Despicable Me 2 finally opened in China and managed to take in $4 million and analysts expect the film to earn $13.8 million for the weekend, which would be good enough for the No. 1 spot.
According to Variety, the numbers are surprising for the sequel as the first film never hit Chinese theaters.
If analysts are right and the film takes in around $13.8 million, then it would have opened better than fellow animated film Monsters University did in 2013 with $13.2 million.
Deadline reports that Despicable opened in 3,000 screens across the country.
If the film's numbers remain strong for the weekend, it will be the fourth-best grossing animated film of all-time internationally with about $567.1 million. Despicable Me 2 could have earned $935.1 million worldwide by the end of the weekend.
Universal Pictures wasn't sure how the movie would do opening six months after it did everywhere else and with the film already on DVD in the U.S. David Kosse, president said the studio is "thrilled to have the movie go in, but we had to acknowledge that over six months, people had seen it."
To overcome Internet piracy, Universal hired well-known Chinese actors, such as Deng Chao for Gru. They did a "proper, great Mandarin dub with local voices."
image: Amazon