The August 28–30 weekend delivered two very different stories across Asia’s major theatrical markets. In mainland China, Once Upon a Time in the Middle East retained the top spot for a third consecutive weekend, while The Odyssey continued its remarkable run in South Korea, ruling the Korean box office for a fourth straight weekend and becoming the biggest Christopher Nolan film in the country’s history.
In China, Once Upon a Time in the Middle East maintained its commanding lead, grossing $25.6 million over the weekend. The war comedy-drama, directed by Wen Muye and starring Shen Teng, Jiang Qiming, Aarif Rahman and Omar Sherif, has now topped the Chinese chart for three consecutive weekends. Its cumulative total stands at $283.7 million since its August 11 launch. Maoyan is forecasting a final total of around RMB 2.53 billion, which would place the film among the biggest Chinese releases of the year.
Pearl River Film Group’s crime drama V held onto second place in its second weekend, adding $14.4 million to bring its cumulative China total to $59.6 million.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey remained in third place in China, earning $10 million in its third weekend of wide release. Its cumulative mainland China gross has now reached $87.4 million, making it the second-highest-grossing Hollywood film released in China this year, behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day and its $225.7 million total. The film has also continued to benefit from strong demand for IMAX and other premium formats.
All Wishes Come True! continued its impressive Chinese theatrical run in fourth place. The Pearl Studio animated fantasy added $7.9 million in its seventh weekend, taking its cumulative total to $270.3 million since its July 18 release. Directed by Mu Zhengyang and inspired by the Chinese folk tale of the Eight Immortals, the film has become one of the year’s biggest local animated successes.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day rounded out the Chinese Top Five with $2.9 million in its fifth weekend. Its cumulative China gross has reached $225.7 million, keeping it as the leading Hollywood import in the market in 2026. The overall mainland China weekend gross for August 28–30 was $103.1 million, while the market’s 2026 year-to-date total reached $4 billion, down 28.6% from the same period in 2025.
South Korea presented a very different picture, with The Odyssey continuing to dominate. Nolan’s epic earned $8.7 million from 1,058,642 admissions during the August 28–30 weekend, playing across 2,071 screens. The film accounted for an extraordinary 64.7% of the total weekend market. Its fourth-weekend performance has pushed its South Korean cumulative gross to $71.7 million, with total admissions reaching 8,864,947 since its August 5 release.
The result also makes The Odyssey the biggest Christopher Nolan release in South Korean box office history, surpassing the filmmaker’s previous benchmarks set by Interstellar and Oppenheimer.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day remained in second place in South Korea during its fifth weekend, collecting $1.9 million from 250,442 admissions. The film accounted for 14.4% of weekend business and has now grossed $65 million from 8,548,400 admissions. While Spider-Man remains ahead in cumulative gross, The Odyssey is rapidly closing the gap thanks to its stronger weekly performance.
Local family road-trip drama The Journey to Gyeongju debuted in third place with $912,660 from 124,963 admissions across 801 screens. Directed by Kim Mi-jo and starring Lee Jung-eun, Gong Hyo-jin, Park So-dam, Lee Yeon and Byun Yo-han, the film follows a grieving mother and her three daughters as they travel to Gyeongju to confront the man responsible for the death of their youngest family member. It has collected $1.3 million from 192,384 admissions since its August 26 release.
The End of Oak Street, the Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor dinosaur thriller, opened in fourth place with $476,938 from 63,472 admissions. Its total since August 26 stands at $783,473 from 107,438 admissions. Local animated film Teenieping: Legend of the Whale Heartstone completed the South Korean Top Five, adding $283,019 from 39,740 admissions.
The weekend highlights the contrasting state of the two markets as the summer season winds down. China continues to be driven by the strength of its local blockbusters, with Once Upon a Time in the Middle East firmly in control. South Korea, meanwhile, is being dominated by The Odyssey, whose fourth consecutive weekend at No. 1 has established it as Nolan’s biggest film in the country. With the autumn release calendar approaching, both markets will now enter a new phase of the 2026 theatrical year.