According to studio figures released by U.S. analytics firm Comscore on Monday, "Better Days" brought in 989,536 dollars from 70 locations with a strong per-theater average of 14,136 dollars during its first three days of release in North America.
The film is ranked 18th among 70 films at the North American weekend box office. It also came in second on Comscore Specialized Top 10 Weekend Box Office Actuals Chart for films released in fewer than 1,000 locations, only behind Amazon's drama film "Honey Boy."
"Better Days" was released Friday by Well Go USA Entertainment in Mandarin with English subtitles in selected theaters in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and a few other major cities across the United States and Canada.
Jason Pfardrescher, executive vice president of Well Go USA, told Xinhua before the film's North American premiere that he "definitely feel American moviegoers would enjoy this film as its message is socially relevant in American culture."
He pointed out that it's possible for the film to cross over to a mainstream audience though the marketing is geared toward the Chinese diaspora in North America.
Starring actress Zhou Dongyu and the boy band TFBoys' member Jackson Yee, the film by Hong Kong director Derek Kwok-Cheung Tsang puts the spotlight on school bullying. In the film, Chinese girl Chen Nian, who is single-mindedly preparing for the national college entrance exam, becomes a target of relentless bullying and then forms a strong friendship with small-time criminal Xiao Bei; the two are dragged into a murder case of a teenage girl where they are the prime suspects.
"Better Days" has been a box-office hit in the Chinese mainland, grossing more than 1.4 billion yuan (about 200 million U.S. dollars) over the past 18 days, according to the Chinese film database Maoyan.
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