China Box Office: 'Running Man' Overtakes 'The Hobbit' as 'Hunger Games' Opens Big

'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1' grossed nearly $10 million on its opening day in the world's second-largest film market.

Running Man displaced Peter Jackson's hobbits at the top of the Chinese box office charts last week, while The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, the latest installment in Lionsgate's YA film franchise, took nearly $10 million in its opening day.

A feature spin-off from a popular local reality TV show, based on a Korean format, Running Man took $24.49 million for a cume of $61.96 million after 10 days, with 275,238 screenings and 4.88 million admissions, according to data for the week to Feb. 8 from the research group Entgroup.

The movie features Wang Baoqiang (Lost in Thailand), Li Chen (Aftershock), Zheng Kai (So Young), Angelababy (Love on the Cloud) and the Korean singer and TV personality Kim Jong-Kook.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies took another $20.11 million for a cume of $113.89 million after 17 days, with 141,785 screenings and 3.08 million admissions.

The animated children's movie Boonie Bears: Mystical Winter, the second installment of the popular domestically produced franchise, added $14.6 million to its cume of $31.65 million after 10 days, with 137,665 screenings and 2.63 million admissions.

Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 grossed $9.87 million on its opening day, with 40,382 screenings and 1.64 million admissions. The Jennifer Lawrence-starrer shrugged off a series of delays to open strongly in the world's second-biggest film market.

Mockingjay's performance is all the more remarkable given that pirates have had nearly three months to flood the market with illegal downloads.

The movie showed on 28 percent of all screens in China, and was shown in 2D and also a special 3D version for the China market.

Catching Fire, the previous installment in the franchise, took nearly $30 million in China, but it suffered from having to go head-to-head with Gravity.

Behind that was Crazy New Year's Eve, an ensemble piece directed by Eva Jin, Pan Anzi, Zhang Jiarui and Song Di, aimed squarely at the Chinese New Year holiday on Feb. 19.

Li Xinman's romantic comedy One Night Stud notched up a cume of $4.63 million after its opening weekend.

Another animated children's feature, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf – Amazing Pleasant Goat, was behind in sixth place after adding $3.94 million for a cume of $8.18 million after nine days.

Behind that in eighth place was An Inspector Calls, which made $3.92 million in its first three days.

Angelina Jolie's Unbroken took $2.99 million in its first full week in China for a cume of $5.4 million. Rounding out the top ten was Taiwanese director Chen Zhengdao's galloping-grandma movie Miss Granny, which added $1.17 million to its haul for a cume of $59.01 million after 32 days.

Twitter: @cliffordcoonan