China Box Office Thread | Oppenheimer-August 30

[ImNotRacistAtAll]

I maintain my hopes that one day Disney and other studios will show the middle finger to China. 

Unlikely? Yes. But one can hope. 

 

And that could be soon. I'm sensing some big fuck up by China siding with Russia in this nonsensical war. I mean, in this case it wouldn't be showing the middle finger. Just PR obligation. But still. 

[Arian1010]

10 minutes ago, porginchina said:

So a slightly deeper dive into why Multiverse of Madness has been denied permission to screen in China…

 

Let's start with this clip from the Gargantos battle in NYC:

 

At about 0:25 you can clearly read 大纪元时报 (although the writing in the footage uses traditional characters, not simplified like I've typed here), the English name for the Epoch Times, a Falun Gong-affiliated newspaper with a reputation for vehemently opposing the CCP and spreading conspiracy theories (according to Wikipedia, they've been banned from advertising by Facebook multiple times— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Epoch_Times). As far as groups the CCP absolutely cannot abide, Falun Gong ranks very high towards the top; you can't release a movie in the mainland referencing them or seeming to promote a Falun Gong-affiliated group, even in the background of a shot.

 

Inspecting the clip more closely, looks like the newspaper kiosk just happened to be in the area when they shot in NYC (or else it was something the prop department found easy to source). Jumping into the realm of speculation, it's likely that practically nobody on the production can read Chinese or has a strong sense of Chinese politics, the inclusion went unremarked upon. To the untrained Western eye (and to me before I embarked upon this research), one Chinese-language newspaper is the same as any other Chinese-language newspaper, right? Alas, but no. Which is really too bad for Marvel, as it would be incredibly easy to switch things up after the fact in post-production with absolutely nobody being the wiser. I'll maintain that this seems like a situation where Marvel Studios can/should post some sort of apology onto their Weibo account.

 

I have scrolled through some Reddit threads and people are pretty much saying the same thing, that cult exists in other countries too, their members are everywhere, and sometimes they put their motto sign and banners on the street too, so this does not happen solely in China (before the banning) and US. This is just an unfortunate accident (there are also BTS images of Benedict in that specific street, it's not green screen, they didn't make up that Falun gong sign) and also a very silly mistake from Marvel/Disney, if they want to get released in the mainland, perhaps they should hire a Chinese consultant team who has experience with these things.

[porginchina]

9 minutes ago, Arian1010 said:

 

I have scrolled through some Reddit threads and people are pretty much saying the same thing, that cult exists in other countries too, their members are everywhere, and sometimes they put their motto sign and banners on the street too, so this does not happen solely in China (before the banning) and US. This is just an unfortunate accident (there are also BTS images of Benedict in that specific street, it's not green screen, they didn't make up that Falun gong sign) and also a very silly mistake from Marvel/Disney, if they want to get released in the mainland, perhaps they should hire a Chinese consultant team who has experience with these things.

Yeah. It would have taken a matter of minutes for somebody to switch the text on the newspaper stand out to something like 人民日报 (People's Daily) and then crisis averted. At least this truly does seem like an innocent mistake on Marvel's behalf; I browsed through Weibo earlier today and most of the comments I scanned through were wondering why Marvel was so careless, not condemning Marvel for China hate.

 

Anyhow, if the NBA managed to be forgiven by Beijing, I have confidence that Marvel will eventually figure out a similar feat.

[ImNotRacistAtAll]

6 minutes ago, porginchina said:

Yeah. It would have taken a matter of minutes for somebody to switch the text on the newspaper stand out to something like 人民日报 (People's Daily) and then crisis averted. At least this truly does seem like an innocent mistake on Marvel's behalf; I browsed through Weibo earlier today and most of the comments I scanned through were wondering why Marvel was so careless, not condemning Marvel for China hate.

 

Anyhow, if the NBA managed to be forgiven by Beijing, I have confidence that Marvel will eventually figure out a similar feat.

Like, who cares.

 

You guys are more worried about it than most MCU fans. 

 

What's the deal? 

[druv10]

3 minutes ago, ImNotRacistAtAll said:

Like, who cares.

 

You guys are more worried about it than most MCU fans. 

 

What's the deal? 

In all of this, Chinese MCU fans are getting short end of the stick which sucks for them. 

[porginchina]

7 minutes ago, ImNotRacistAtAll said:

Like, who cares.

 

You guys are more worried about it than most MCU fans. 

 

What's the deal? 

