'Ready Player One' continues to lead Chinese box office

Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg's latest sci-fi film, continued to lead the Chinese box office in the week ending April 8, earning 635 million yuan ($100.7 million), China Film News reported Tuesday.

The film, featuring the adventures of five young players of a virtual reality game called OASIS in both the game and real life, took 370 million yuan, more than half of its weekly sales during the Tomb-Sweeping Festival holiday (April 5 to 7).

Released in China on March 30, the film had raked in a total of 1.05 billion yuan as of Monday, and is expected to reach 1.28 billion yuan, according to Maoyan, a major Chinese film database.

Second place was taken by Indian film Hindi Medium, which hit screens on April 4 and immediately earned 134 million yuan at the box office last week.

American sci-fi blockbuster Pacific Rim: Uprising came in third, with 54.5 million yuan over the week. It has earned over 619 million yuan since arriving at Chinese cinemas on March 23.

It was followed by The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice, an animated fantasy film co-produced by China and Russia, which pulled in nearly 43.1 million yuan in four days.

The top five was rounded out by Wrath of Silence, a Chinese thriller starring well-known actor Jiang Wu, which earned 35.8 million yuan in just five days last week. The film was rated 8.3 out of 10 on Douban, a popular Chinese film rating platform.