Regional cinema continued to dominate theatrical business across Asia this weekend as major local-language releases powered strong box office numbers in India, China, and South Korea. While Hollywood titles like The Mandalorian and Grogu expanded globally, several Asian productions significantly outperformed imported releases in their respective markets through strong word-of-mouth and audience momentum.
India Box Office
In India, Drishyam 3 emerged as the biggest story of the weekend after a massive theatrical debut led by Mohanlal. Directed by Jeethu Joseph, the Malayalam thriller reportedly earned around ₹55–57 crore India net ($6.6–6.8 million) during its extended opening weekend while pushing its worldwide gross beyond ₹141 crore ($16.9 million) within just a few days of release.
The film also crossed the ₹100 crore ($12 million) global milestone in only three days, becoming one of the fastest Malayalam films ever to achieve the feat. Strong advance bookings, franchise familiarity, and audience curiosity surrounding the return of Georgekutty played a major role in the film’s theatrical momentum. Overseas markets, particularly the GCC region, also contributed heavily to the film’s worldwide performance.
Meanwhile, Karuppu continued its extraordinary theatrical run and remained Tamil cinema’s biggest blockbuster of 2026. The Suriya starrer earned another ₹35 crore India net ($4.2 million) during its second weekend, pushing its India net collection to approximately ₹148.85 crore ($17.9 million) and its worldwide gross to nearly ₹239.4 crore ($28.7 million).
Released in Telugu as VeeraBhadrudu, the film has emerged as a major pan-South Indian success while ending a long dry spell at the Tamil box office. The movie recently became the first film in Suriya’s career to cross ₹100 crore ($12 million) in Tamil Nadu alone and also surpassed the lifetime worldwide earnings of Singam 2 to become the actor’s highest-grossing film ever.
The film has continued to post huge occupancy numbers even deep into its second week while setting several BookMyShow ticketing records. Overseas markets including North America, the GCC region, and the United Kingdom have also delivered career-best numbers for the actor.
Marathi historical epic Raja Shivaji also created history at the Indian box office after officially becoming the first Marathi film ever to cross the ₹100 crore ($12 million) India net milestone. Backed by Jio Studios, the film earned another ₹3.14 crore ($376,000) during its fourth weekend while continuing to maintain strong occupancies across Maharashtra.
The Marathi version remains the primary driver of the film’s success, though the Hindi version has also contributed significantly to the overall collections. The film has sold more than 2.5 million tickets on BookMyShow, while cities such as Mumbai and Pune continued posting strong occupancies even in the fourth week of release.
On the other hand, new Hindi release Chand Mera Dil opened below expectations with around ₹11 crore ($1.3 million) India net during its opening weekend despite a wide release. Disney’s The Mandalorian and Grogu also posted a soft launch in India with approximately ₹3.8 crore ($455,000) India net.
China Box Office
In China, local-language family drama Dear You continued its remarkable theatrical run by retaining the No. 1 position during the May 22–24 weekend. The film earned another RMB309.4 million ($45.5 million) during its fourth weekend of release, pushing its cumulative total to approximately $158.1 million.
Directed by Lan Hongchun and starring Li Sitong and Wang Yantong, the low-budget emotional drama has become one of China’s biggest word-of-mouth breakout successes of 2026.
The story follows a Chaoshan woman whose later years are disrupted after her debt-ridden grandson travels to Thailand searching for his rumored billionaire grandfather, eventually uncovering a hidden love story spanning decades. Strong emotional resonance and audience reactions have helped the film maintain exceptional theatrical momentum even in its fourth weekend.
According to Comscore, Dear You ranked as the third highest-grossing film globally over the weekend.
Disney’s The Mandalorian and Grogu debuted in second place in China with $5.3 million despite becoming the highest-grossing film worldwide overall during the weekend frame. The performance once again highlighted the continued struggles of the Star Wars franchise in the Chinese market compared to local-language productions.
Suspense thriller Vanishing Point added another $3.2 million to reach a strong cumulative total of $67.4 million. Romantic comedy Be Yourself earned $1.1 million during the weekend, while romantic drama Crossing a Dawn debuted with $700,000 over its two-day opening frame.
China’s overall weekend box office reached approximately $59.2 million, while the country’s year-to-date theatrical revenue now stands at around $2.24 billion.
Korea Box Office
South Korea witnessed one of its biggest theatrical weekends of the year as filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho returned to the zombie genre with Colony.
Fresh from premiering in the Midnight Screenings section at the Cannes Film Festival, the action-horror spectacle debuted at No. 1 with a huge $9.4 million opening weekend from more than 1.28 million admissions. The film captured an enormous 71.85% share of the Korean weekend market.
Distributed by Showbox, the survival thriller has already grossed around $10.9 million since launching theatrically on May 21. The film marks Yeon Sang-ho’s return to large-scale zombie horror nearly a decade after the worldwide success of Train to Busan.
The explosive launch of Colony helped nearly double the Korean theatrical market compared to the previous weekend. According to Comscore, the film ranked as the eighth highest-grossing title globally during the frame.
The opening pushed Michael down to second place in Korea, where the musical biopic earned another $1.9 million and reached a local cumulative total of $7.9 million.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie took third place with $372,363, followed by The Devil Wears Prada 2 with $335,728. Japanese animated title Gintama: Yoshiwara in Flames opened in fifth place with $191,216 during the weekend frame.
South Korea’s total weekend box office reached approximately $13.1 million, almost doubling from the previous weekend’s $6.8 million largely due to the strong launch of Colony.
