Marvel’s superhero series looks set to continue its 11-year reign in China’s box office market with Avengers: Endgame
- Avengers: Endgame has sold a fresh record 540 million yuan (US$80 million) in advance tickets
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe has generated US$2.5 billion with 21 films in China, regarded as the most successful superhero series
China has further burnished its role in the Marvel universe with one of the world’s biggest, and most enthusiastic base of fans for the superhero storyline.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures’ Avengers Endgame has sold a fresh record 550 million yuan (US$82 million) in advance tickets, putting it on track to surpass the 2.4 billion yuan in box office receipts by the 2018 instalment Avengers: Infinity War, according to data by China’s largest online ticket site, Maoyan Entertainment.
Eyed as “a rescuer of China’s box office”, the blockbuster, due for release on Friday, is set to hit the market when movie ticket sales plunged to the worst level in two and half years.
“Endgame is the most anticipated film so far and could boost the overall weak market,” said Wei Hongmei, an analyst for Dongguan Securities. “Many people look forward to the film as they wonder what happened to the heroes after the events of Infinity War, and it is the last film for the Avengers series. It carries the memory of many Chinese fans.”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero franchise has dominated as China’s most popular since 2008.
The media franchise has generated more than 17 billion yuan in ticket sales throughout the 21 films released, according to Dengta, the box office data app developed by Alibaba’s ticketing service Taopiaopiao.
China is also an increasingly important overseas market for Marvel.
In 2012, Marvel’s The Avengers earned 568 million yuan (US$85 million) in box office receipts in China, representing 9.5 per cent of the film’s overseas sales.
In August, Avengers Infinity War set a record as the most successful foreign film in the country, grossing 2.4 billion yuan, or 26 per cent of the film’s overseas box office receipts. Captain Marvel, which is still showing in China, has collected more than 1 billion yuan, more than a fifth of the film’s overseas sales.
Marvel looks set to continue its box office success with the upcoming Avengers Endgame.
Avengers 4 could “reach 3 billion yuan or more” in box office takings, according to Huatai Securities’ analyst Xu Juan.
The movie, which counts Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in the ensemble cast, is particularly appealing to a postmillennial male audience. As much as 56 per cent of the 1.8 million people who have expressed a desire to see the movie are men, while 81 per cent are between 20 and 34 years old, according to data released Monday by Maoyan.
The latest release is welcome news for cinema operators, as ticket sales declined 19 per cent in March to 4.14 billion yuan. A forecast by Caitong Securities points to April ticket sales to rise by a third to 5.15 billion yuan.
The rising tide could bolster China’s listed film distributors, cinema operators and ticket sales platforms.
China Film Group, the state monopoly that is a codistributor of the Avengers movie, may earn between 147 million yuan and 188 million yuan in related sales, Xu said.
China Film’s shares have risen 20 per cent in the past two weeks. They pulled back 1.8 per cent on Monday to close at 21.25 yuan on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Wanda Film, a unit of Dalian Wanda Group, has also gained 16 per cent in the past two weeks. The share rose 0.7 per cent to 26.19 yuan in Shenzhen on Monday.
Hong Kong-listed IMAX China Holding, the Chinese unit of the company that specialises in wide-format movies, has risen 18 per cent in the five trading days to April 18. The Hong Kong market was closed on Friday and Monday for public holidays.
Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.
