Hollywood Studios Chase Chinese Audiences
The success of Kung Fu Panda 3 is reaffirming the value of Hollywood’s pursuit of ticket sales in China, where Hollywood films are increasingly using Chinese plot lines and characters to appeal to the Chinese market.
On its opening day, the film brought in more than $16 million, and by the end of its second week, box office sales had climbed to more than $101 million. Chinese audiences flocked to the cinema on New Year’s day, when more than $100 million worth of tickets were sold.
Paul Dergarabedian, a Senior Media Analyst with ComScore, said, “A lot of studios and other entities involved in the entertainment business are trying to align themselves with China, with either Chinese companies, with strategic partnerships or opening studios in China. And so it’s this multi-tiered strategy, I think, where everyone’s trying to scramble, and trying to figure out how best to partner with China because it’s so important as a movie market.”
China is the second largest movie market in the world, and is expected to overtake the U.S. as the biggest movie market within a year. The box office in China last year totaled $6.68 billion, representing a 48.7 percent rise year-on-year in ticket sales.
Familiar plot lines and characters are one reason for the success, according to 18-year-old Yifan Li. “As a Chinese it feels more familiar, I feel I can see a lot of elements that are very close to me,” he said.
Dreamworks produced two versions for the Chinese audience; one with dubbed vocals and another altered animation to more closely match the Chinese language version. In the United States, seven movie theaters are showing the film in both Mandarin and English.
