Sorry, Hollywood. 'The Dumpling Queen' outperforms 'Thunderbolts' at the Chinese box office
The Marvel action film "Thunderbolts," which is seen as a litmus test of Hollywood's staying power in what once its largest overseas market, hit China cinemas on Wednesday with mixed results.
According to box office tracker Beacon, "Thunderbolts" ticket sales totaled 67 million yuan (US$9.2 million) by Sunday morning after it was released on the eve of China's Labor Day holiday – a prime time for cinema-going.
In the US, "Thunderbolts" easily topped the weekend box office, grossing US$31.5 million, but its thunder didn't hit China with the same jolt.
It ranked only fourth in the weekly list of highest-grossing movies on the mainland, trailing three Chinese films: "The Dumpling Queen," which earned 160 million yuan; "A Gilded Game," with receipts of 94.8 million yuan; and "Ne Zha 2," with 67.4 million in ticket sales.
Trade tensions couldn't come at a worse time for Hollywood, whose once commanding position in China has been on the wane for several years.
"Ne Zha 2", which was released in late January, is still drawing big crowds. The popular animated film featuring mythical characters has emerged as an industry standard in China, breaking domestic box office records, wowing movie-goers with its creative artistry and heralding the rising dominance of the domestic film industry.
"Thunderbolts," distributed by Disney, tells the tale of a group of anti-heroes forced to work together on a dangerous mission. And some mainland movie-goers like a rollicking adventure flick no matter what its origin.
"It's the best Marvel production since 'Avengers: Endgame'," said a netizen with the online name Dongchuanluo, who claimed to a loyal fan of the Marvel franchise and watched Thunderbolts on May 1.His review was in sync with an Alibaba film chatroom, which gave "Thunderbolts" a 9.2 rating.
That compared with 9.5 rating for "The Dumpling Queen," which tells the real-life story of a single mom from Qingdao who created one of Hong Kong's biggest food companies.
"Thunderbolts" was approved for release in China before Beijing curbed imports of US films as part of its response to punitive tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
It is the first US film to be screened in China since the trade war erupted, raising the question: Will the nationalism unleashed by tariff tensions spill over to the box office?
"Thunderbolts" ranked only fourth in the weekly list of highest-grossing films in Chinese mainland.
Trade tensions couldn't come at a worse time for Hollywood, whose once commanding position in China has been on the wane for several years.
The popularity of US films in China really took off in 1994 with the release of "The Fugitive," starring Harrison Ford. Subsequent blockbusters like "Titanic" and "Avenger: Endgame" once accounted for half of China's annual box office receipts, according to Xinhua news agency.
But as China rises to challenge the US in artificial intelligence, automaking, biomedicine and other advanced technologies, its emerging film industry is coming of age and flexing its muscle.
By 2023, Hollywood films saw their proportion of box office drop to around 12 percent in China.
Last year, among the Top 10 highest-grossing films in China, only the American production of "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" managed to grab a spot – at eighth place temporarily. No US film last year grossed more than 1 billion yuan.
This year, Hollywood blockbusters "The Super Mario Bros." and "Captain America: Brave New World" were released in China before the restrictions on US films.
The latest entry in the Captain America franchise suffered a box-office performance far below that of its 2016 predecessor "Captain America: Civil War," which grossed 1.2 billion yuan in China.
