List of Top 10 Box-Office Dark Horse Movies in China 2021

What Are Box-office Dark horse Movies in Chinese?

黑马电影 [Hēi mǎ diàn yǐng]

Usually, if some competitor or candidate who is little known by others but unexpectedly wins a game or competition, such a competitor or candidate will be called a dark horse in the game or competition.

通常来说，若一些少为人知的竞赛者或候选人出乎意料地赢得了一场比赛，这样的人常被称为是这场赛事中的黑马。

With regard to the film industry, the saying Dark Horse Film, or the Box-office Dark Horse, usually means the film which seems not to be the favorite one before the premiere but finally gets unexpected box-office succeed. The phrases Dark Horse Film or Box-office Dark Horse turned into Chinese should be read and written as 票房黑马 (piào fáng hēi mǎ), or the similar 黑马电影 (hēi mǎ diàn yǐng), since the dark horse just corresponds with the Chinese word 黑马.

在电影行业，也存在类似的说法。那些在首映前不被看好却意外获得超出预期的票房回报的电影，在中文里被称为“票房黑马”或“黑马电影”，因为 Dark horse 恰好指的是汉语里的“黑马”一词。

Top 10 Chinese Box-Office Dark Horse Films 2021

2021 年度中国十大黑马电影 [Hēi mǎ diàn yǐng]

In the following story, we came up with a list of ten biggest box-office dark horses from the Chinese theatrical films in 2021, according to their final box office earnings versus the average values of media predictions. Now start to read the list below, to discover the 2021 China's box-office dark horse films, ranked from the small percentage of unexpected box office to the biggest.

以下，我们对比了 2021 年中国主要院线电影的综合票房收益和上映前的票房预测平均数据，整理出了排在前十位的 2021 年度中国十大票房黑马电影。现在阅读以下故事，了解这十部 2021 年的中国票房黑马，按预期外票房收益所占百分比数据由小至大排列。

Dark-Horse 10. "Raging Fire" (2021)

HK Police Thriller Movie with 30% Unexpected Box-office Boost

黑马第十：《怒火 • 重案》[Nù huǒ zhòng àn]

The final directorial work by Benny Chan, the famous HongKong directer who died a year before the film premiere, showcased a typical action and police thriller movie style involving the fierce gunfires, sensational explosions, and plots of the confrontations between a righteous cop and an untamed rager, who is the cop's former mentee, brother-like colleague as well as the pre police-rising-star. With an unexpected 30% of box office succeed from Chinese mainland market, the "Raging Fire" film has finally achieved RMB 1.329 billion yuan （approx. US $197 million）box office earnings and became the newly Top Highest-grossed HongKong movie of China films surpassing the previous "Shock Wave 2" (2020).

香港著名导演陈木胜导演生前执导的最后一部电影，延续了一贯香港警匪动作片中，激烈的枪战与爆破场面，警匪双雄对峙，兄弟恩仇难泯的高燃情节。于2021年暑期档上映后，以超出 30% 的预期实现最终 13.29 亿（人民币）票房，正是越过 2020 年的香港影片《拆弹专家 2》成为中国影史上港片票房新冠。

Dark-Horse 9. "The Battle at Lake Changjin"

War Epic with 31% Unexpected BO Boost

黑马第九：《长津湖》[Cháng jīn hú]

Actually, this film did not leave people too much suspense on the box office before its debut on big screens. And so it turned out as was expected. Grossed with a total of RMB 5.765 billion yuan (approx. US$ 899 million) box office, the film "The Battle at Lake Changjin" finally surpassed the "Wolf Warriors II" (2017) and became the highest-grossed film in China of all time as well as of the year.

准确来说，作为 2021 年的中国大片之首，从首映开始前，并没有多大悬念。其最终票房结果也不出预料，《长津湖》第一部已经创造 57.65 亿（人民币）的票房成绩，一举夺得 2021 年中国大陆地区票房年冠影片的称号。

Dark-Horse 8. "Warm hug" (2021)

C-Comedy with 35% Unexpected BO Boost

黑马第八：《温暖的抱抱》[Wēn nuǎn de bào bào]

A basically qualified comedy movie screened in the New Year Celebration Movie Season, brought us an adapted story that an OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) man got his life into a mess since he met a heart-warming girl and a perfect doctor.

作为一部合格的喜剧电影选择在跨年档上映，讲述的是一位强迫症男与率真女、及一位妙手神医邂逅后，上演一段阴差阳错的喜剧故事。改编自韩国电影《计划男》。

Dark-Horse 7. "Love Will Tear Us Apart"

Romance with 46% Unexpected BO Boost

黑马第七：《我要我们在一起》[Wǒ yào wǒ men zài yì qǐ]

This Chinese romantic movie was dapted from a long-content but high-score love story shared on the Chinese social platform eight years before, titled "My Ten-years-long-term Girlfriend Will Get Married Tomorrow" which is an effective summary of the movie. After screening, it became a standard long-term love story on the 520 romantic day that stimulated lots of tears. An additional succeed of the movie fell on the music that it outputted one of the most popular song of the year as movie's theme song, which has been picked into the performance on the 2022 Chinese Spring Festival Gala.

