"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" opened at No. 1 Friday in China with $9.7 million, a sharp decline from the January 2016 debut of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." With Thursday previews, that figure inches up to $10.4 million.

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Variety notes Chinese theaters were relatively quiet Friday, bringing in just $15.9 million nationwide from all films, possibly due to heavy smog enveloping parts of the country.

By comparison, "The Force Awakens," the first film in Disney/Lucasfilm's "Star Wars" trilogy, grossed $27.8 million on its Saturday opening in China, on its way to a $53.2 million weekend. The movie ended its run in that country with $124 million, which was viewed as somewhat disappointing. However, its performance may have just been an early sign of the impending slowdown of the world's second-largest film market. As highlighted last week, the growth of the Chinese market plummeted from 48 percent in 2015 to just 3.7 percent percent last year.

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As of Friday, "Rogue One" has earned $898.5 million worldwide after 22 days of release, and has the second-highest domestic gross in the "Star Wars" franchise, behind "The Force Awakens."

Set just prior to the events of 1977's "Star Wars," the film follows a ragtag group of Rebels who undertake the dangerous mission to steal the design plans for the Galactic Empire's planet-destroying new superweapon, the Death Star.

Directed by Gareth Edwards, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen and Forest Whitaker.