Everyone expects the likes of Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: Episode IX to be among the biggest box office hits of the year, but there's already been a record-breaker elsewhere that you probably haven't heard of.
That's about to change though as Netflix has now picked up The Wandering Earth, China's first-ever blockbuster sci-fi.
The movie set a new record for the biggest-ever first week in the territory, taking a whopping $349 million across its first seven days. That tally makes it the second-biggest seven-day haul in a single territory ever, behind the $390m taken by Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the US (via Forbes).
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Its performance is even more impressive given it was released over the busy Lunar New Year weekend alongside seven other new movies. The Wandering Earth didn't even debut at number one, but instead rose daily from fourth spot to reach the top spot by the end of its first weekend.
Based on a short story by Liu Cixin (who was China's first-ever winner of esteemed science fiction writing prize the Hugo Award), The Wandering Earth takes place in the near future where humanity's future is threatened by the impending explosion of the sun.
A plan is formed to move Earth out of the Solar System, using massive engines and Jupiter's gravity on the journey, only for it to – surprise, surprise – go terribly wrong and set Earth on a collision course with Jupiter. Whoops.
Much like the Earth in the movie, The Wandering Earth hasn't really slowed down since its release on February 5.
After 16 days of release, the sci-fi is up to a stunning $604m in China, making it the second biggest movie ever in the territory. Action-thriller Wolf Warrior 2 is the biggest movie of all time in China with $854m and The Wandering Earth won't catch that, but it's still not a bad return for a movie with a reported budget of $50m.
"Audiences from over 190 countries will soon meet The Wandering Earth on Netflix. I am glad that our movie can reach to people from different parts of the world," said director Frant Gwo.
"To my surprise, this movie also resonate outside Mainland China. Netflix will translate it into 28 languages, enabling more viewers to enjoy it regardless of geographical and linguistic differences. I hope they will like it."
The Wandering Earth doesn't yet have a confirmed Netflix release date.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
