Kung Fu Soccer: Stephen Chow's return is in its fourth week at 74 Malaysian cinemas

A film in its fourth week is usually down to a handful of halls. Kung Fu Soccer is at 74. Stephen Chow's first film in seven years opened in Malaysia on 13 August, and this site's listings for 3 to 9 September still have it at 74 cinemas with 834 sessions, at GSC, TGV, Mega and Amerin. The audience that waited seven years for it is still turning up.

Seven years, then a date in July

Malay Mail reported in June that the film would be Chow's first theatrical feature since The New King of Comedy in 2019. The report described a 13-second video Chow posted the day after his 64th birthday, in which he is asked when the film will be released and answers that he is working to make 10 July, and if not, 17 July. Filming began in March 2025 and wrapped that June, according to Malay Mail, and the film is written and directed by Chow as a spiritual successor to his 2001 comedy Shaolin Soccer, with the story this time following a women's football team's run at a championship.

Malay Mail names Zhang Xiaofei, Lay Zhang and Dilraba Dilmurat as the leads, with the former China internationals Zhao Lina and Li Jiayue appearing and Song Kang-ho expected in a cameo as a referee. The cast list the chains carry adds Sisley Choi and Carina Lau. The chains' synopsis names the team: the Emei women's side, written off in the first match of a tournament called the Supreme Invincible Cup, where the players' average age is over thirty, and whose run survives a betrayal from inside the squad and a crushing defeat before the final.

$214 million in nine days

The film made its date. Screen Daily reported on 20 July that its second weekend, 17 to 19 July, took $73.7 million, lifting its total to $214.3 million after nine days, and that it led a Chinese summer season that had reached $654.26 million by then, ahead of the same period in 2025. That is the run Malaysian audiences have been joining since 13 August.

A family film here, by the halls it is in

The chains' listings give it a 13 classification, a running time of 106 minutes and Mandarin audio. The halls tell you who is going: this week's sessions include TGV's Indulge and Beanieplex halls and GSC's Junior halls, which is how the chains programme a family outing rather than a late-night one, and its sessions run at every hour of the day. For a household that knows Shaolin Soccer from television, this is its follow-up, at 106 minutes and rated 13, on a screen the size it was meant for.

Before it goes

Whether it holds a fifth week depends on Thursday, when the chains reallocate halls for the new releases. A film that still has 74 cinemas after a month has usually earned a sixth, but the count only goes one way from here. The Kung Fu Soccer page lists every cinema still carrying it, and the showtimes page puts each cinema's times side by side. Both are refreshed from the chains every hour.