Timothee Chalamet sold tofu in Chengdu. Tom Holland and Zendaya were photographed enjoying sheep-themed matcha in Shanghai. Hollywood is back in China, actively courting a massive market that remains tightly controlled by Beijing.
According to a report by CNBC, some of that effort is paying off. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has already broken into the 10 highest-grossing movies in China this year, according to ticketing site Maoyan. The Odyssey has made more than $7 million in China in just two weekends of limited screenings, ahead of its official August 14 release. At a Beijing theater visited Sunday, there was a rare line to get in.
The increased engagement comes as U.S.-China tensions have thawed this year. In the first six months, Imax screened 14 Hollywood films in mainland China, up from just two during the same period last year, according to filing data.
Director Christopher Nolan drew attention with an unconventional interview that went viral. He spoke with Yiyang Zhuge, a Boston College doctoral candidate who also hosts her own podcast. Their philosophical conversation racked up more than 1 million views on streaming site Bilibili, and millions more on X. Zhuge said someone from Universal reached out several weeks earlier to set up the post-premiere interview in Beijing. A representative for Universal did not respond to a request for comment.
Not every film has succeeded. Marty Supreme and Devil Wears Prada 2 both sent their leads to China, but their box office numbers struggled. Toy Story 5 had only modest success.
"The box office has picked up dramatically in China in recent weeks," Imax CEO Richard Gelfond said on an earnings call in late July, according to a FactSet transcript. He anticipates further improvement with upcoming films Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday. The company also expects to benefit from popular Chinese series due to see new films released early next year, including the sci-fi title The Wandering Earth.
The bigger picture is more complicated. Industry figures show China's overall box office dropped 40% in the first half of the year. Consumer spending habits have shifted.
Content is also flowing in the other direction. Two of China's three highest-grossing domestic films this year have rolled out to other parts of Asia and abroad, helped by Alibaba's Damai Entertainment. Their overseas box office results are modest so far, but Chinese animated films showed last year what that industry is capable of producing on a global scale.
