'Tenet' rakes in 200 mln yuan in China as 'Mulan' set for release

Domestically-made war epic The Eight Hundred continued to dominate the box office in China this weekend, even after the highly anticipated sci-fi action film Tenet by Christopher Nolan hit theaters Friday.

Formally released on Aug 21, the film by Guan Hu saw its total box office revenue grow to around 2.4 billion yuan ($350 million) as of early Sunday night, data compiled by Maoyan, a movie-ticketing and film data platform, showed.

The Eight Hundred continued to lead the daily China box office chart since Friday, followed immediately by Tenet.

With an opening day box office collection of nearly 60 million yuan on Friday, Tenet raked in a total of 200 million yuan from this market as of Sunday night.

Disney's long-awaited live-action flick Mulan, based on the legend of an ancient Chinese heroine of the same name, is set for release in China on Sept 11, just one week after Tenet.

Mulan, according to folk legend, lived during a tumultuous era in Chinese history more than 1,400 years ago. She disguised herself as a man to serve in the army in place of her old father and fight for her country.

Mulan stars Liu Yifei in the title role, with Gong Li playing a powerful and dangerous witch, Donnie Yen an army commander, and Jet Li the emperor.