Inside Mainland China’s Scorching Hot Box Office Summer
Last weekend I decided to take a look at mainland China’s box office recovery from the inside and took the ferry across to Shenzhen to watch some movies.
I saw two Chinese films in multiplexes in the Nanshan district – creature feature The Meg 2: The Trench, a Sino-US collaboration (not strictly speaking a co-production, which these days is rarer than a prehistoric shark), and Wuershan’s Creation Of The Gods 1: Kingdom Of Storms, the first part in a big-budget trilogy billed as China’s answer to The Lord Of The Rings.
The trip, which was the first real contact I’ve had with mainland China since before the pandemic, was enlightening and answered a few questions we’ve all been mulling about why Hollywood films have not been performing well in this market. But as always when I visit China, it raised more questions than it answered.
First the data – Maoyan announced this week that as of August 17, China’s total box office for the summer season (starting on June 1) had al…