Jump to content

A Marvel Fanboy

China Box Office Thread | Oppenheimer-August 30

Recommended Posts



4 hours ago, charlie Jatinder said:

Hmm. Expecting the biggest CNY film to do well. That's rookie mistake. :redcapes:

 

Opening day runner up or 2nd runner up are what we need to look for.

 

The "most anticipated CNY release end ups grossing less than a smaller film with better WOM" curse probably gets broken this year, or only holds up spiritually (if TBALC 2 has terrible trajectory); I think the gap in anticipation between TBALC2 and whichever comes second & third  is probably too big to overcome. 

Edited by NCsoft
Link to comment
Share on other sites











5 hours ago, Issac Newton said:

The Battle At Lake Changjin II /Water Gate Bridge has easily become the most anticipated film of Chinese New Year. With Over 500K anticipated fans awaiting according to Maoyan.

Most Anticipated Release of Spring Festival /Lunar New Year:

 

1️⃣ Water Gate Bridge : 525K

2️⃣ Nice View : 486K

3️⃣ Advancing of ZQ : 436K (yet to be confirmed for CNY)

4️⃣ Only Fools Rush In : 420K

5️⃣ Too Cool To Kill : 372K

 

1st Runner Up will be Nice View but 2nd One will be known on OD.

  • Thanks 1
  • Knock It Off 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites





From China Daily 'Battle' contends for Spring Festival audiences

 

"The Battle at Lake Changjin II", the sequel to China's all-time highest-grossing blockbuster, has been announced to open on the first day of the Year of the Tiger, Feb 1.

 

Still being shown in some domestic theaters, "The Battle at Lake Changjin" - the first installment - has grossed more than 5.7 billion yuan ($896.3 million), selling over 124 million tickets.

 

A few hours after the announcement, the sequel quickly topped the voting list for new movies netizens most want to watch on live tracer Beacon, signaling the franchise's popularity.

 

Zhang Rongdi, an analyst with Beacon's research department, predicted the Spring Festival holiday - arguably China's most fiercely contended period for the box office - could quite possibly play host to a super blockbuster, if 2021 and 2016 are any indication. Each champion of the two years respectively accounted for 45 and 40 percent of the overall ticket receipts during the seven-day Spring Festival vacation.

 

Currently, a total of 10 new movies have been announced for release during the approaching holiday.

 

The other four of the top five are, in order, "Nice View", "Only Fools Rush In", the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf franchise's latest outing "Dunk for Future", and "Sharpshooter".

 

From Deadline Hollywood : What Will China Do?

Spoiler


While many of the 2022 titles would typically be major draws in China, the coming year is murky. The market has seen strong recovery at turnstiles, but may not be quite so open to Hollywood in 2022. Last year already saw fewer than 20 revenue-sharing movies let in versus 30-plus in 2019.

 

Indeed, China was mercurial in 2021, and some of this is attributable to it having been the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party, which put the focus on local so-called “propaganda” movies like the $900 million-plus grosser The Battle at Lake Changjin. That film’s sequel, Water Gate Bridge, is expected this year, which is again important politically as Chinese President Xi Jinping looks ahead to the Communist Party National Congress in the fall. The China Film Administration has already committed to promoting 10 domestic tentpoles per year going forward.

 

But there were other forces at work in 2021 — including what appears to be the targeted blackballing of Marvel. Not one film featuring a Marvel character — from Black Widow to Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home — was granted a 2021 date. (No Way Home nevertheless crossed $1 billion global without China and may get to $1 billion overseas as well, sans the PRC — there is also still the possibility it gets a surprise delayed release.)

 

There are varying theories as to why this happened, and equally there is frustration. A recent op-ed in CCP mouthpiece the Global Times accused Hollywood of having “distorted values of ‘political correctness’,” and “improper use of Chinese elements in their films.” It also pointedly asked: “Should the Chinese film authority allow… films to enter just because they are Marvel films?”

 

On the Marvel issue, some believe it may be linked to Black Widow’s depiction of communism, while some think the slate of films was a no-go as soon as years-old comments allegedly made by Eternals helmer Chloé Zhao surfaced back in the early part of the year. Similarly, 2017 comments by Shang-Chi star Simu Liu also came to light in September, evidently further complicating matters in the mind of the government, and the propaganda department which oversees film.

