China Box Office Thread | Oppenheimer-August 30

[porginchina]

In other China box office news, Maoyan reports that more than 60% of theaters nationwide are open (62.36%) in advance of the May Day holiday period. The map informs me that Shanghai is the only province still without any operational theaters as Covid-struck Jilin has started to open back up, although Beijing has announced that it'll be suspending theatrical operations from "April 30 to May 4." Living in Shanghai, I trust that they're shutting down Beijing theaters today, but after the past few weeks of disastrous governmental communicative incompetency, who knows when Beijing's theaters will be back online.

 

With that said, the nationwide Covid situation does appear to be getting better. Shanghai reported no community spread yesterday, although I'm not sure how that's calculated because my housing complex recorded another case, resetting our two-week timer until we're allowed back on the streets. Cases outside of Shanghai are in very low numbers. Best guess from following the situation over the past few weeks is that Shanghai's numbers became so extreme that they overwhelmed China's ability to quickly and efficiently squash the virus, resulting in the rolling nationwide lockdowns. Looks like they're trying to pivot towards a system that, at least for the immediate future, will rely on continual Covid testing (Shanghai is setting up hundreds if not thousands of nucleic acid kiosks throughout the city and the government has announced that tests will be free until at least June 30).

 

Should note that the overall Chinese economy is in serious trouble, to the point that the political system could fall under some degree of stress; analysts I've read online have started comparing the level of discontent to 1989. This is a major political year in China as Xi goes for his third term, but between the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Omicron taking a real bite out of the Chinese economy (the economy is important politically everywhere but to an exaggerated degree in China), well… it'll be really interesting to see how China responds to the confluence of headwinds it currently faces.

 

TL;DR— China's box office is still depressed, but there's (some) reason to think Chinese theaters might see better fortunes in the coming months. Possibly.

[xieh tie]

unofficial kungfu hustle 2 poster suddenly appeared on twitter

 

 

[Issac Newton]

24 minutes ago, xieh tie said:

unofficial kungfu hustle 2 poster suddenly appeared on twitter

 

 

If I am not wrong original one was released on 23/12 (2004) making ¥17.11M per Maoyan. 

 

Scores: Maoyan (9.0) vs IMDb (7.7) 

 

Douban Ratings : 8.7 (~972K) (ATB 92/250)

 

Overseas Scores:

RT : 90% (182)

Me: 78 (38)

 

Highest grossing film in Hong Kong until You Are the Apple of My Eye released on 2011 with HK$61.7M (OD : HK$4.99M) Japan (¥1.7B)

 

North America: 

BO : $17,108,591

HM: $30,000,000

Edited April 30, 2022 by Issac Newton

[porginchina]

I… have a hard time believing that posted is real (i.e., you'd think that a Chinese-language production focusing primarily on the Chinese-speaking audience would release a Chinese-language poster before any English posters); looks like nothing more than wishful fan thinking.

 

With that said, a hypothetical Kung Fu Hustle 2 could make a massive amount of money in China. Like, assuming decent word of mouth, $500 million easy (and that's probably lowballing it). Stephen Chow has huge name recognition and the original Kung Fu Hustle is a well-recognized classic (I won so many "good foreigner" points after moving to China because I recognized the movie).

[Arian1010]

I've scrolled thru Weibo and the Chinese Marvel fans who are living in US confirmed that you can see the cult motto everywhere on NYC streets, even on some random trash cans. The hate has been dying down a lot over the past hours, so in this case, looks like Disney/Marvel was just innocent (or to be exact most Westerners can't read Chinese so they don't even know what it is). All Marvel/Disney has to do now is just publish some proper explanations on Weibo, it's not that hard to "apologize" like declaring support for Tibet or Taiwan.

 

[Issac Newton]

In Maoyan, Bad Guys started with 9.1 (~3K)

 

In Tiapiaopiao, Bad Guys started with 8.9 (~1K)

 

No Douban Ratings so far!

 

FB3 had a good increase from last Saturday. While Moonfall and The Batman gap is gradually increasing!!

