{"id":583091,"date":"2023-07-17T08:27:30","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T05:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/china-box-office-mission-impossible-7-opens-soft-in-third-place\/"},"modified":"2023-07-17T08:27:30","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T05:27:30","slug":"china-box-office-mission-impossible-7-opens-soft-in-third-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/china-box-office-mission-impossible-7-opens-soft-in-third-place\/","title":{"rendered":"#China Box Office: \u2018Mission: Impossible 7\u2019 Opens Soft in Third Place"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Tom Cruise failed to do the seemingly impossible in China over the weekend: Revive Hollywood\u2019s former box-office muscle at the world\u2019s second-biggest theatrical movie market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Mission: Impossible \u2014 Dead Reckoning Part One<\/em>\u00a0badly lost its opening weekend in China, debuting in third place behind a pair of holdover Chinese hits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n The Paramount and Skydance sequel opened to just $25.9 million from Friday to Sunday, a steep tumble from Mission: Impossible Fallout<\/em>\u2018s $76 million opening back in 2018. Chinese martial arts drama Never Say Never<\/em>, meanwhile, earned $46.1 million, followed by local animation hit Chang An<\/em> with $43.9 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Never Say Never<\/em>, written and directed by local comedy favorite Wang Baoqiang (Lost in Thailand<\/em>, Detective Chinatown<\/em>), has brought in a healthy $211.5 million since its July 6 opening. Chang An<\/em>, the latest release from pioneering Beijing-based animation studio Light Chaser, launched on July 8 and has a current total of $96.1 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Ticketing app<\/a> Maoyan forecasts Mission: Impossible 7<\/em> to finish its China run with just $60 million, down from M:I 6<\/em>\u2018s $181 million total in 2018 and M:I 5<\/em>\u2018s $136.7 million haul in 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Local reviews for Cruise\u2019s latest turn as Ethan Hunt have been notably strong. The film scored 9.4 on Maoyan, 9.5 on Alibaba\u2019s Taopiaopiao and 7.9 on Douban \u2014\u00a0very healthy numbers. But Chinese filmgoers just aren\u2019t coming out for American movies<\/a> the way they once did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n China\u2019s theatrical box office results for the first half of 2023 became available earlier this month \u2014\u00a0and the numbers are pretty grim for Hollywood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n After abruptly lifting its strict COVID-19 lockdowns late last year, China has resumed importing U.S. movies at pre-pandemic levels in 2023, one of Beijing\u2019s many moves intended to signal to the world that it is back open for business. In the first half of 2023, 24 U.S. titles were released in Chinese cinemas, just two fewer than during the same stretch in 2019, according to Artisan Gateway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Overall, China\u2019s theatrical market has staged a strong recovery recently. Total movie ticket revenue reached $3.8 billion (RMB 26.3 billion) in the first six months of the year, down just 16 percent from 2019 (and an improvement of 54 percent compared to last year, when Chinese cinemas were still hobbled by mass lockdowns).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Local Chinese movies, meanwhile \u2014 again evidenced this weekend by Never Say Never <\/em>and Chang An<\/em>\u2018s strong holds \u2014 are doing bigger business than ever. In the first half of 2023, thanks to a booming Chinese New Year release season, total sales for Chinese titles surged to $2.8 billion, up 27 percent from the equivalent period in the year before the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n The earnings shortfall that remains is almost entirely due to the plummeting earnings of U.S. movies in China, analysts have noted. Despite Hollywood tentpoles resuming their flow into China at a healthy rate, total ticket sales for U.S. movies clocked in at just $592 million for the first six months of the year, a steep slide from the $1.9 billion earned during the same stretch in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Hopes are relatively high for the earnings potential of Greta Gerwig and Warner Bros\u2019 Barbie<\/em>, which opens in China on Friday. But the U.S. film will face some extremely tough local competition. The first installment of Chinese director Wuershan\u2019s Fengshen Trilogy<\/em>, dubbed \u201cChina\u2019s answer to Lord of the Rings<\/em>,\u201d opens on Thursday, boasting a star-packed cast and the biggest production budget of any film in Chinese moviemaking history.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n