 

USC professor and China expert Stanley Rosen tells Deadline, “Years ago, it was said, ‘If you’re a production company or a studio, in terms of what China thinks of you, you’re only as good as your worst film. You do one film that China doesn’t like, and none of your films are shown in China’.“He points to the example of 1997 and MGM’s Richard Gere-starrer Red Corner, Disney’s Martin Scorsese-helmed Kundun and Sony’s Seven Years In Tibet. At the time, the Chinese film market was “the same size as Peru,” says Rosen, and had very few screens and a collapsed box office. Still, “they banned all of those studios even in that situation. If they could do that in 1997, they can certainly do that today as they’re a lot better off.”

 

Rosen suggests, “When you look at Eternals and Shang-Chi, it’s very clear. No Way Home is not clear; it would have been a popular movie. That, I think, has to do with U.S./China relations. Everything that is done by the Chinese government and Communist party is interpreted in China, as well as outside China, as a signal — and if they released No Way Home before the end of the year, it might have been interpreted as a signal that ‘We know the market is down. (People) might think we’re desperate.’ I think they could have done it quite easily and justified doing it, just as well as justifying not doing it. But they decided, ‘Why throw a bone to Hollywood at this point?’”

 

One international distribution executive called the move not to date No Way Home in China “offensive,” adding, “it’s so unfair they don’t let it in and then everybody’s pirating it anyway.” The issue of intellectual property theft is indeed a concern. The exec continues, “There has to be some diplomacy, and the studios need to start engaging the U.S. government and trying to figure out how to fix it.”

 

Does it matter to China that it left potentially hundreds of millions of dollars on the table by not releasing the Marvel movies? While an oft-heard refrain is that China doesn’t care about money, it’s also said the country does care about cultural power. And, though it may be entirely capable of churning out local films that gross well over $500M at home, without Hollywood product, sources believe it will not be able to feed its ever-growing number of screens (currently 82,248 and eyed at 100K by 2025).

 

Rosen says, “They don’t need Hollywood as much as they used to, that’s very clear. But, they want to be the number one film market in the world and want to show themselves as a global power and not close off. That includes film, so they need to have Hollywood product to show that.”

 

Notable Hollywood titles that did release in 2021 include A Quiet Place Part II, F9, Godzilla vs Kong, Dune and Free Guy. China also allowed in such films as Jungle Cruise and Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins which had already been out elsewhere for months. In doing so, says Rosen, “They are showing that they’re not closed off, but they are telling Hollywood, ‘We don’t really need you and we will pick and choose for whatever reasons we want to’.”

 

In the reverse, a studio exec tells us, “If manipulation continues in the marketplace, U.S. companies will care less about getting their films in and it will be less important in terms of strategy.” Hollywood has been very conscious with its dating, doing what makes the most sense for China. But if the current situation is ongoing, they will “lose that power over U.S. films.” Xi is “trying to control messaging” and cultural messaging is an important part of that. “If he doesn’t have attention and care coming from Hollywood, that’s not good for him either,” we’re told.

 

Harrumphs another exec, “Just because they have one big propaganda movie this year, that doesn’t mean they can walk away from the rest of the world.”

 

Chris Fenton, a trustee of the US-Asia Institute and author of last year’s Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, & American Business, says, “The lopsided nature of the bilateral relationship between China and the U.S. has definitely gotten out of control, and the fortitude, or almost the cockiness, of the Chinese government — what they think they can get away with — has gotten out of control. We sort of need to push back a bit. I’m confident we can figure it out.”

 

Fenton continues, “I do believe if we do it right, we can go back to pre-1997 where Hollywood makes movies that are firewalled from China for one reason or another, and also Hollywood makes movies that have nothing to do with China that are emotional and character and story relevant to China, and a few of those get in. But we need to get to a point where we can make whatever the heck we want without being ‘Richard Gere-d’ out of that market.”

 

While Hollywood currently gets just 25% of the box office out of China, that’s still a fair bit of change on a major title. But studios aren’t factoring China into their greenlights, we’re told. “It’s the other way around, anything from China is upside. You plan for nothing, and if you get it, good,” says a source.

