China Box Office Thread | Deadpool & Wolverine- July 26

[Rudolf]

How are the big Holywood-Blockbusters distributed over the year?Have you already used up your allowance?

[A Marvel Fanboy]

The local movie makers only care about the money in their pockets.The officials only care about achievements in their careers.

And what is for the achievements eventually ? Still MONEY.

[A Marvel Fanboy]

Two very complicated questions.

I'll try.

How are the big Holywood-Blockbusters distributed over the year?

Only 2 state-owned companies are authorized to distribute big Hollywood-Blockbusters, aka revenue-shared hollywood films: CFGC (China Film Group Corporation) and Huaxia (Huaxia Film Distribution CO.,Ltd). The former is a little stronger on distributing films. And usually mega tentpoles like Avatar/TF3/Titanic 3D/TA are co-distributed by both of them.

Out of the Hollywood BIG SIX, Disney/WB/Par./Sony/FOX all have branches in China while Uni. only has a China based office. Universal is the weakest in China.

Generally, the hollywood studios pay the Marketing and Advertising costs for their films that released in China theatres while CFGC or Huaxia (or both of them) pay the Prints (they also pay the printed posters/theater standees used in cinemas). However, studios are only allowed to do limited advertising on the internet and outdoor prints due to protections for local films. Direct advertising for Hollywood films is not allowed on TV, which could be the most effective way to market a movie. And since TV ads is relatively too expensive for local films, TV spots for both HLW movies and local movies are rare to see in China. The most used ways of marketing a movie in China is the net (cheap, easy and sometimes can be very effective) and cinemas (traditional and effective).

2 years ago, we can see a lot of trailers for both Hollywood and local movies before a movie but now hollywood trailers have disappeared in most China theatres. What happened ? Hollywood trailers before movies are replaced by tons of ads for cars/real estates/shopping/local crap films, etc. Why ? Becasue most (80+%) screens now in China are digital/digital format-able and trailers/ads are easy to remove or cut. Because hollywood studios have weak or no control on distributing their films in China despite they also pay large amount of money for the advertising. Perhaps the only good news for them is their trailer are still playing at the box office.

Before Wrath of the Titanic, hollywood studios can get 13%~17.5% (depending on how much the movie actually make at the box office) from the gross for a certain movie; after WOTT, they can get as much as 25% (it's said, also depending on how much the movie actually make). Before WOTT, if a revenue-shared hollywood does under 45M yuan at the box office then it can only get 13% from its gross. However if it grosses more than 45M yuan, studios can get as much as 17.5% step by step. For example, MI4 did 678M yuan at the box office. But how much Par. can get ? Well, a formula like this can be used:

45*13%+10 or (55-45)*13.5%+10 or (65-55)*14%+10*14.5%+10*15%+10*15.5%+10*16%+10*16.5%+10 or (125-115)*17% + (678-125)*17.5% = 114M yuan

In $, Par. gets $18M out of $107M (or simply 17%)

In comparsion, local movie producers can distribute their products almost limitlessly and usually they combined can get 35%~40% from the gross. Generally, theaters get slightly more share from Hollywood movies than local movies.

Have you already used up your allowance?

Not really. Theoretically, there now can be as many as 20 revenue-shared and 14 IMAX/3D Hollywood/foreign films released each year in China. However the actual numbers can be lower than that. Like said, only CFGC and Huaxia can distribute these films but what about the two companies do not distribute them ? That could happen and that had happened. 34 is just a theory, the max. The quota can be not fully used. They can dismiss any release any time with any excuse, like when they say XFC is not suitable for China... And even a film has passed the censorship system by SARFT, which is the first step of getting release for any film, it does not gurantee the release of the film. If a local movie wants the release date, the government will no doubt cancel the release of hollywood film. Edited May 31, 2012 by firedeep

[Rudolf]

thank you - very interestingwhen there is spculation about a weak summer, how many HBB were there per quarter in 2012 or in 2011 repectively?

[A Marvel Fanboy]

thank you - very interestingwhen there is spculation about a weak summer, how many HBB were there per quarter in 2012 or in 2011 repectively?

before 2012 , as many as 20 big Hollywood blockbusters (revenue-shared hollywood films) and 5 3D/IMAX films (also revenue-shared) can be releases in China. In 2011, 21 out of the 25 successfully get released.2011Q1: 7Q2: 5Q3: 6Q4: 32012Q1: 6Q2: 5

[John Marston]

what were the top grossing Hollywood films in China in 2011?

[A Marvel Fanboy]

what were the top grossing Hollywood films in China in 2011?