改编自 8 年前中国热门社交平台上分享的一则高分长帖爱情故事，名字即概括了故事的核心主题《与我十年长跑的女友明天要嫁人了》。成功搬上大银幕后，成为了这一年 520 档期里的一发爱情长跑催泪弹。此外，电影的另一大贡献是诞生了一首 2021 年最受欢迎的电影插曲，并登上了 2022 年中国央视春晚的舞台。

Dark-Horse 6. "Sister" (2021)

Family C-Movie with 47% Unexpected Box-office Boost

黑马第六：《我的姐姐》[Wǒ de jiě jie]

Caught in the family straits after losing both parents' lives, a young sister had to face her little brother of a large age gap. Their relationship, striving for living and growing up, were bursting with much conflicts and tears, which finally brought about both succeeds on box office and social topics.

故事讲述了在遭遇父母双亡的极端家庭困境下，年轻姐姐面对与自己年龄差距悬殊的同胞弟弟所面临的生活困境、成长挣扎与选择，故事冲突与泪点并存，也由此取得票房与话题性上的双赢结局。

Dark-Horse 5. "Endgame" (2021)

C-Crime with 52% Unexpected BO Boost

黑马第五：《人潮汹涌》[Rén cháo xiōng yǒng]

After extending the Chinese title of "Sheep Without A Shepherd", the 10th of Top Best Chinese Films 2019, it brought us a new adaption based on the almost-20-years-old American story "John Q", but blended with localized creation, reversed and suspense plot of the same series. Not surprisingly, it became the Chinese top-grossing Christmas & New Year Celebration film in 2021.

《误杀2》在延续 2019 年十强中国电影之一《误杀》作品名的基础上，演绎了一个全新的改编故事。剧情在 20年前旧作《迫在眉睫》的美式故事基础上进行了中国本土化改编和表达，加入误杀系列一致的悬疑元素和反转情节。该影片成为 2021 年圣诞及贺岁档的中国票房冠军。

Dark-Horse 4. "Cliff Walkers" (2021)

Zhang Yimou's Work with 53% Unexpected Box-office Boost

黑马第四：《悬崖之上》[Xuán yá zhī shàng]

This Chinese spy war movie is directed by the noted Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, with an adaption based on true history story. Four Chinese secret agents got exposed to the puppet Manchukuo regime due to the traitor when they were carrying out a secret mission titled "Утро (the Russian word for dawn)" to rescue the only survivor suffering from the human experimentation, they have to carefully deal with the enemy spies and continued the mission under a tough circumstance.

由中国著名大导张艺谋执导的、基于真实故事创作的中国谍战类电影，讲述了在苏联受训的四名共产党特工回国执行代号为“乌特拉行动”的秘密任务时遭遇叛变，在与当时伪满洲组织特务周旋下仍艰难尝试继续执行任务的故事。

Dark-Horse 3. "Hi Mom" (2021)

Family C-Comedy with 65% Unexpected Box-office Boost

黑马第三：《你好，李焕英》[Nǐ hǎo lǐ huàn yīng]

"Hi, Mom", the new blockbuster directed by Chinese famous comedy actress Jia Ling, a Chinese new year film blending laughing with tears, has deeply touched countless hearts of Chinese audiences by the mutual mom-daughter bonding and great performances of crews. The film has portrayed impressive soft tender imagery of a common Chinese mother. Its warm and vintage-style scenes have easily made people recall the past life of the '80s in China. All these factors pushed the film to be the Champion of the Chinese New Year films 2021.

这部由中国著名的喜剧演员贾玲跨界作为女导演执导的电影《你好，李焕英》，凭借直击人心的母女亲情、众演员们出色的演绎，塑造了感人至深的中国女性温柔形象，重现了中国 80 年代生活的温暖怀旧风，笑点与泪点并集，打动了无数中国观众，成功晋级为 2021 年中国春节档电影票房冠军。

Dark-Horse 2. "Breaking Through The Darkness" (2021)

Chinese Anti-Corruption with 82% Unexpected Box-office Boost

黑马第二：《扫黑 • 决战》[Sǎo hēi jué zhàn]

The rare Chinese film focusing on the subject of "Crackdown on Gang Crimes" was based on the true crime cases. A group of crime-crackdown task force involved into the investigation on local organized crimes but got trapped by the backstage manipulator. Withstanding the heavy pressure and complications, they finally revealed the dark forces behind and brought those responsible to justice.

罕见的以“扫黑除恶”为题材，基于真实的犯罪案件，讲述了扫黑专案组组长带领组员深入当地调查，突破层层阻扰，最终揭开幕后黑恶势力及犯罪保护伞的故事。

Dark-Horse 1. "Be Somebody" (2021)

Suspense Comedy with 87% Unexpected Box-office Boost

黑马第一：《扬名立万》[Yáng míng lì wàn]

This is the biggest black horse of Chinese films in 2021 that put the story in the midst of earlier Shanghai's film industry under the background of successful war of resistance against imperial Japan. Buffing with rich elements like the age of Republic of China, the popular script-killing game-style and suspense murder, the film was well performed and achieved a big box-office succeed with low budget.

一部将故事背景放在了抗战胜利后的旧上海电影圈里，叠加“民国”、“剧本杀”及悬疑犯罪等多重元素包装下的一部黑色幽默喜剧电影，成功完成了“小”成本博得“大”票房的任务，成为 2021 年中国电影中最大的一匹黑马。

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