 

Rosen doesn’t believe things are going to change anytime soon. “The government follows what the Party wants, and there has been no signal that they should try and clear up relations with Hollywood.”

 

An international veteran is also pessimistic in the short term, but perhaps not for the medium and long term. Certainly, nothing is going to happen between now and the Beijing Winter Olympics, which coincide with the lucrative Chinese New Year moviegoing period. “After that, you have to hope, for the film industry’s sake, that there’s some sort of overall trade deal done, some sort of détente, and that allows films to get back into the marketplace,” the veteran said. The film contract between Hollywood and China expired in 2017 and there’s been little headway since.

 

For the studios, we’re told, China remains a very important market, but one that needs to find a fine line between what’s important politically and what standing it wants to have.

 

 

Edited by Issac Newton
  • Like 1
  • Disbelief 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites





36 minutes ago, CoolK said:

Wolf Warrior 3 - any release date?

 

 

The chance that Wolf Warrior 3 get greenlight has been gone since western world accused China of doing wolf warrior diplomacy. Wolf Warrior 2 caused a headache for Beijing in terms of handling diplomatic relationships after it was widely praised as an impressive propaganda film with $870M box office revenue. And high ranks banned Wolf Warrior 3 in order to avoid more complicated diplomatic situation.

 

At this point, China is devoted to make movies about resist US aggression and aid Korea(Korea War) like Changjin. But as the relationship between China & South Korea improves, this kind of movies they support right now could be in danger at some point. Politicians would not allow cultures to take over politics.

 

they-need-you-right-now-but-when-they-do

 

 

  • Like 2
  • Astonished 1
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites



2 minutes ago, Gavin Feng said:

 

 

The chance that Wolf Warrior 3 get greenlight has been gone since western world accused China of doing wolf warrior diplomacy. Wolf Warrior 2 caused a headache for Beijing in terms of handling diplomatic relationships after it was widely praised as an impressive propaganda film with $870M box office revenue. And high ranks banned Wolf Warrior 3 in order to avoid more complicated diplomatic situation.

 

At this point, China is devoted to make movies about resist US aggression and aid Korea(Korea War) like Changjin. But as the relationship between China & South Korea improves, this kind of movies they support right now could be in danger at some point. Politicians would not allow cultures to take over politics.

 

they-need-you-right-now-but-when-they-do

 

 

China is such a complicated country ...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites



49 minutes ago, Gavin Feng said:

 

 

The chance that Wolf Warrior 3 get greenlight has been gone since western world accused China of doing wolf warrior diplomacy. Wolf Warrior 2 caused a headache for Beijing in terms of handling diplomatic relationships after it was widely praised as an impressive propaganda film with $870M box office revenue. And high ranks banned Wolf Warrior 3 in order to avoid more complicated diplomatic situation.

 

At this point, China is devoted to make movies about resist US aggression and aid Korea(Korea War) like Changjin. But as the relationship between China & South Korea improves, this kind of movies they support right now could be in danger at some point. Politicians would not allow cultures to take over politics.

 

they-need-you-right-now-but-when-they-do

 

 

I wish that it get cleared. Because, record of $2.0B in single market is waiting for Wolf Warrior 3. 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites



23 hours ago, Issac Newton said:

Most Anticipated Release of Spring Festival /Lunar New Year:

 

1️⃣ Water Gate Bridge : 525K

2️⃣ Nice View : 486K

3️⃣ Advancing of ZQ : 436K (yet to be confirmed for CNY)

4️⃣ Only Fools Rush In : 420K

5️⃣ Too Cool To Kill : 372K

 

1st Runner Up will be Nice View but 2nd One will be known on OD.

Most Anticipated Release of Spring Festival /Lunar New Year:

 

1️⃣ Water Gate Bridge : 590K /+65K

2️⃣ Nice View : 501K /+15K

3️⃣ Advancing of ZQ : 438K /+2K (yet to be confirmed for CNY)

4️⃣ Only Fools Rush In : 434K /+14K

5️⃣ Too Cool To Kill : 385K /+13K

 

Others:

Boonie Bear : 257K

Sniper : 100K 

 

(+) indicates Today's Anticipated Fans

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites



Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Guidelines. Feel free to read our Privacy Policy as well.