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Disney/Marvel’s The Marvels has secured a China release on November 10, day-and-date with North America. The sequel to the $1 billion+ worldwide grossing Captain Marvel is the latest major studio tentpole to be granted access to the market since Oppenheimer went out August 30. It’s also wasting no time in spreading the word locally, leveraging the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day/Golden Week celebrations across the next week.
Marvel titles, as with many Hollywood movies in the post-pandemic era, have seen soft returns in the once highly lucrative market as the local industry has bulked up and audience tastes turned more inward. What’s more, films with Marvel characters were also unofficially banned for a three-and-a-half year period until Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was granted a release in February, months after its rollout elsewhere. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania followed (in step with the rest of international rollout), grossing a little over $39M, a vast drop from the previous movie. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 then took in $87M in May (slightly more than 2014’s original, but down from the 2017 sequel which topped $100M — all are unadjusted rates).
The Marvels will hit China with plenty of time for advance promotion. Already today, the Marvel Weibo account announced that “The Power of Marvel” will be promoted at Shanghai’s Bund Finance Center during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day/Golden Week holidays from September 29-October 6. At the same site, and unrelated to Marvel, Shine reported today, there will be festive art installations and a ‘Super Moon’ installation “to create a romantic ambiance for both citizens and expats.”
This is a key period for getting the word out given moviegoing is expected to be significant with such local films releasing for the holiday period as The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan, Zhang Yimou crime drama Under the Light, Chen Kaige’s The Volunteers: To the War, Andy Lau-starrer Moscow Mission and sports pic Lose to Win, among others. Also in the mix is Paramount/Nickelodeon’s Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie. Although it’s the only import this session, local media enthused this week that it “delivers furr-tastic fun and adventure” and “children clearly love it.”
Whether talent eventually makes it to China to tubthump The Marvels remains to be seen. Stars overall have not really been visiting since the pandemic began. Jason Statham did appear at the Shanghai Film Festival in June on behalf of Warner Bros’ Chinese co-production Meg 2: The Trench; and more recently Christopher Nolan, in support of Oppenheimer, became the first major filmmaker to go to China since the pandemic. That movie is closing in on $60M and has been granted an extension to October 29 there. Regardless, the SAG-AFTRA strike currently makes it impossible to make plans.
Captain Marvel, back in the heyday of 2019, and a month before Avengers: Endgame started its $632M China run, made over $154M in China (at historic rates).
The Marvels is directed by Nia DaCosta and stars Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani and Samuel L. Jackson.
In the sequel, Larson’s Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. However, unintended consequences see her shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with two other superheroes to form The Marvels.
Overseas rollout begins November 8 with North America, and now China, joining November 10.