The September 11–13 weekend brought a milestone moment for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in China, even as Once Upon a Time in the Middle East continued its dominant run at the top of the mainland chart. In South Korea, The Odyssey extended its remarkable reign to a sixth consecutive weekend, while Curry Barker’s sleeper horror hit Obsession climbed into second place in its own theatrical run.
In China, Once Upon a Time in the Middle East held the No. 1 spot for a fifth straight frame, collecting $7.8 million (RMB 52.9 million) over the weekend. Directed by Wen Muye and starring Shen Teng, Jiang Qiming, Aarif Rahman and Omar Sherif, the war comedy-drama has now lifted its cumulative total to $318.4 million since opening on August 11. The film follows a Chinese chef who travels to the Middle East to run a restaurant and clear his family’s debts, only for the eatery to become a vital haven for civilians and orphans after regional armed conflict erupts.
Pearl River Film Group’s crime thriller V held second place in its fourth weekend, adding $4.7 million to push its cumulative total to $84.1 million.
Pearl Studio’s animated fantasy All Wishes Come True! came in third in its ninth weekend, generating $4 million. The enduring family hit has now reached a cumulative total of $283.4 million since its July 18 debut.
Universal’s The Odyssey crossed a major milestone in fourth place, adding $3.5 million for a cumulative China total of $102.9 million. Crossing the $100 million threshold puts the film well past the China runs of Oppenheimer, Tenet and Inception, leaving it second in Christopher Nolan’s local catalogue only to Interstellar, which has a lifetime gross of $122 million.
Rounding out the Chinese top five, Phoenix Legend Films’ time-bending fantasy romance My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday opened with $1.7 million over its two-day debut frame. Directed by Xiang Guoqiang and adapted from a Japanese novel by Takafumi Nanatsuki, the film stars Bi Wenjun as an architectural restorer who falls in love with a medical student played by He Landou. Mainland China’s overall weekend gross reached $28.8 million, while the 2026 year-to-date total stands at $4.26 billion, down 27.6% from the same period in 2025.
In South Korea, The Odyssey continued its voyage at the summit of the box office for a sixth consecutive weekend. According to KOBIS data, Nolan’s tentpole generated $3.9 million from 449,474 admissions over the three-day frame across 1,648 screens, capturing 51.4% of the total weekend market. The result pushed its cumulative South Korean gross to $89.6 million from 10,782,715 total admissions since its August 5 launch.
Curry Barker’s Obsession climbed to second place in its second weekend, pulling in $1.4 million from 176,479 admissions across 845 screens. The film accounted for 18.6% of the weekend market, lifting its cumulative total to $3.7 million from 474,818 total viewers, a notable jump from its opening-weekend placement of third.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day slipped to third place in its seventh outing, generating $544,123 from 84,719 admissions over the frame.
The Drama opened in fourth place, earning $223,340 from 29,512 admissions across 616 screens. Since its September 9 premiere, the release has collected $404,575 from 53,631 total admissions.
Local family road-trip drama The Journey to Gyeongju rounded out the South Korean top five, generating $124,071 from 17,206 admissions in its third weekend.
The weekend reinforced the very different rhythms of the two markets as autumn approaches. China remains anchored by the sustained strength of Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, even as The Odyssey quietly crossed a significant milestone of its own. South Korea, meanwhile, continues to be defined almost entirely by Nolan’s film, now in its sixth straight weekend at No. 1, even as Obsession’s steady climb up the chart shows genuine staying power for a genre title built on word of mouth.
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