Chinese market for American films

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July 18th, 2014 at 6:34:40 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Transformers: Age of Extinction currently has 73% of it's boxoffice from international market. That may rise.

Of the 18 billion dollar movies, only one made a slight majority of it's boxoffice take from the domestic market. But the percentages are rising. The last five years have seen more and more films with over 70% from the international market.

76.90% 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
72.70% 2009 Avatar
72.50% 2012 Skyfall
71.60% 2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
70.20% 2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
69.90% 1997 Titanic
68.60% 2011 Transformers: Dark of the Moon
68.40% 2013 Frozen
67.40% 2010 Alice in Wonderland (2010)
66.30% 2013 Iron Man 3
66.30% 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
61.00% 2010 Toy Story 3
60.90% 1993 Jurassic Park
60.30% 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
59.00% 2012 Marvel's The Avengers
58.70% 2012 The Dark Knight Rises
53.80% 1999 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
46.80% 2008 The Dark Knight

It's interesting that though all of these movies have a lot of CGI effects, only two are out and out animation.
July 23rd, 2014 at 2:36:26 PM permalink
beachbumbabs
Member since: Sep 3, 2013
Threads: 6
Posts: 1600
Quote: Evenbob
I consider movies like Transformers and Ironman
to be very violent, even it's machines fighting
machines. I always FF thru those parts, very boring.


Yeah, that's a problem for me in a lot of movies. For example, I started reading LotR at 12, probably re-read them 5 times by the time I left high school. I was beyond excited when they made the movies. And then, I found it really hard to watch any of them, because each had extended scenes of bloody and detailed war and dismemberment. Not that the books didn't; the movies were faithful to the account, but they were overlong on the gore and the fighting. I'm having the same problem trying to watch Game of Thrones; as excellent as the characters and the examination of human nature and failure are, the gore gives me nightmares. I had to quit around the end of the first season; it was just too graphic to enjoy.
Never doubt a small group of concerned citizens can change the world; it's the only thing ever has
July 23rd, 2014 at 3:46:11 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
I think a full hour of Two Towers is CGI battle
scenes. I always FF thru this, CGI bores me to
tears. But at times I like it. When Gandalf is
fighting the Balrog, it's very effective. And
when they fight the cave troll, that's well done
also. I was perplexed as to why Tom Bombadil
was left out of the movie. He was the only
character in the book not interested or effected
by the rings power.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
July 25th, 2014 at 7:03:25 AM permalink
beachbumbabs
Member since: Sep 3, 2013
Threads: 6
Posts: 1600
Quote: Evenbob
I think a full hour of Two Towers is CGI battle
scenes. I always FF thru this, CGI bores me to
tears. But at times I like it. When Gandalf is
fighting the Balrog, it's very effective. And
when they fight the cave troll, that's well done
also. I was perplexed as to why Tom Bombadil
was left out of the movie. He was the only
character in the book not interested or effected
by the rings power.


Funny you mention Tom Bombadil; I found that to be the biggest lack in the LotR movies, that he was overlooked/cut. I really liked that he was above the uses of power, and how much he cared for his Lady.
Never doubt a small group of concerned citizens can change the world; it's the only thing ever has
July 25th, 2014 at 1:00:25 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: beachbumbabs
Funny you mention Tom Bombadil; I found that to be the biggest lack in the LotR movies, that he was overlooked/cut. I really liked that he was above the uses of power, and how much he cared for his Lady.


Tolkein said of Bombadil:

'Tom Bombadil is not an important person — to the narrative. I suppose he has some importance as a 'comment.' I mean, I do not really write like that: he is just an invention, and he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyse the feeling precisely. I would not, however, have left him in, if he did not have some kind of function... And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally).'

I guess to put him in the movie would have
been confusing. Like Tolkein says, he wasn't
important to the narrative.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
July 26th, 2014 at 1:06:04 PM permalink
beachbumbabs
Member since: Sep 3, 2013
Threads: 6
Posts: 1600
Quote: Evenbob
Tolkein said of Bombadil:

'Tom Bombadil is not an important person — to the narrative. I suppose he has some importance as a 'comment.' I mean, I do not really write like that: he is just an invention, and he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyse the feeling precisely. I would not, however, have left him in, if he did not have some kind of function... And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally).'

