257	$29k	$2.34M-$2.75M

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Other stuff:

The next Holywood release is Anaconda on January 9th followed by Return to Silent Hill on the 23rd.

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Release Schedule:

A table including upcoming movies in the next month alongside trailers linked in the name of the movie, Want To See data from both Maoyan and Taopiaopiao alongside the Gender split and genre.

Remember Want To See is not pre-sales. Its just an anticipation metric. A checkbox of sorts saying your interested in an upcoming movie.

Not all movies are included since a lot are just too small to be worth covering.

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January

Movie	Maoyan WTS	Daily Increase	Taopiaopiao WTS	Daily Increase	M/W %	Genre	Release Date	3rd party media projections
Take Off	39k	+1k	8k	+1k	30/70	Drama/Comedy	17.01	$2-5M
Return to Silent Hill	56k	+6k	25k	+4k	46/54	Horror/Thriller	23.01	$7-14M
Busted Water Pipes	19k	+2k	47k	+2k	44/56	Crime/Comedy	23.01	$4-15M

Preliminary Spring Festival 2026 Lineup:

With the Spring Festival now less than 1.5 months away its time we start looking at what might the Holiday season have in store for us. Given the rather late start next year(3 weeks after 2025) the confirmations and marketing are also happening latter than last year. At this point most of the limeup was already confirmed last year.

This year however for now only one has been confirmed.

Pegasus 3 is gonna be coming for Spring Festival. The sequel to Pegasus 2 which made $400M+ in the Spring Festival 2 years ago. Its only natural this movie will target the same Holidays and not settle for a lesser date.

The new Boonie Bears called Boonie Bears: The Hidden Protector is also basicaly confirmed in all but the literal sense. These movies come out every year for the Holidays and have for over a decade. These movies are cheap but well made and have consistenly been making $100M+ if not $200M+ for the last few years. With no Ne Zha 2 this time around it should do better than last years $118M gross.

Confirmed:

Movie	Maoyan WTS	Daily Increase	Taopiaopiao WTS	Daily Increase	M/W %	Genre	Release Date	3rd party media projections
Pegasus 3	264k	+10k	173k	+9k	44/56	Drama/Comedy/Sports	17.02	$419-500M

Rumored:

Which brings us to the rumor pile.

Zhang Yimou is rumored to return to the Holiday season after his successfull Article 20($340M) in 2024 and Full River Red($670M+) in 2023 with Silent Awakening. A National Security-Themed movie.

Unfortunately it seems Jia Lings new movie The War of Light will not be finished in time for the trio of 2024's top grossing directors to reunite.

Blades of the Guardians starring Wu Jing is also likely coming and will likely be the wildcard of the year. Its hard to know what a martial arts movie like this can do. Especialy before seeing its quality and production standards.

Battle of Penghu is also one of the rumored movies. This one has a trailer already and could release for the Spring Festival. If not its likely gonna come later in the Summer or National Day. Either way I don't think its the right movie for a Holiday period like this nor do i think in general it really has big potential. Wouldn't be surprised if the only thing big about it will be its budget.

Panda Plan 2 meanwhile seems lie cannon fodder for me. The first one barelly did over $40M in the 2024 National Day Holidays. Although there is a world where as one of the only comedies it can differentiate itself enough to capture audiences that might not be willing to go see stuff like Silent Awakenings and Blades of the Guardians.

Movie	Maoyan WTS	Daily Increase	Taopiaopiao WTS	Daily Increase	M/W %	Genre	Release Date	3rd party media projections
Panda Plan 2	212k	+1k	37k	+1k	33/67	Comedy/Action	17.02
Silent Awakening	17k	+1k	299	+2k	23/77	Drama	17.02
Blades of the Guardians	31k	+1k	254k	+2k	40/60	Action/Martial Arts	17.02
Battle Of Penghu	16k	+1k	30k	+1k	48/52	War/Action/History	17.02
Boonie Bears: The Hidden Protector	25k	+2k	31k	+5k	46/54	Animation/Fantasy	17.02