The remake of a classic tale has taken $103m in receipts in its first eight days as Chinese cinema continues to boom.
A remake of thhe Chinese comedy adventure movie, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, took 640m yuan ($103m) in ticket sales in its first eight days of screening and is slated to become the country’s biggest film of the year. At its peak, daily ticket sales totalled 122m yuan ($20m beating Hollywood blockbuster Transformers: Dark of the Moon's single day record of 114m yuan ($18m).
In 2012, China became the second largest importer of oil, producer of petrochemicals, trading nation, “e-tail” market and doubtless many other “second-largest” accolades. It can now add “second largest movie consumer” to that list.
Last year’s ticket sales reached $2.7bn, surpassing Japan’s $2.4bn. While America’s box office totals have increased by a respectable 12% over the last five years, China’s have increased by a dizzying 400% in the same period. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, estimates China is “building ten screens a day.” Rapid growth presents enormous opportunities for Hollywood, which is beginning to cater more films to Chinese audiences.
Highly visual fantasy films with pre-established brands, such as The Avengers and the Transformers series, remain popular. Some are searching hard for Chinese mega stars to bolster ratings and attract more viewers.
Iron Man 3, a Hollywood movie based on the popular Marvel comics series, has gone to great lengths to please its fans overseas. On top of casting China’s biggest actress and media debutante Fan Bingbing, director Shane Black has also included bonus footage “made exclusively for the Chinese audience.”
If Hollywood is to take a slice of the world's second largest movie audience pie, it will have to continue to cater for Chinese tastes.