How will China’s 2014 Box Office Surge Effect Hollywood?

Chinese Box Office Up 36% Over 2013. In 2014, the Chinese box office reached $4.8 billion, an increase of 36% over 2013. Three American films, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Interstellar and X-Men: Days of Future Past ranked in the top five for China’s highest grossing films of the year, further solidifying the country as the major consumer of American cinema.

1	Transformers: Age of Extinction		$301,000,000
2	Breakup Buddies		$187,970,000
3	The Monkey King		$167,840,000
4	Interstellar		$121,990,000
5	X-Men: Days of Future Past		$116,490,000
6	Captain America: The Winter Soldier		$115,620,000
7	Dad, Where Are We Going?		$111,870,000
8	Dawn of the Planet of the Apes		$107,355,317
9	The Breakup Guru		$106,590,000
10	The Continent		$100,110,000

The growth of the Chinese market will have a considerable effect on the way American films (particularly Blockbusters) are produced and marketed.  As the cost of creating films continues to rise, movie studios are growing increasingly risk averse. Producers are looking to offset the potential for financial losses by putting the majority of their financial resources into sequels and remakes. The emergence of the film markets in China and India allows Hollywood to reach an even broader audience by including foreign stars in their pictures. The Amazing Spider-Man (Irrfan Khan) and The Great Gatsby (Amitabh Bachchan) featured Bollywood superstars in minor roles in order to increase the film’s appeal to the South Asian market. Most recently Transformers: Age of Extinction not only featured Chinese actress Bingbing Li in a prominent role, it also set the third act of the film in China. Seeing how Age of Extinction was the highest grossing film in Hollywood’s largest foreign market it, appears that flat out pandering to the global box office is a trend that is here to stay.

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Source: Variety, Box Office Mojo