2011 Top 10 grossing hollywood films in China:1. TF3 $177M2. KFP2 $100M3. POTC4 $72M4. DH2 $62M5. The Smurfs $39M6. Fast and Furious 5 $38.8M7. Battle Los Angeles $35M8. Rise of the Planet of the Apes $32M9. The Green Hornet $21M10. Rio $21M2012 top 10 (as of May 31th):1.Titanic 3D $155M2. MI4 $107M3. TA $89M4. Journey 2 $61M5. Battleship $51M6. John Carter $42M7. MIB3 $38M8. Sherlock Holmes 2 $29M9. Wrath of the Titans $26.5M10. War Horse $18.5M

[peludo]

2011 Top 10 grossing hollywood films in China:1. TF3 $177M2. KFP2 $100M3. POTC4 $72M4. DH2 $62M5. The Smurfs $39M6. Fast and Furious 5 $38.8M7. Battle Los Angeles $35M8. Rise of the Planet of the Apes $32M9. The Green Hornet $21M10. Rio $21M2012 top 10 (as of May 31th):1.Titanic 3D $155M2. MI4 $107M3. TA $89M4. Journey 2 $61M5. Battleship $51M6. John Carter $42M7. MIB3 $38M8. Sherlock Holmes 2 $29M9. Wrath of the Titans $26.5M10. War Horse $18.5M

Wow. We are still in June and top-10 grosses are almost identical to last year. How many 100 million grossers could we see this year?

[fmpro]

only 11 mill left for TACan it make it???

[A Marvel Fanboy]

Wow. We are still in June and top-10 grosses are almost identical to last year. How many 100 million grossers could we see this year?

Titanic 3D and MI4 already did it. And we have locks as TASM, TDKR and Skyfall left. So 5 $100M films in total.TA and MIB3 both should be in the 90s range. IA4 will come close too.

only 11 mill left for TACan it make it???

No. $92M is the high end.

[fmpro]

Titanic 3D and MI4 already did it. And we have locks as TASM, TDKR and Skyfall left. So 5 $100M films in total.TA and MIB3 both should be in the 90s range. IA4 will come close too.No. $92M is the high end.

[peludo]

so 7 or even 8 movies over 90 million. That's awesome. I assume TH will be released in early 2013...

[A Marvel Fanboy]

so 7 or even 8 movies over 90 million. That's awesome. I assume TH will be released in early 2013...

Yes, TH in January.

[SentryTrans]

MIB3 would make more than $30m in its second week.$80m is locked.

[SentryTrans]

Hollywood blockbusters in 2012 are much stronger than 2011 while local movies in 2012 are much weaker than 2011.

[A Marvel Fanboy]

Domestic films are having a hard time at the Chinese box office lately, with Hollywood films dominating the market place as we enter the summer season. James Cameron's Titanic 3D has now clocked up a staggering US$155 million in China since its release back in April, and continues to do solid business. Marvel's The Avengers has now taken US$84 million in three weeks, which should be encouraging news for DMG Entertainment and Walt Disney China, who are gearing up to start production on Marvel's Iron Man 3 - the biggest Chinese co-production of its kind in Hollywood history. Joss Whedon's superhero showcase is currently sitting in second place in the box office charts, and last week made more than four times as much as its nearest rival, Joe Carnahan's excellent survival thriller, The Grey. The only mainland production in the Top 10 this week is Ning Hao's period caper Guns And Roses, while Taiwanese epic Warriors Of The Rainbow and Hong Kong colonialism drama Hundred Years Of A Floating City, starring Aaron Kwok and Charlie Young, also appear.

Topping the charts this week is Barry Sonnenfeld's Men In Black 3, which opened day and date with the USA and scored a solid US$25 million opening in its first three days on release. However, the release has still managed to court controversy has it has been revealed that certain sequences were excised from the film by China's censorship body, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), that were deemed inappropriate or offensive for Chinese audiences. Anyone familiar with the film can probably guess the sequences that fell foul of SARFT's editing shears. Early in the film Agents J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) visit a Chinatown restaurant, managed by Keone Young's Mr. Wu. Not only is Wu and much of his clientele exposed as being extra-terrestrials masquerading as Chinese citizens, but that the restaurant serves bizarre and foul-looking alien food (the obvious dig being that most real Chinese cuisine is "weird" and "gross"). Certainly the audience with whom I saw the film here in Hong Kong, which was almost entirely Chinese, fell noticeably silent during this sequence, when up to this point they had been audibly enjoying themselves. Like much of the rest of the film, it wasn't especially funny and if nothing else, the gag felt tired and overused, but it does seem a little oversensitive of SARFT to remove the offending footage (reportedly around 3 minutes in total) altogether.

A similar fate befell Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End back in 2007, when Chow Yun Fat had his entire appearance as a malevolent Chinese pirate removed from the film. As Chinese production companies continue to grow and expand their involvement within the Hollywood system, are we approaching a time when big budget Western films will feature only positive and heroic Chinese characters? Does the news of AMC Theaters' purchase by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co. mean that in the future, films like Men In Black 3 and Pirates of the Caribbeanwould not be able to play on home turf if they contain derogatory representations of Chinese characters? At the very least can North American audiences expect a greater number of Chinese language films to find their way on to AMC's screens?