Edited April 30, 2022 by Issac Newton

[Issac Newton]

Saturday Estimates

 

#1 Stay With Me : ¥20.1M / ¥30.2M

#2 Bad Guys : ¥8.7M / ¥11.1M

#3 Fantastic Beasts 3 : ¥8M / ¥127.2M

#4 Man On The Edge : ¥5.5M / ¥75.8M

#5 Hotel Transylvania 4 : ¥4.4M / ¥65.5M

 

Others (Total)

The Batman (¥150.4M), Moonfall (¥136.7M), Uncharted (¥120.1M), We Made A Beautiful Bouquet (¥90.8M), Escape Room 2 (¥49.4M), Drishyam (¥16.1M), Ambulance (¥12.6M)

 

After a good Saturday, I am targeting ¥150M+ finals for FB3, The Batman has crossed ¥150M on Saturday.

 

Bad Guys should open above ¥15M. No ratings at Douban so far.

 

For Comparisons:

#1 Paw Patrol: The Movie : ¥22.96M (3-days/OW)

#2 Encanto : ¥20.58M (3-days/OW)

#3 Hotel Transylvania 4 : ¥11.36M* (1-day/OW)

 

*Unfair Comparison

 

Last Saturday:

#1 Fantastic Beasts 3 : ¥5.76M / ¥108.42M

#3 Man On The Edge : ¥3.66M / ¥58.03M

#4 Hotel Transylvania 4 : ¥3.48M / ¥57.11M

 

Cinema reopening has exceeded 62.6% (as mentioned by Porginchina above)

Edited April 30, 2022 by Issac Newton
Added Map

[charlie Jatinder]

On 4/29/2022 at 1:27 PM, Olive said:

It's a big thing in China, many saying boycott Marvel already. LOL

Do it already I guess. Have already written off China for MCU anyways.

[Issac Newton]

I don't know if I should ask or not but

 

Spoiler

How was drop calculated? I was trying to figure out for last one hour now 😅

 

[ZeeSoh]

Moderation: We have already done the Doctor Strange not releasing in China and whether Marvel or China need each other or not debate. There is no reason to start that again. We will restart this circus  when Thor’s release date comes near. 
 

If you find any post objectionable or breaking forum rules then report it and ignore it. 
 

Please keep discussions focused on movies already released in China or the ones that are going to get released. 

[porginchina]

Played around on Maoyan today and looked through the database of monthly Chinese box office tallies going back to January 2011. Turns out, Zero-Covid really bites. Of all the months on record (not counting February-June 2020 when theaters were entirely closed, or July 2020 when theaters were closed for most of the month and then only screened re-releases for a few days), April 2022 is the lowest month on record (¥565 million/$89.5 million, also known as slightly more than what Sonic 2 made its opening weekend in the States).

 

China's overall box office is slightly past $2 billion US at current exchange rates, or approximately $150 million ahead of the US/Canada. I'm guessing that 2022 US/Canada box office should easily vault past China in the coming weeks (I'm guessing Multiverse of Madness' US opening will do the trick). China's run as the world's largest box office territory is finished, at least for the foreseeable future.

[John2015]

On 4/30/2022 at 9:03 AM, honeycookiez said:

 

 

Well, to lighten the mood, on the other hand, Twitter users are making fun of Raimi for continuing the same error he has made since the Evil Dead era (letting the same extras appear multi times in one particular scene). Pretty sure even the director himself wasn't aware of the issue of that cult text, let alone reading Chinese. Hiring a Chinese secretary or consultant to avoid stupid mistakes like that should be a requirement at this point.

 

 

 

 

"Top Gun 2" did have consultants for China market, but still couldn't pass China censorship. 

 

China censorship is different than many others, because their censorship guidelines are less clear than others, and the guidelines can be changed at anytime.

Edited May 1, 2022 by John2015

[Gavin Feng]

15 hours ago, ZeeSoh said:

Moderation: We have already done the Doctor Strange not releasing in China and whether Marvel or China need each other or not debate.

Correction: China Box Office is done. Delete the thread.

