What did? Fox was hoping to have Alita playing during CNY, the country's biggest movie-going day of the year. It will now open 2 weeks after that. They failed in that regard.
If what worked is that Alita is in the Top 5, it was always projected to do well in China. China and Japan are probably the only territories that movie is expected to do well.
The big question marks are Alita in December in North America, Alita in February in North America, Dark Phoenix in November (Fox: "We didn't want to go head-to-head with a four-quadrant movie in The Nutcracker" that later bombed...), Dark Phoenix in February (Can't finish movie on-time because of extensive reshoots) and Dark Phoenix in June (Lots and lots and LOTS of four-quadrant movies in the summer).