The Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt-starrer “Passengers” will be shown in mainland China on Friday, Jan. 13. The two Hollywood stars visited China on Dec. 17 to promote the romantic space movie by Sony and marketed in the country by Dalian Wanda.
A China release is now becoming a crucial component to a movie’s global box-office total because the sheer number of cinemas and moviegoers could make or break a foreign film. The number of screens across China exceeded that of the U.S. days before 2016 ended, however, China’s box-office results significantly slowed down in the second half of the year.
Weak Box-Office Results
Despite having Jennifer Lawrence, the star of “Hunger Games,” as the lead actress in “Passengers,” the film’s box-office receipts did not live up to expectations with the moving earning so far $121 million on worldwide exhibition as of Jan. 1 after its pre-Christmas release in the U.S. About half came from its U.S. exhibition, Variety reported.
Hong Kong theaters showed “Passengers” on Dec. 22, and the film grossed only $918,000 on its first weekend, behind “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” The standalone “Star Wars” film opened this week in mainland China.
Beyond the Trailer
Gizmodo reported that there is a lot of discussion how the trailers and commercials about “Passengers” hid more content about the movie which is not just about a love story that happened on a spaceship as the trailers suggest. Their love story is because the character played by Chris Pratt did a selfish act in waking up the character played by Jennifer Lawrence 90 years before she is supposed to because of his loneliness.
The film describes the man’s waking up the woman ahead of the schedule an act of murder. In response to a question from Gizmodo Australia how the movie handled the sensitive plot, Morten Tyldum, the director, said, “It's about forgiveness and it's about taking an issue from a relationship and then putting it to the extreme. Him giving her the choice at the end is super important. That's when it becomes a true love story. Love is not selfish, or is about need. It's about the other person.”