Stick a fork in the franchise. Its obviously done.Worldwide it has already grossed more than Black Panther and Thor: Love and Thunder. It should surpass Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Jurassic World Dominion by Wednesday or Thursday.
Total box office for China is $104,260,000.What is the box office and movie situation in China like? I know there’s been substantial shutdowns there which would limit current BO, but if the movie stays in theaters longer term there (there’s no Disney+ and no reason from Disney’s prospective to pull it) and things open up, it wouldn’t surprise me if it still makes substantial bank there especially given the popularity of the original and probably even some thirst for Western films which have been limited.
Theaters are open, but the people there are much more scared about COVID due to them not having built up an immunity. They are about where America was in late 2020/early 2021.What is the box office and movie situation in China like? I know there’s been substantial shutdowns there which would limit current BO, but if the movie stays in theaters longer term there (there’s no Disney+ and no reason from Disney’s prospective to pull it) and things open up, it wouldn’t surprise me if it still makes substantial bank there especially given the popularity of the original and probably even some thirst for Western films which have been limited.
Through Monday, the split is $293.2M domestic and $661.9M at the international box office. Internationally, Way of Water now stands as the No. 2 release of 2022 and No. 3 studio title of the pandemic era.
Midweeks last week were very strong, and the sci-fi epic is continuing that trend this week with vacations in full swing and a lot of holiday distractions in the rearview. France and Italy, for example, saw their best days of play on this week’s Monday since the film opened.
Monday’s total offshore haul was $52.2M, domestic’s was $31.5M.
The Top 5 overseas markets through Monday are China ($104.5M), France ($60.5M), Korea ($55.4M), Germany ($41.5M) and India ($39.2M).
On Tuesday, and not included in the totals above, the 20th Century Studios/Disney sci-fi epic rose to a running cume of $108.7M in China per local estimates. Ticketing service Maoyan has increased its projections again, now seeing a $170M final. In Korea, local estimates bring the cume through Tuesday to $58.2M.
FWIW, this is Domestic only. WoW has already nearly doubled Wakanda Forever internationally.WoW is still on a sharp rise compared to Wakanda Forever that at this point was starting to sag. They are about equal for the time period.
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What is the box office and movie situation in China like? I know there’s been substantial shutdowns there which would limit current BO, but if the movie stays in theaters longer term there (there’s no Disney+ and no reason from Disney’s prospective to pull it) and things open up, it wouldn’t surprise me if it still makes substantial bank there especially given the popularity of the original and probably even some thirst for Western films which have been limited.
Theaters are open, but the people there are much more scared about COVID due to them not having built up an immunity. They are about where America was in late 2020/early 2021.
Covid is probably costing Avatar $300-600 million in China.
The China situation is bizarre, and I've read a couple articles the past day or so about how/why Avatar 2 is bombing in China.
It's a real mess over there. They had no Operation Warp Speed and the Chinese-made vaccines they do have are less effective than ours, plus the heavy handed government lockdowns and closures they dealt with nationwide kept the population from building immunity.
But there's also a political issue where the Communist Politburo isn't allowing Hollywood movies to be shown there for the most part. Avatar 2 was a rare exception, but it's just falling very flat with audiences there for the reasons above and perhaps just a lack of interest in a film few of them saw in 2009. Back in 2009, China accounted for only $265 Million of Avatar's global box office of $2.9 Billion.
Avatar 2 is tracking not far from that $265 Million from 13 years ago, but is being held back by Covid closures and a panicked populace.
Communist China is just a real mess now. And Hollywood as a whole is adapting quickly to not rely on them as much as they did just a couple years ago. John Cena is probably kicking himself over spending all that time and money to learn how to grovel in Mandarin.
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'Avatar 2' Bombs in China - but Otherwise Soars to $661 Million Global Box Office | Chart
James Cameron's "The Way of Water" continues the pattern of Hollywood blockbusters - but not Chinese tentpoles - struggling in the Middle Kingdomwww.thewrap.com
The development of new technology could be part of the problem.I wonder how much of the developmental cost for the new tech that was created was tied to WoW. The third film which has already been shot could be alot more profitable given developmental costs for new tech could be lower.
Maybe I’m missing something but $100M already in China seems like a win given the state of things there. If things improve health wise in upcoming weeks or even months, that should really pick up and could certainly get to something like $350-400M which would be more than the original film. I mean, sure, the box office has certainly been undercut there but it’s got time to do fine given it is likely to be “leggy”.
I guess I’m confused by any talk of this film underperforming in general. Seems like it’s doing very well and has minimal competition ahead.
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