Over ¥2 billion box office! Furious 7 becomes best selling movie in China

“Furious 7,” the latest installment in the “Fast and Furious” series from Universal Pictures, has broken global box-office records at a dizzying pace since its release in North America in early April.

今年4月初在北美上映之后，环球影业最新推出的《速度与激情》系列电影的第七部，《速度与激情7》，已经以令人目眩的速度打破了全球票房纪录。

But over the past weekend, the high-octane action thriller starring Paul Walker and Vin Diesel notched one of its most impressive titles yet: China’s most successful movie ever.

然而在刚刚过去的周末，这部由保罗·沃克和范·迪塞尔主演的火爆的惊险动作大片，赢得了最令人印象深刻的头衔：中国市场上史上最成功的影片。

“Furious 7” took in an additional $72.7 million in China over the weekend, bringing its 15-day total box-office earnings in the country to more than $324 million, according to the research group EntGroup. This is well over the $62 million brought in by the franchise’s previous installment in China in 2013.

根据研究机构艺恩咨询的数据，《速度与激情7》上周在中国又斩获了4.5亿元人民币的票房收入，令上映15天的总票房收入达到了逾20.1亿元，远远超过了该系列的上一部电影2013年在中国的票房收入。

Despite a later release date in China, the film, directed by James Wan, has been even more successful in Chinese theaters than in those of the United States, where it has brought in $320 million in cumulative box-office receipts, according to Rentrak, which compiles box office data. Overall ticket sales in China are expected to receive a lift during the May 1 holiday weekend.

尽管在中国的上映日期较晚，这部由温子仁执导的影片在中国影院比在美国获得了更大的成功。据统计票房数据的Rentrak称，该片在美国总共获得了3.2亿美元的票房收入。这部电影在中国的总票房收入预计还将在五一节假期的周末再获提振。

“While it’s not unprecedented for films that do moderately well in North America to perform better in China than in their home territory,” wrote Rob Cain on his website China Film Biz, citing the 2013 Guillermo del Toro film “Pacific Rim” as an example, “never before has a bona fide American smash hit exceeded its own domestic gross in a foreign territory.”

“尽管在北美反响一般的电影在中国比在本土表现得更加出色的例子并非头一次出现，”甘敏中在其网站“中国电影业务”上写道，并以2013年吉勒莫·德尔多罗执导的《环太平洋》为例，“但从没有一部货真价实的美国大片在海外的票房收入超过了国内。”

“This is truly uncharted territory,” he added.

“这是真正的无人涉足的领域，”他还说。

With its whopping box-office take, “Furious 7” seizes the China crown from “Transformers: Age of Extinction” from Paramount Pictures. After its June 2014 release, the “Transformers” sequel directed by Michael Bay raked in $319 million in China, setting a new box-office record and surpassing James Cameron’s “Avatar,” the previous Chinese record-holder.

凭借着超高的票房收入，《速度与激情7》从派拉蒙影业的《变形金刚：绝迹重生》手中夺得了在中国市场上的桂冠。在2014年6月上映之后，由迈克尔·贝执导的这部《变形金刚》电影在中国吸金3.19亿美元，超过了中国市场的上一个纪录保持者詹姆斯·卡梅隆的《阿凡达》，创下了新的票房纪录。

The runaway success in China of the fourth “Transformers” installment has been attributed in part to efforts by the film’s producers to reach out to Chinese audiences. While it did not rise to the level of an official co-production, the film featured many Chinese elements, in terms of product placement, actors and filming locations, as well as a targeted marketing campaign.“Furious 7,” however, did not contain any obvious Chinese elements, but it did have the support of China Film Group, the country’s largest state-run movie distributor. The Chinese movie industry behemoth was an investor in the film and is said to have taken a nearly 10 percent stake.

《变形金刚4》的巨大成功一定程度上要归功于这部电影的制作方打动中国观众的种种努力。虽然没有上升到官方合拍的程度，但这部片子中突出了许多中国元素，包括产品植入、演员和拍摄地点，而且还进行了一次有针对性的营销活动。然而，《速度与激情7》没有任何明显的中国元素。不过，它的确得到了中国最大的国有影片发行商中国电影集团的支持。这家中国电影业巨头是该片的投资方之一，据称拿到了近10%的股份。

“Furious 7” had one of the most widespread theater releases in Chinese movie history, taking up about 70 percent of China’s screens with more than 90,000 showtimes per day, according to China Film Biz.

《速度与激情7》的上映规模在中国电影史上屈指可数。据“中国电影业务”网站介绍，该片占据了全国大约70%的银幕，每天放映9万多场。

Contributing to the outsize success of “Furious 7” was the relative lack of competition for Chinese moviegoers. Trailing far behind “Furious 7” was a slate of domestic films including “The Left Ear,” the directorial debut of the Taiwanese singer and actor Alec Su. “The Left Ear” was the second-highest-earning film last weekend, with $31.5 million after opening on Friday.

促使《速度与激情7》大获成功的另一原因是中国电影观众的其他选择相对匮乏。该片将几部国产片远远甩在了后面，包括台湾歌手兼演员苏有朋的导演处女作《左耳》。周五上映后，该片斩获1.95亿元人民币，是上周票房排名第二的影片。

“Ever Since We Love,” a romantic youth film starring Fan Bingbing and Han Geng, took third place with $10.2 million.

由范冰冰和韩庚主演的青春爱情片《万物生长》将6350万元收入囊中，位居第三。

DreamWorks’ 3-D computer animation buddy comedy, “Home,” was in fourth place with $8 million over the weekend, following its opening on Friday.

同在上周五上映的梦工厂的3D电脑动画片、兄弟情喜剧《疯狂外星人》在周末期间收获4970万元，位列第四。

In China, as in the rest of the world, moviegoers were especially drawn to real-life subplot of “Furious 7″: the untimely death of Mr. Walker. On Douban, a popular online Chinese social networking website, many of the nearly 55,000 film reviews left by users mentioned the actor, who died in a car crash in 2013 while the movie was still being filmed.

和在世界其他地方一样，中国的观影者尤其被《速度与激情7》与现实一致的一个情节所吸引：沃克的最终离去。在颇受欢迎的在线中文社交网站豆瓣上，用户发表了近5.5万条影评，其中很多都提到了这名演员。沃克死于2013年的一场车祸，当时这部电影还在拍摄期间。

“Paul Walker made up for the whole movie,” read one user review.

“保罗·沃克一人撑起整部剧，”其中一条评论写道。

“Thank you to the film for giving everyone a satisfactory ending,” read another, referring to the film’s conclusion in which Mr. Walker’s character drove off into the sunset. “I couldn’t help but cry when I saw that white car in the mountains in the distance.”

“感谢电影给了所有人一个圆满结局，”另一条评论写道。这指的是在片子的结尾，沃克扮演的角色在夕阳中驾车离去。“可是看着那辆白色汽车在群山中飚远仍然忍不住热泪盈眶。”

The user posted, in English: “For Paul, it’s never goodbye…”

这名用户还用英语写道：“For Paul, it's never goodbye…”（意为：对保罗来说，永远不会再见。）