There has been a lot of talk over the last few years about China becoming the great hope for blockbuster-friendly Hollywood. Yes, it already has more theaters than North America. And yes, Chinese investors have poured big bucks into international movie studios, and there is clearly much money to be made. But, as you look at the various “big” Hollywood releases that have played in China over the last year or so, you’ll notice that many, if not most of said releases tend to make whatever money they make rather quickly. There are exceptions, but quite a few major Hollywood releases have terribly brief runs in China.
To go with an obvious example, Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned 42% of its entire $124 million gross in its Saturday/Sunday $52.3m debut weekend. Oh, and let’s not forget Warcraft. The would-be game changer earned $220m in China alone, a massive sum, but $156m of that money came within the first five days of its run, with $90m of that (41%) coming from its Wednesday/Thursday debut. Captain America: Civil War was a genuine blockbuster with summer with $190.4 total. But the Marvel superhero sequel earned 49% of that in its $93.6m opening weekend, as did a smaller-scale “broke out in China” hit like Mechanic: Resurrection ($24.3m/$49.2m).
X-Men: Apocalypse pulled an identically brief run with $59.8 million of its $121m total coming on the opening weekend. In North America, a 2.04x weekend-to-final multiplier is what Batman v Superman pulled out. In China, it’s almost par for the course. Speaking of Dawn of Justice, DC Comics’ own “hero versus hero” superhero sequel earned a horrific 1.71x multiplier, making $58m of its $95m total on opening weekend. To be fair, Avengers: Age of Ultron made a 1.54x multiplier in the summer of 2015 ($155.7m/$240.1m) and Terminator Genisys received 23% of its $113m total on its first day. But the magic number seems to be 46%.
With the important caveat that movies in China tend to open on different days depending on scheduling choices, a deluge of key Chinese hits earned 46% of their total on their opening weekends. Furious 7 earned $182.4 million (after a record-smushing $62m opening day on a Sunday) on its “opening weekend” towards a record-breaking $390m total. Star Trek Beyond earned $30m on opening weekend and $65.1m total for Paramount/Viacom Inc. and London Has Fallen (another “getting a sequel thanks to China” hit) earned $24.5m of its $52.2m total via opening weekend.
Source: Forbes by Scott Mendelson