cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16376450
cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16376448
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.
Most countries promote their own artists over others. Many US allied nations spend public funds on the creation and distribution of local movie productions. At some point people outside of the US are going to get tired of US propaganda and look for media which is more relatable and close to home.
Not surprised as hollywood movies are terrible now. The whole industry is filled with untalented nepo babies who are out of touch with ordinary people and struggle to make relatible stories.
Incoming massive increase in sinophobia and red scare propaganda as a result of Hollywood no longer having anything left to lose. Not looking forward to that or more specifically how it filters into the wider culture.
I’ve already decoupled myself from Hollywood movies for sometime now. I think the last one I watched was either Black Panther or Aquaman.
Both movies suck.
You would get stoned in most places for saying that black panther sucks. People who consume holly wood rot cannot seem to have opinions for themselves for the most part.
Judas and the Black Messiah is great. That’s the black panthers I like.
But not Marvel’s Black Panther duology.
It’s just capitalist and colonialist claptrap written by white dudes. Hell, the person with a point is the “villain.”
I am not sure what the last Hollywood movie was I watched, it has been years. Maybe the Les Mis adaptation?
If Hollywood wants to sell more movies it should consider writing better ones. All these marvel superhero things are the same movie in different colours ad nauseum. When you’ve got the captured western audience with no discerning taste, you can sell whatever slop you like. But it gets boring quick and anyone with an alternative is almost certainly going to pick the alternative.
I used to be big on movie back in high school, to the point where I actually wanted to be a filmmaker (a year of my university life I will never get back) but that passion slowly dimmed and now I’m just so uninterested in what my local theatres have to offer. It’s just the same middling quality products, so many superhero films that I just do not care about (my friend keeps wanting me to watch Deadpool Wolverine, even showing me clips and promotion material and I could not be more uninterested). I see clips from movies outside of the west and they hook me in a lot more these days. Old Soviet films have more appeal than what is being churned out now.
I used to be the same. Thankfully I didn’t pay for the privilege. Thinking on it now, it’s largely Hollywood that put the idea in my head that I might be part of making movies. I don’t remember what killed the aspiration but I’m glad I changed my mind.
Deadpool & Wolverine falling behind in China is the least surprising thing possible, because even aside from the quality (I think it was okay but noticeably worse than the pretty enjoyable previous two), the movie is constantly making self-referential humor about the Disney acquisition of Fox (plus the MCU itself and various actors) and the plot revolves around characters from a bunch of different movies from ages ago, a lot of which I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t even release in China to begin with
I think a lot of what made the first two Deadpool movies work was that even though they were in the existing X-Men movie universe, they were pretty standalone and you only needed to know the very basics of what X-Men is (there’s superpowered people called mutants, they’re discriminated against in society, there’s a school that’s a safe haven for them that has a superhero team called the X-Men)
Meanwhile, this movie is extremely reliant not just on having watched at least some X-Men movies as well as multiple unrelated Marvel film adaptations, but also movies and a Disney+ show from the MCU, you gotta be a hardcore Marvel movie fan to even understand it
…Also it’s absolutely rich that the writer of this article is so concerned over Chinese films having ties to the state when basically every American blockbuster is directly involved with the military lmao
What set US cinema apart from other established cinema markets past WW2 were the gutsy mid-budget movies like Rocky or the bold over-the-top high budget popcorn flick like Back to the Future or Star Wars. The fact that Hollywood studios were willing to gamble on something quirky but high quality that might not succeed like say Willow, was the reason American movies fucking dominated.
Most European cinema scenes stuck to low budget art cinema that was basically a student film that will never see wide release or relatively high budget but uber-safe productions with actors that are established in the nation and boilerplate subject manner.
But thanks to Marvel Studios and endless sequels, prequels, and remakes mean that Hollywood has fallen to a weird niche of ultra-high budget but safe boilerplate productions. It’s just so stale.
here’s a rec if anyone’s interested. kinda fat-phobic but a heartwarming movie nonetheless
Anyone know why this is? Is the quality of Hollywood movies going down (I’m too poor to watch new movies) or is there a cultural disconnect?
The write up seemed to suggest it’s a cultural disconnect. I don’t find it hard to believe that a film produced by the hyper capitalist US may not resonate well in a county building socialism, be that China or other AES’.
Both most likely, I can say with certainty that the quality has certainly been going down which Western audiences themselves have also been pointing out. The whole Godzilla Minus One vs Monsterverse Godzilla debacle encapsulated that perfectly.
I unironically enjoy Chinese movies. Big sets, lots of extras, over the top CGI, fun stories… They’re entertainment, rather than trojan horses for liberal ideas.
Which are some you would recommend?
I wrote a bunch of movies with links, but then clicked Next instead of Reply. Didn’t want to write it all again, here’s off the top of my head.
Semi-old classics: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Hero; Shaolin Soccer; Infernal Affairs (the Departed before the Departed).
Relatively new movies: Journey to the West saga, The Knight of Shadows, League of Gods (fantasies); The Battle At Lake Changjin (big budget Korean War movie); The Wandering Earth (1 and 2); 2046 (sci-fi movies).
I just googled for best chinese movies of 2000s and got these lists. Most I’ve never even heard of. Damn, looks like I have pleb taste lmao. Time to watch as many of these as possible. https://www.imdb.com/list/ls043637839/ https://www.imdb.com/list/ls082747506/
China is healing