I wouldn't describe myself as an MCU fan (I'm totally indifferent about seeing Multiverse of Madness in a theater), but I happen to live in China and am fascinated by China's interaction with the outside world— and I want to hope that China will become an increasingly open and tolerant country and that cultural exchange between China and the West can continue to grow, through venues such as movies and popular culture.

 

Basically, I'm not approaching this topic from a standpoint of wanting this franchise or that franchise to gross more money; quite frankly, I couldn't care less. I'm approaching this topic from a more academic China studies perspective, if that makes sense.

[ImNotRacistAtAll]

1 minute ago, druv10 said:

In all of this, Chinese MCU fans are getting short end of the stick which sucks for them. 

They were just saying to boycott Marvel. Chinese fans. They were all hating on DS2 and saying to boycott Marvel. 

 

They've already missed so many MCU movies, that I even wonder if they care. Also the series. 

 

Like, I hardly believe there's still much  attachment to the MCU. They have missed so much that...the rest is just irrelevant. 

 

I feel like. 

[porginchina]

1 minute ago, ImNotRacistAtAll said:

They were just saying to boycott Marvel. Chinese fans. They were all hating on DS2 and saying to boycott Marvel. 

 

They've already missed so many MCU movies, that I even wonder if they care. Also the series. 

 

Like, I hardly believe there's still much  attachment to the MCU. They have missed so much that...the rest is just irrelevant. 

 

I feel like. 

Even movies that don't play in theaters are absurdly easy to find on the Chinese Internet— a quick Baidu search and you've got a nice, high-quality stream complete with fan-generated subtitles (once the movie's available on Western streaming platforms). For instance, I saw Shang-Chi the way the Chinese government wanted me to see it, on a sketchy Chinese website with pop-up ads for online gambling and adult websites.

 

Also, VPNs are a thing and many Chinese people use them.

 

Oh, and one final point— "[t]hey were all hating" is a bit strong. Chinese people are NOT a monolith; saying that "all Chinese people" hold any opinion would be precisely as correct as saying "all Americans think XYZ" (which is to say, not in the slightest).

[ImNotRacistAtAll]

4 minutes ago, porginchina said:

I wouldn't describe myself as an MCU fan (I'm totally indifferent about seeing Multiverse of Madness in a theater), but I happen to live in China and am fascinated by China's interaction with the outside world— and I want to hope that China will become an increasingly open and tolerant country and that cultural exchange between China and the West can continue to grow, through venues such as movies and popular culture.

 

Basically, I'm not approaching this topic from a standpoint of wanting this franchise or that franchise to gross more money; quite frankly, I couldn't care less. I'm approaching this topic from a more academic China studies perspective, if that makes sense.

You'll have to keep hoping. 

 

Feel like it gets worst and worst. 

[ImNotRacistAtAll]

4 minutes ago, porginchina said:

Even movies that don't play in theaters are absurdly easy to find on the Chinese Internet— a quick Baidu search and you've got a nice, high-quality stream complete with fan-generated subtitles (once the movie's available on Western streaming platforms). For instance, I saw Shang-Chi the way the Chinese government wanted me to see it, on a sketchy Chinese website with pop-up ads for online gambling and adult websites.

 

Also, VPNs are a thing and many Chinese people use them.

 

Oh, and one final point— "[t]hey were all hating" is a bit strong. Chinese people are NOT a monolith; saying that "all Chinese people" hold any opinion would be precisely as correct as saying "all Americans think XYZ" (which is to say, not in the slightest).

Maybe. 

 

But I think that... after all Marvel movies just stopped releasing theatrically, the way meant to be seen, a new MCU movie in theaters could mean very little to Chinese audience. 

 

I think if Marvel movies stopped releasing in China be online or VPN's somehow were impossible, almost anyone would care. 

[Issac Newton]

Friday Openers (Maoyan)

 

#1 Stay With Me : ¥8.8M

#2 Bad Guys : ¥2.5M

 

EnDATA is down today on my device, couldn't check any numbers to compare with Maoyan (Live Tracking) 

EnDATA : ys.endata.cn/BoxOffice/Movie

Edited April 29, 2022 by Issac Newton
Blant error

[Arian1010]

55 minutes ago, porginchina said:

Yeah. It would have taken a matter of minutes for somebody to switch the text on the newspaper stand out to something like 人民日报 (People's Daily) and then crisis averted. At least this truly does seem like an innocent mistake on Marvel's behalf; I browsed through Weibo earlier today and most of the comments I scanned through were wondering why Marvel was so careless, not condemning Marvel for China hate.

