It was a good thing for the Chinese distributors of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets that they received the first possible release date after the end of China’s summer blackout of imported films, because their picture proved woefully unable to withstand meaningful competition.

After a surprisingly robust first weekend’s gross of $29 million from August 25th through 27th, and a solid $41 million opening 5-day cume that exceeded the picture’s total 6-week North American gross of $39 million, Valerian crumpled like a defenseless French village the moment Christopher Nolan’s WWII drama Dunkirk landed established its Chinese beachhead. While Dunkirk scored a better-than-expected $30 million 3-day tally, the Luc Besson-directed sci-fi fantasy Valerian plunged by 84 percent from its first Friday gross to its second, and surrendered 80 percent in its second weekend. That’s a far shakier hold than Valerian experienced in North America, where it shed 62 percent in its second frame.

Though its obscure (for Chinese audiences) story and setting and its convoluted plotting might have worked against its box office prospects, Dunkirk was boosted by director Nolan’s sizable Chinese fan base, and by relatively strong word-of-mouth. Dunkirk’s audience rating on fan site douban.com is 8.4, versus the 7.1 rating received by Valerian and 7.2 for Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver. The latter picture never got out of second gear in the PRC, revving up just $15.9 million in revenue after nine days in release there.

Overshadowing all of these pictures is the indefatigable Wolf Warrior 2, the violent homegrown action movie that has held the number one or number two rank at China's multiplexes for nearly every single day of its $845 million 38-day run. Now in its seventh weekend, the Jacky Wu-starring mega-hit will take in over $8 million for the current frame, and could possibly become only the second film in history to reach a $900 million gross in a single territory, after Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Looming on the near horizon and threatening to upend everything is Sony-Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, which is set to open on Friday, September 8th. The superhero movie is seeing brisk advance ticket sales in the Middle Kingdom, and based on those pre-sales I expect the reboot to earn at least $125 million in its PRC run. Given that its worldwide gross now stands at almost $750 million, a strong China performance could push Homecoming past the $890.8 million total of Spider-Man 3 to make it the biggest-grossing film in the franchise’s history.