Chinese moviegoers could confuse Hollywood film producers. While they could not patronize in large numbers movies like “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” even if it includes some Chinese actors, they could at the same time significantly boost the box-office results of an animation film such as “Zootopia” or “Crazy Animal City.”
Animation vs. Sci-Fi
The Walt Disney movie consistently topped tills in the U.S. and China where “Zootopia” earned $236 million. Yet, flops in Canada and the U.S. such as “Warcraft” by Legendary Entertainment provided $221 million or over 50 percent of the film’s global total. At the same time, a global hit movie such as “Rogue One” earned only $31 million on its first three days of showing in China.
Despite China’s total box-office results slowing down to 3.7 percent in 2016, Chinese film buffs added $1.8 billion in ticket sales to the 20 highest-grossing movies in 2016, Reuters reported. They contributed 13 percent of the $13.5 billion earned by the top 20 films produced by American studios.
China Still a Key Movie Market
However, despite the slowdown of the Chinese film market, the Asian giant would remain a key target by Hollywood producers that want to increase their earnings globally. China is the only market where movie makers could grab an extra hundred million dollars of revenue, Jonathan Papish, movie industry analyst at China Film Insider said.
Besides “Zootopia” and “Warcraft,” other foreign films that earned well in China are “Captain America: Civil War” ($190 million), “The Jungle Book” and “Kung Fu Panda 3.” Based on these trends, animation films and superheroes attract Chinese moviegoers, while sci-fi such as “Rogue One” and “Passengers” have lesser attraction.
In its analysis of what went wrong with “Rogue One,” Forbes explained that “it once again shows that not every would-be Hollywood blockbuster is going to go nuts in every other territory.”