 

Anyhow, if the NBA managed to be forgiven by Beijing, I have confidence that Marvel will eventually figure out a similar feat.

 

 

Well, we can only hope for the best outcome. Tbh I only care about the numbers, seeing films get banned left and right, lost their potential of archiving their highest BO numbers is just sad,  but the fact that I have to skim thru a lot of political talks and "why Hollywood studio should abandon China 101" in the China section  just to get to the real discussions is just "more madness" to me that "multiverse of madness" lmao

Edited April 29, 2022 by Arian1010

[porginchina]

Welp, scanned through Weibo more carefully and plenty of people accusing Marvel of scorning China, but the topic doesn't seem to be trending strongly (besides, nationalistic China trolls are always going to nationalistic China troll). Some damage control is definitely required.

 

Anyway… returning more to the topic of Chinese box office figures, looks like May Day is going to be awful this year.

[LeoC]

2 hours ago, SupermanLego said:

Yes they do. They contribute a lot to MCU movies, they skew a lot of them. Don't be so naive.

They need China to get to Top 1. But many Marvel movies can still get to a billion even without China. No way home proved it. DS2 will prove it again.

 

Of course every movie can make more money with China, but it's already at a point where it's not worth the efforts. Not worth it.

[porginchina]

32 minutes ago, Issac Newton said:

Friday Openers (Maoyan)

 

#1 Stay With Me : ¥8.8M

#2 Bad Guys : ¥2.5M

 

EnDATA is down today on my device, couldn't check any numbers to compare with Maoyan (Live Tracking) 

EnDATA : ys.endata.cn/BoxOffice/Movie

Maoyan numbers are similar. Secrets of Dumbledore in second place narrowly above Bad Guys.

[Issac Newton]

Talking the same topic for last 15 hours. Only to justify "Marvel doesn't need China". Please move on.... 

 

Also people opinion may varies but does not meant that they are brain-washed

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Issac Newton

[ImNotRacistAtAll]

2 minutes ago, Issac Newton said:

Talking the same topic for last 15 hours. Only to justify "Marvel doesn't need China". Please move on.... 

 

Also people opinion may varies but does not meant that they are brain-washed

 

It's true tho. Marvel doesn't need China. 

 

And again, China doesn't need Marvel. 

And probably don't want Marvel. More now that Marvel is pushing for diversity. 

If they wanted they would simply ask Marvel to edit Doctor Strange 2 for such small thing. 

 

Point: One doesn't need the other. 

[ZeeSoh]

6 minutes ago, Issac Newton said:

Talking the same topic for last 15 hours. Only to justify "Marvel doesn't need China". Please move on.... 

 

Also people opinion may varies but does not meant that they are brain-washed

 

Did you not participate in the topic multiple times? Now that the topic is not going your way you want people to "move on". Perhaps you should not have participated if you did not want it go on for this long. Such hypocrisy

 

[Issac Newton]

10 minutes ago, ZeeSoh said:

Did you not participate in the topic multiple times? Now that the topic is not going your way you want people to "move on". Perhaps you should not have participated if you did not want it go on for this long. Such hypocrisy

 

Yes, I have participated but didn't added up any frustrations with "F-words". Corrected the one who said "They want Disney to bend down" with example of Jujutsu Kaisen. Clarify things I found on web that "Some aren't worrying much". Tweets from Oliver explaining "anti-CCP" by him. 

 

In my entire days in BOT, never used a single violence statement with F-words on others nor on any country as frustrations.

 

Even, if I get ratio, or discussion isn't in my favour, I don't mind them as it's my opinion.

 

I have angry issues when I couldn't find any Japanese release here well. But, never in BOT, I have ranted about it. Because my frustrations or rants can not solve anything.

Edited April 29, 2022 by Issac Newton

[Sophia Jane]

This “Need”topic here is absurd.

Not only Marvel don't need China,China don't need Marvel stuff.

Actually,Who can't live without who?

Even Marvel doesn't exist on earth,even human being never exist on earth,earth is still goes by sun.

Yes,Marvel don't need China,but with China Marvel will be better and have higher box office gross,NWH is a good example,with China it will easily become 3th Highest groser of all-time,now it can't cross 2B mark.No matter you admit or not,lost Chinese Market is a big tragedy for this IP,That's all.

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Bruce