Hollywood Films That Stumbled At US Box Office Are Popular In China

There was good news and bad news for several American films that turned out to be disappointments at the domestic box office. The good news is that these films are finding a new level of popularity in China. The bad news, though, is that they are being released in China during a time when thousands of Chinese theaters are closed due to a rising surge of COVID cases.

What Happened: According to a Variety report citing data from the consulting group Artisan Gateway, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” has been the most popular film with Chinese moviegoers since it opened in the country on April 8. This past weekend, the film was the top box office hit, grossing $1.7 million.

This stood in contrast to the film’s reception on the other side of the Pacific — the Warner Bros. WBD release recorded the weakest U.S. opening weekend for the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise, taking in $43 million for its April 15-17 premiere engagement. For the past weekend, the $200 million film dropped into third place among the top films in release with $14 million in ticket sales. 

Two other U.S. films cracked the Chinese top five list of highest grossing films this past weekend: Michael Bay’s “Ambulance” from Comcast Corp.’s CMCSA Universal ranked third with $1.3 million in ticket sales and the animated “Hotel Transylvania 4” earned $900,000 for its fifth place showing. "Ambulance" has only grossed roughly $19 million in the U.S. since its April 8 premiere while “Hotel Transylvania 4” was not theatrically released in the U.S., but has been available on Amazon’s AMZN Prime Video streaming service since January.

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Why It Happened: With COVID re-emerging in China, fewer of the country’s cinemas are operating. The nationwide cinema revenue generated between Friday and Sunday totaled $8.2 million, down from the previous weekend’s $10.5 million and the lowest scoring weekend for box office revenue recorded this year.

For “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” the film is only playing at approximately one-third of the distribution scope it would have achieved during the pre-pandemic era.

Still, this is a relatively rare time for U.S. films to shine in China, where Hollywood fare accounts for 12.3% of the films made available to Chinese audiences.

Photo: Jude Law in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” courtesy of Warner Bros.