Oops! 'Looper' Makes Significantly Less In China Than Estimated After Mistake

On Sunday, the publicity firm behind "Looper" sent out a press release stating that while nothing was official, the early indication was that Rian Johnson's excellent time-travel thriller was "apparently killing it in China," earning close to $25 million. As it turns out, that wasn't actually the case.

As first reported by Deadline.com -- which, like HuffPost Entertainment had originally published the Chinese box office figures -- "Looper" didn't gross anywhere near $25 million. In fact, the film probably only pulled in $5-7 million over the weekend, making even its status as the number one film in China suspect.

The reasons for the overly aggressive box-office figures was an accounting error; apparently there was some confusion between dollars and yuan.

The film -- which was a Chinese co-production thanks its distribution deal with DMG Entertainment -- was called "frivolous" by the State Administration for Radio, Film & Television because of its time-travel plot device.

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While the Chinese grosses remain in question, "Looper" is a hit in the United States. Johnson's film earned $20 million during its opening weekend and has stayed near the top of the box office throughout this week.

For more on the discrepancy at the Chinese box office, head over to Deadline.com.

[via Deadline.com]

Richard Corliss (TIME Magazine)

Ben Sachs (Chicago Reader)

Joe Neumaier (New York Daily News)

Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times)

Christy Lemire (Associated Press)

Alison Willmore (Movieline)

Chris Cabin (Slant Magazine)

Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly)

David Edelstein (New York Magazine)

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.