Jason Statham-starring action film “Mechanic: Resurrection” comfortably opened in top position at the Chinese box office. Its score was three times greater than Tom Cruise-starring “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.”

“Mechanic 2” took $24.3 million in three days, ahead of Hong Kong-made Nicholas Tse-starring crime drama “Heartfall Arises,” which opened a day earlier on Thursday. According to data from Ent Group, “Heartfall” scored $12.0 million in four days, and $8.86 million over the Friday to Sunday period.

The strength for “Mechanic” can be written down to the action star power of Statham, who has enjoyed past success in China with “Fast & Furious,” “The Expendables” and “The Transporter.”

“Operation Mekong” Bona Film Group’s actioner, which topped the charts for the past two weeks, added a further $8.26 million. That took its cumulative after 24 days to a handsome $159 million.

“Jack Reacher 2” tagged along in fourth place on each day of release and scored just $5.91 million in three days. That is a particularly weak outcome given the recent in-person appearances by Cruise in three mainland Chinese cities and the boost it gets from having a day-and-date release simultaneous with its North American outing. The film’s per screening averages were weaker still and point to a further fall in the number of play dates in the coming days. The first “Jack Reacher” film earned $15.1 million with a release delayed until early 2013.

Steven Spielberg’s “The BFG” earned just $2.08 million in its second weekend. That is an 85% drop on its opening weekend performance and nudges the film’s 10-day total to just $20.1 million.

Lower places were taken by Japanese animation “Dragon Ball Z Resurrection F” with $1.51 million in its opening weekend, previous chart-topper “I Belonged to You” with $1.62 million in its fourth weekend and China Film Group-backed war film “The Warriors” with $1.51 million in its second weekend.

“Belonged” now has a cumulative of $118 million after 25 days. “Warriors” has $3.86 million after 10 days.