Sherlock Special Tops Box Office In China

Andrew Reynolds is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride has become an international hit after topping the box office in China over the weekend and taking the No.2 spot in Korea.

Deadline reports that 1.7 million people in China turned out to see Sherlock in cinemas taking $5.39m (£3.67m) In ticket sales.

In 2014, 98 million people tuned in to the third series, and the show has hundreds of millions of viewers across more than 200 territories. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show has such a huge following that the People’s Daily, the official news organ of the Communist Party, has praised Sherlock for its “tense plot, bizarre story, exquisite production, excellent performances.”

The screenings are of a deal between BBC Worldwide and Shanghai Media Group to show the episode, plus an extra 25 minutes of footage not shown on TV.

In Korea, box office receipts totalled $5m (£3.41m) on 735 screens, with the BBC saying it outsold Star Wars: The Force Awakens four to one.

And in China, where Star Wars is still an unknown quantity – hence an aggressive marketing campaign from Disney leading up to its Jan 9th release, which, amongst its highlights included a Stormtrooper takeover of the Great Wall –  it was very much pitched as ‘Sherlock V Star Wars‘.

Ningqi Jiang, a spokesperson for SMG Pictures, says she believes there is plenty of room in the booming China market, now the world’s second largest, for both pictures to thrive.

“Sherlock has a very different target audience in China — they are younger, more devoted fans and frequent moviegoers,” Jiang says, adding, “The two movies are so different and China’s market is big enough for two English-language movies.”

The special – which saw Benedict Cumerbatch and Martin Freeman as Holmes and Dr Watson respectively transported back to Victorian London – also played in UK cinemas on Friday night, with 18,500 fans turning up despite the episode airing at the same time on BBC1. Deadline estimate the takings for Friday to be $330K (just over £482k). It has received a cinema release in more than 20 countries, including the US, Mexico, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.

Broadcast on New Year’s Day, The Abominable Bride attracted 8.4 million viewers, making it the most watched show over the festive period. It was, however, down about 800K viewers in the overnights as compared to the Season 3 premiere in January 2014 which remains the series highest-rated episode to date.

BBC Worldwide head of drama brands Sally De St Croix said:

“BBC Worldwide are thrilled that fans across the world have been enjoying the Victorian-themed Sherlock special. Following on from a strong performance on BBC1, the show has now seen multi-million-dollar success at the Korean and Chinese box offices – an outstanding achievement for a British TV show.”

The fourth series is due to start filming later this year.

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