Hollywood blockbusters have dominated international box offices for decades, but in recent years, they have lost luster in the largest movie market outside the U.S. — China.
Walt Disney Co.'s latest film, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” has taken the world by storm since its release on July 22, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. But it has failed to replicate that success among Chinese moviegoers.
While the Marvel superhero sequel made a respectable $57 million in its first 20 days in China, a locally produced comedy-drama, “Successor,” made six times as much in the time period, according to data from maoyan.com.
Released on July 16, “Successor” continues to thrive in Chinese theaters. As of Monday, it had grossed over $439 million to cement itself as China’s third most-watched movie of the year. “Deadpool & Wolverine” languishes at number 15.
A hit Hollywood franchise screened in China, especially one under Marvel, would be almost certain to rank higher in the box office prior to 2020. For instance, Avengers: End Game was China’s third most popular movie in 2019.
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“China learned all they could from Hollywood. Now they make their own big-budget blockbuster films with good special effects, and even good animated films … They don’t need Hollywood anymore,” Rosen, who specializes in Chinese politics, society, and film, told CNBC.
Meanwhile, Chinese films like “Successor” have a major home-field advantage.
“The Chinese audience, mostly young people, want stories they can resonate with … films that relate to things happening in China in one way or another,” said Rosen.
Successor matches that description, with the film touching upon themes of child-raising, education and upward mobility, tailored specifically for the domestic market, according to Emilie Yeh, Dean of Arts at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University.
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Aside from films that are culturally relevant and relatable to the Chinese market, nationalistic and patriotic movies have also become increasingly popular.
China’s top-grossing movie of all time is 2021’s “The Battle at Lake Changjin,” which depicts a battle between the North Korea-allied Chinese People’s Volunteer Army and U.S. forces during the Korean War. It’s followed by “Wolf Warrior 2,” a 2017 film about a patriotic Chinese action hero battling corrupt forces overseas.
This patriotic streak has gone hand in hand with increased Sino-U.S. tensions and the ‘decoupling’ of the world’s two largest economies.
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The Chinese Communist Party takes an active role in developing and overseeing the local film market, as well as deciding how many foreign movies are screened in the country’s theaters.
In 2012, then-vice President Xi Jinping and Joe Biden signed an agreement to increase Hollywood’s access to China. This eventually led to a 34-title quota for U.S. movies to be distributed by a Chinese state enterprise under a revenue share model. Approved movies also had to pass through China’s strict censorship policies.
When Xi became president, he put the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party in charge of regulating and overseeing films.
As per local media reports, China Film Co. had a role in producing “Successor.” The company was started by China Film Group Corporation — linked to Beijing’s propaganda department — and other entities.
According to Lingnan University’s Yeh, while “Successor” is a great movie with a good script, it still benefits massively from distribution, promotion, and “blessings” from the state.
Good, can Hollywood stop pandering to the CCP now?
This is why I see it as a good thing. No more cut same-sex kisses, no more shrinking the black character on the poster. Let’s leave the CCP behind and move on without them.
While it may be emblematic of changing geopolitics that could literally cause World War III, in isolation I’m not sure this is a bad thing. Trying to please everyone (particularly CCP censors) can result in bland or nonsensical storytelling even by the standards of popcorn movies.
Getting at the universal via the specific is rarely bad advice for writers trying to create compelling narratives.
I was thinking the same thing. There was that period of time where every movie was very obviously trying to appeal to foreign markets with things like prioritizing action over dialogue scenes, making LGBTQ scenes easily able to be cut, or token characters, and it would be nice to have movies with one less studio mandate interfering with the creators.
Yeah, it really worked for the Fast and Furious franchise but so many other movies came out bland and boring
Relatedly, something I know has been telling me that we are right now in a rather dramatic shift away from western cultural dominance and that most westerners aren’t even aware of it at all. Obviously it’s been building for a while, but they tell me they’re repeatedly seeing signs of it all about the place. This seems to be part of that picture.
Not sad, honestly, especially with movies. Maybe the drive for the Chinese market will calm and better films will come out of it. But, that’ll require the bubble to bust.
Oh yea, I wasn’t trying to present it in a negative light at all. The only possible negative is that parts of mainstream western culture could be both unaware and uncomfortable with the development. For people seriously into the “art” and happy to go “crate digging” etc, it should really open up new things, and as others have said, allow Hollywood to re-calibrate.
Just the other day a friend asked me if I’d like to see RRR (indian/bollywood film) with them … though it’s fairly popular and broke into the west, I don’t think that would have happened to me 5-10 years ago (where neither of us Bollywood fans or anything).
