When ¡°Godzilla vs. Kong¡± opened with weekend sales of nearly $70 million in China in March, it seemed the market would be a bright spot for Hollywood studios: most theaters were open, while U.S. film-goers were still staying home because of the coronavirus.
But 2021 is turning into a disappointment for movie companies in China, which passed the U.S. last year to become the world¡¯s largest film market. U.S. films have grabbed about 15% of the box office, on par with pandemic-impaired sales in 2020 and far less than the 32% they claimed in 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from the Chinese ticketing service Maoyan Entertainment.
Rather than becoming a lifeline for Hollywood, China is turning into another headache, made worse by local politics, the pandemic and the country¡¯s complicated relationship with the U.S. President Xi Jinping¡¯s efforts to emphasize Chinese nationalism and tamp down anything perceived as too Western or immoral will complicate matters for U.S. studios, possibly for years.
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