‘Jurassic World’ drops to No. 3 at China box office

A Chinese domestic film finally knocked “Jurassic World” off the top of mainland China’s box office last week, as competition from the Universal Pictures film began to wane after 26 days in theaters in China.

After dominating the mainland box office for three consecutive weeks since its June 10 release in China, “Jurassic World” generated a modest $19 million last week and took third place, according to figures from Shanghai-based consulting firm Artisan Gateway.

But the film’s cumulative box office on the mainland still reached $222 million, approaching the $224 million “Avatar” grossed in 2010. With five days left in theaters in China, “Jurassic World” has a chance to challenge the $236 million taken in by “Avengers: Age of Ultron” earlier this year and become the second-highest-grossing movie on the mainland.

Starting in mid-June, China began to implement its annual blackout of foreign movies for more than a month until the end of July, as part of Chinese authorities’ efforts to protect and nurture domestic filmmakers. “The Divergent Series: Insurgent,” the second installment in the dystopic sci-fi franchise, opened in China on June 19, almost three months after being released in theaters in the United States. And one year after its U.S. release, “Begin Again,” the musical comedy starring Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo, finally arrived in theaters in China on June 26. Both movies performed poorly on the mainland.

“The Monk Comes Down the Mountain,” a martial arts comedy directed by innovative Chinese filmmaker Chen Kaige, dominated the mainland box office by taking in $38 million in its first three days in theaters in China.

“Hollywood Adventures,” a $30-million Chinese comedy set in Los Angeles, took second place last week with $20 million, despite a 28.8% drop from the previous week. The film grossed $47 million after 10 days in Chinese theaters.

Two domestic Chinese movies, “A Time for Consequences” and “I am Somebody,” took the fourth and fifth place last week, grossing $12 million and $6 million, respectively.

Tommy Yang in The Times’ Beijing bureau contributed to this report.