Twitch's weekly China box office round up

They use entgroup as the source.

[A Marvel Fanboy]

China’s Bona Film Group Talking With Hollywood Studios About Co-Prods: WSJ

[A Marvel Fanboy]

China Box Office Weekly (5.28~6.03) Report

Firedeep, June 5th 15:00pm (GMT+8) updates:

Men in Black 3 Dominates With $27.5M, The Avengers Rocks to $88M

Sony and Will Smith's sci-fi comedy Men In Black 3 hold well through its second week, bringing in 175M yuan. It is the 8th biggest second week in history. With a soft sub 30% weekend drop thanks to the national Children's Day boost on Friday, the film's total gross reached about $52.5M (333M yuan) after 10 days. If it can hold well again this week, then it is on legit track to cross the 500M yuan mark and claim the 6th biggest Hollywood release until August when Amazing Spider-man hits.

Marvel's the Avengers fell to third place with 30.1M yuan ($4.7M), down roughly 52%. The superhero action flick now stands at about 555.1M yuan ($88M) after 5 weekends. 600M yuan is unlikely to happen.

Sony and Aardman Animations's The Pirates! Band of Misfits debuted on May 31th, one day before Children's Day and pulled in 37M yuan ($5.8) through 4 days opening. Released one day later, Relativity's snow white film Mirror Mirror also did solid numbers for a buy-out Hollywood release through its 3 days weekend with a gross of about 30M yuan ($4.7M).

Debuted the same day with the Aardman Animations feature film, Martin Scorsese‘s 3D masterpiece Hugo opened to poorly 14M yuan ($2.2M) and only ranked #6 on the weekly box office chart. Liam Neeson's thriller, The Grey, went down 70% to 4.6M yuan ($0.73M) with a total gross of 38.4M yuan ($6M) after 3 weeks.

Weekly (5.28~6.3) Box Office top 10:

1. Men in Black 3 175M yuan ($27.5M) +11% total: 333M yuan ($52.5M)

2. The Pirates! Band of Misfits 37M yuan ($5.8M) New total: 37M yuan ($5.8M)

3. Marvel's The Avengers 30.1M yuan ($4.7M) -52% total: 555M yuan ($88M)

4. Mirror Mirror 30M yuan ($4.7M) New total: 30M yuan ($4.7M)

5. 潜艇总动员2 17M yuan ($2.7M) New total: 17M yuan ($2.7M)

6. Hugo 14M yuan ($2.2M) -New total: 14M yuan ($2.2M)

7. 醉后一夜 5.2M yuan($0.8M) New total: 5.2M yuan($0.8M)

8. 超蛙战士之威武教官(3D) 5M yuan($0.8M) New total: 5M yuan($0.8M)

9. The Grey 3.0M yuan -65% ($0.48M) total: 38.3M yuan ($6.07M)

10. 忠诚于背叛 2M yuan($0.31M) +122% total: 2.9M yuan ($0.46M)

Top Hollywood releases of 2012 so far (as of June 3):

1.Titanic 3D $155M

2. MI4 $107M

3. TA $88M

4. Journey 2 $61M

5. MIB3 $52.5M

6. Battleship $51

7. John Carter $42M

8. Sherlock Holmes 2 $29M

9. Wrath of the Titans $26.5M

10. War Horse $18.5M

China Box Office: June Forecast

Release schedule.

6.01 潜艇总动员2

6.01 醉后一夜

6.01 The Pirates! Band of Misfits

6.01 热爱岛

6.01 超蛙战士之威武教官

6.01 戚继光英雄传

6.01 Mirror Mirror

6.01 跑出一片天

6.01 37

6.05 初恋这件小事

6.07 Athena

6.08 Madagascar 3

6.08 百万巨鳄

6.08 宝岛双雄

6.08 第一次

6.08 笔仙惊魂

6.08 四戒

6.08 半夜不要照镜子

6.14 The Hunger Games

6.15 蓝调海之恋

6.15 查无此人

6.15 2012喜上加喜

6.19 Brave

6.19 This Means War

6.21 黑暗中的救赎

6.21 悬赏

6.21 痞子英雄之全面开战

6.21 潘多拉的宝剑

6.21 擒爱记

6.21 车手

6.28 画皮2

6.29 非常绑匪

6.29 魅妆

Obviously, this June filled up with crap local films. With biggest Hollywood release, Prometheus, canceled by Sarft, June looks could not match last year.

My predicted top gross for major Hollywood releases:

The Hunger Games 200M yuan $31M

Madagascar 3 200M yuan $31M

The Pirates! Band of Misfits 80M yuan $12.7M

Mirror Mirror 80M yuan $12.5M

This Means War 60M yuan $10M

Athena 20M yuan $3.5M

Source: Mtime

Edited June 5, 2012 by firedeep

[Robertron]

So THATS why MIB3 didn't drop like a rock OS!

[RTX]

It will be hillarious if MIB outgrosses TA!