I guess to put him in the movie would have
been confusing. Like Tolkein says, he wasn't
important to the narrative.


Great quote. I didn't know any of that.
Never doubt a small group of concerned citizens can change the world; it's the only thing ever has
July 26th, 2014 at 2:33:11 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: beachbumbabs
Great quote. I didn't know any of that.


If Tolkein himself doesn't know why he's there
exactly, we have no hope of figuring it out.
He made him up, as he did all the characters,
and didn't know what to do with him, so he
did nothing.

If you get into Tolkeins letters on discussing
LOTR, you realize what a literary genius he was.
LOTR didn't just happen, like a King novel,
typed in a cocaine haze over a few weeks. Tolkein
worked all of it out in his head over a period
on many many years, the whole time chumming
it up with fellow Oxford professor CS Lewis.
And we get Narnia and Middle-Earth out of it.

"Duriez tells the story of how these two brilliant authors met, discovered their common love for mythical tales, and pledged to bring such stories into the mainstream of public reading taste... Professionally, they studied and taught the literatures of medieval romance and, in Tolkien's case, the background of Norse myth. And they realized that it was only quite recently that such stories had become marginalized as children's stories... It dawned on both men that there was a need to create a readership again for these books—especially an adult readership."
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
July 27th, 2014 at 9:55:42 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
The fourth Transformers movie has now passed $300 million in China. Usually only three or four movies in Northern America pass $300 million.

Although the markets in billions of dollars for the three major cinematic areas of the world are similar
$10.9 U.S./Canada
$10.9 Europe, Middle East & Africa
$11.1 Asia Pacific
$3.0 Latin America

The total market does not reflect the 12 fold increase in 3D digital screens in Asia and Pacific. This will represent the top grossing films.
2013 3D Digital Screens
15,782 Northern America
15,813 Europe, the Middle East and Africa
17,726 Asia Pacific
3,748 Latin America
53,069 Total

2009 3D Digital Screens
3,548 U.S./Canada
3,487 Europe, the Middle East and Africa
1,584 Asia Pacific
362 Latin America
8,981 Total

China with a $3.6 billion in tickets will probably not surpass Northern America $10.9 billion for another decade, but the big CGI films will all have to please the Chinese censors to make the list of 34 films.


Lucy with a $40 million production budget has just made $44 MILLION domestically in three days. But it is not clear if the Chinese censors would permit this kind of film into their country.
June 28th, 2015 at 3:54:38 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
I finally saw the fourth Transformers movie.I didn't realize that they had battle scenes in both Chicago and Hong Kong. They also mixed in some Mandarin and Cantonese dialogue.

This storyline where the middle aged American falls either in love or lust with the beautiful Chinese woman is getting a little old. It just feels like pandering. But given the amount of money involved, I suppose pandering is to be expected.

Between Ted and Transformers Mark Wahlberg should just have the money truck drive up to his mansion.

Quote: Variety

Bay, Spielberg and Paramount kowtow for cash

Bay once again is showing the way forward for the American film industry, and this time, the path he has revealed is a dark one, and not just from the point of view of film critics and cineastes. My first reaction to “Age of Extinction” was that it was an astonishingly unpatriotic film. But I was wrong. “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” is a very patriotic film. It’s just Chinese patriotism on the screen, not American.

http://variety.com/2014/film/columns/transformers-age-of-extinction-patriotic-for-china-1201257030/
June 28th, 2015 at 12:52:10 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: Pacomartin
I finally saw the fourth Transformers movie.


It bored the crap out of me. Blue screen
acting always does. Like Gravity. Half or
more of that movie was made in front
of a blue screen and it drove Sandra
Bullock nuts. They had to do some scenes
50 and 60 times because she had nothing
to act against. Same with Transformers.
Cardboard acting.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
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