Cyber ​​Heist», a crime thriller directed by hong kongWong Hing-fan (“I’m Livin’ It”) and scripted by Soi Cheang (aka Cheang Pou Soi), took the top spot at the mainland Chinese box office this weekend.

It grossed a very modest $6.2 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. But that was enough to earn the quietest weekend since January’s Lunar New Year holiday season.

“Cyber ​​Heist” stars Aaron Kwok as a cybersecurity engineer who develops a state-of-the-art firewall capable of repelling online attacks against the global financial system. But he doesn’t realize that in doing so, he has entered an even more dangerous minefield. The pic also stars Lam Ka-tun and Simon Yam.

The film overtook the previous weekend’s winner “A Guilty Conscience,” which grossed $5.1 million in its second frame. The courtroom drama, which is now the highest-grossing Hong Kong film in its home market, now also has a cumulative $17.8 million from the mainland after ten days.

The arrival of “Cyber ​​Heist” also meant that two Hong Kong-produced pictures topped the mainland box office charts in successive sessions. This appears to continue a trend where Hong Kong’s most stylish and commercial headlines continue to perform on the mainland. China, but the converse does not hold. Films from mainland China struggle to make a big impact at the box office in Hong Kong, where a full range of local, Chinese and imported titles are available to viewers.

Cheang is a prolific and diverse filmmaker, who recently saw his “Mad Fate” premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. It will be the subject of a retrospective at the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival, which begins at the end of this month.

“Cyber ​​Heist” was produced by Entertaining Power, Media Asia and Sil-Metropole, a company specializing in Hong Kong-China co-productions. International rights sales are handled by Hong Kong Edko Movieswhich will enter next week’s FilMart and will represent three of the top four films currently airing in China: “Cyber ​​Heist”, “A Guilty Conscience” and Zhang Yimou’s “Full River Red” which previously topped the charts.

Last weekend, “Full River Red” ranked fourth with a $3.1 million earning in its seventh weekend after its release. Its total is now $654 million. “The Wandering Earth 2” took third place with a take of $4.4 million. His running total is now $575 million.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” jumped from third to fifth place. It grossed $3.0 million, an increase that brings it to a cumulative $37 million after three weekends of release. Although the figure is low compared to the film’s predecessor in the franchise, Artisan Gateway notes that it was China’s top import title in February and the sixth best-performing of the month.

Last weekend’s $29 million domestically brought the Chinese box office total to date to $2.06 billion, nearly 7% ahead of 2022 and only 9% below the same point. in 2019. But to return to pre-pandemic levels (2019 enjoyed a total of $9.1 billion theatrically for the full year in mainland China) at a steady level, the Chinese box office needs to generate average weekly revenue of over $170 million. Current performances are still a long way off.