[Issac Newton]

17 hours ago, Issac Newton said:

#1 Paw Patrol: The Movie : ¥22.96M (3-days/OW)

#2 Encanto : ¥20.58M (3-days/OW)

#3 Hotel Transylvania 4 : ¥11.36M* (1-day/OW)

Bad Guys has easily claimed the biggest animated release in 2022 Mainland China, pointing towards ¥25M+ debut (¥23.5M at 16:50 CST)

 

Scores:

Douban : N/A

Maoyan: 9.1 (~4.6K)

Taopiaopiao : 8.9 (~2.3K)

[Issac Newton]

Sunday Estimates

 

#1 Stay With Me : ¥25M / ¥54.7M 

#2 Bad Guys : ¥18.7M / ¥29.9M

#3 Fantastic Beasts 3 : ¥9M / ¥136.3M

#4 Hotel Transylvania 4 : ¥6.2M / ¥71.7M

#5 Man On The Edge : ¥6.1M / ¥82M

 

Others (Total)

The Batman (¥152.2M), Moonfall (¥138.4M), Uncharted (¥122.2M), We Made A Beautiful Bouquet (¥91M), Drishyam (¥18.5M), Ambulance (¥13.3M)

 

Last Sunday

#1 Fantastic Beasts 3 : ¥2.51M / ¥110.9M

#2 Man On The Edge : ¥2.39M / ¥60.42M

#5 Hotel Transylvania 4 : ¥1.03M / ¥58.14M

 

Others (P.S./T.S.)

⚪ Ambulance : ¥1.69M (#3) / ¥620K (#12)

⚪ Drishyam : ¥1.09M (#4) / ¥2.4M (#6)

⚪ Escape Room 2 : ¥680K (#6) / ¥1.5M (#10)

⚪ The Batman : ¥619K (#7) / ¥1.8M (#8)

⚪ Moonfall : ¥604K (#8) / ¥1.6M (#9)

⚪ Uncharted : ¥558K (#9) / ¥2.1M (#7)

 

Since, cinemas are re-opening, I tried to compare their previous Sunday. Of course, Rank has collapsed but gross has believe to have increased in 2x-4x. Through, only Ambulance doesn't seem to be benefited, that's seems something to do with it's ratings across platforms: Maoyan (8.3), Douban (5.6) &Taopiaopiao (7.8)

 

Note: P.S : Previous Sunday &T.S. : This Sunday 

 

Cinema Reopening has exceeded 67%

 

In terms of Graph 📈

Edited May 1, 2022 by Issac Newton

[Issac Newton]

2022 TOP Animated Debut in Mainland China

 

#1 Bad Guys : ¥29.9M* (3-days)

#2 Paw Patrol: The Movie : ¥22.96M (3-days)

#3 Encanto : ¥20.58M (3-days)

#4 Hotel Transylvania 4 : ¥11.36M (1-day)

#5 2018 Yokai Watch : ¥x0.69M (2-days)

 

*Estimated Gross

 

2022 Highest Grossing Animated Films in Mainland China

 

#1 Paw Patrol: The Movie : ¥82.50M

#2 Encanto : ¥76.68M

#3 Hotel Transylvania 4 : ¥71.7M*

#4 Bad Guys : ¥29.9M*

#5 2018 Yokai Watch : ¥x0.83M

 

*Still Running

[MG10]

So are they willing to continue with the absurd strategy of targeting 0 cases and deaths or are they also thinking of other solutions like South Korea and Japan (or simply any other country that isn't China or Australia)? And does anyone know if the market will recover in time for June or if it might take even longer?

Edited May 1, 2022 by MG10

[Lion Roar]

9 minutes ago, MG10 said:

So are they willing to continue with the absurd strategy of targeting 0 cases and deaths or are they also thinking of other solutions like South Korea and Japan (or simply any other country that isn't China or Australia)? And does anyone know if the market will recover in time for June or if it might take even longer?

They will continue/expand measures until at least the fall when/if Xi Jinping secures his third term. 

[poweranimals]

1 hour ago, Lion Roar said:

They will continue/expand measures until at least the fall when/if Xi Jinping secures his third term. 

I wasn't aware that dictators had terms.

[Bigscrubnus]

Hopefully they’ll all be reopened by the time Dominion rolls around