“#Aquaman” comfortably dominated the Chinese box office for the second weekend. It dropped 47% in its second week, but again accounted for the majority of all cinema business nationwide.

The watery superhero movie earned $53.9 million, according to data from exhibition and distribution consultancy Artisan Gateway. It played on some 25,000 screens, or nearly half of those available in China. That included 559 IMAX screens, delivering $5m, and lifting the film’s IMAX China cumulative to $18.4m. After 10 days on release, its cumulative total has swelled to $189 million.

Japanese animated feature “My Neighbor Totoro” was the weekend surprise package. Released for the first time in China, some 30 years after its bow in Japan the Hayao Miyazaki-directed, Studio Ghibli-produced crowd pleaser earned $13 million in three days. It is assumed that the film was widely pirated in the three prior decades.

It comfortably beat Indian fact-based drama “Padman,” about a man whodevises a means of locally producing low-cost sanitary pads for women. It is the second issues-based film starring Akshay Kumar to be released in China this year, following “Toilet – Ek Prem Katha,” which earned $14.3 million. “Padman” managed $5.2 million.

American animation, “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch” opened with a weak $2.8 million in fourth place. Tech-driven mystery thriller, “Searching” pulled in $2.7 million in fifth place.

Artisan Gateway reports the aggregate weekend box office at $83 million, including fees charged by online ticketing agencies. That keeps the year-to-date total at $8.47 billion (inclusive of fees), or some 10.8% ahead of last year.