(Global Times) Forty-two-year-old Tan Xiaofen went to see The Fate of the Furious together with her 50-year-old husband and teenage son when the film debuted in Chinese mainland on April 14. Although a huge fan of film, it had been so long since she last saw a movie, that she couldn't remember the last time she had seen one.
Tan's family lives in a third-tier city in East China's Jiangsu Province. She see less than 10 films a year, while her husband goes to the movies even less often than that. According to her, she only sees a film when she can be guaranteed that the visual and auditory experience will be worth her money, hence her choice to see action blockbuster The Fate of the Furious with her family.
Hollywood giants
Disney's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 raked in 89.25 million yuan ($12.93 million) when it made its mainland debut on Friday. It performed even better on Saturday, bringing in a hefty 128.90 billion yuan. By comparison, second-place winner, Dangal, the award-winning Indian film starring Aamir Khan that premiered that same day, took in 13.94 million yuan on Friday and 29.25 million yuan on Saturday.
This is not the first time this year that a Hollywood blockbuster has dominated the Chinese mainland box office.
Although four Chinese films debuted during the recent May Day holiday (April 29-May 1), The Fate of the Furious remained the box-office champion with a three-day gross of 173.76 million yuan even though it was in its third week in cinemas.
Since the beginning of the year, Hollywood blockbusters have ruled the mainland box office with one exception - the Chinese Spring Festival period (January 27-February 2), during which time no imported films were shown in theaters.
According to a report from chinaxwcb.com, a website supervised by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), 79 films were released in the mainland during the first quarter of 2017, bringing in a total of 14.5 billion yuan (including sale fees). Only 22 of these films were imported, yet these films, a majority of which were Hollywood blockbusters, accounted for 7.86 billion yuan of box-office totals, while the other 57 Chinese films brought in 6.6 billion yuan.
"The average box office for imported films was 360 million yuan per film, while the average for domestic films was 120 million yuan. Foreign films are earning three times as much as Chinese films," the report wrote.
Data from Chinese box-office tracker China Box Office reveals a clear trend: The highest-grossing imported films belong to the action, adventure or sci-fi genres, or are a combination of these.
The reason why these films are so successful is clear - among the hundreds and thousands of films produced in China, there are few capable of competing with these Hollywood films when it comes to providing great visual experiences.
Local market share
While Hollywood blockbusters tend to do well in the mainland, the success of The Fate of the Furious is a special case. The last installment of the Fast and Furious franchise, Furious 7, was the highest-earning imported film in China for two years with 2.43 billion yuan, until the eighth film in the series broke that record with a 2.62 billion yuan box-office take that continues to rise.
According to Yuan Haibin, director of distribution at Poly cinemas, a lack of competition was one of the main reasons behind The Fate of the Furious' success.
The weekend of April 14, the only competition came from the rerelease of 1995 mainland film A Chinese Odyssey and Ghost in the Shell, which had debuted the weekend before. "Everyone thought that the two foreign blockbusters would compete with each other, but no one went to see Ghost, leaving Furious 8 more screen share."
Industry insiders point to another reason for the film's success: moviegoers in small cities and towns who seldom go to the cinema came out in large numbers to watch Furious 8.
Currently, the major box-office contributors in the mainland are filmgoers in first- and second-tier cities. However, when it comes to the Fast and Furious franchise, the series' influence in fourth-tier cities is almost as strong as its influence in major cities.
Statistics on film site Maoyan show that from April 24 to 27, The Fate of the Furious' screen share in first- and second-tier cities was higher than fourth-tier cities. However, starting from April 28 and running through the entire three-day holiday, the screen share in fourth-tier cities actually surpassed that of second- and third-tier cities to reach second place.
According to a survey from Maoyan, there is a clear preference for action films outside first- and second-tier cities in China. In third- and fourth-tier cities, 53.5 percent of surveyed audiences said they like to watch action films, while only 52.1 percent of audiences in first-tier cities and 51 percent of audiences in second-tier cities said they enjoy action films.
According to a report from Beijing Daily, Yin Hong, a professor at Tsinghua University, said that audiences in third- and fourth-tier cities used to have a preference for domestic films. However, after more imported films made their way to these cities, local audiences began to show higher demand for films with bright visuals and amazing special effects. This has allowed big budget Hollywood films to gain a greater foothold in these areas.
Source: Global Times By Wei Xi