Star Wars: The Last Jedi stumbles at China box office

Coming behind The Ex-File: The Return of the Exes

Star Wars: The Last Jedi may have been the highest grossing movie of 2017 in the UK, but the eight main instalment in the long-running science fiction series hasn’t quite taken off in China.

Released over the weekend, the Disney-Lucasfilm production opened a distant second, taking $28.7 million compared to holdover local comedy The Ex-File 3: The Return of the Exes.

That makes The Last Jedi the lowest grossing recent Star Wars movie of recent years, falling behind The Force Awakens and Rogue One which made $53 million and $33 million respectively over their opening weekends in China.

The Force Awakens went on to gross $124 million in the county, a total The Last Jedi likely won’t beat, especially considering The Rock’s Jumanji reaches cinemas this Friday.

Ironically, The Ex-File: The Return of the Exes — which tells of young bachelors whose former girlfriends exact revenge on them — was named after Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

The second instalment in the franchise was titled Ex-Files 2: The Backup Strikes Back, after Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Box office analysts have put the relative disappointments of the Star Wars franchise in China down to the country not having the same nostalgia for the series as the UK and US.

The original Star Wars trilogy was not released in China in 1977, only reaching cinemas over there in 2015 in an attempt to drum up excitement for The Force Awakens.

Outside of China — which marks the last major territory for the film to be released — The Last Jedi continues to gross millions, taking $1.2 billion worldwide so far.