Barbie Opens in China to Disappointing Start, as Local Films Dominate

Barbie Opens in China to Disappointing Start, as Local Films Dominate

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie opened in China on Friday to a disappointing start, finishing in fifth place at the box office. The Warner Bros. comedy-fantasy has only earned $670,000 (RMB 4.8 million) as of 12 p.m. local time.

Local Chinese films, on the other hand, are doing big business. Action comedy Wonder Family is in first place with $4.6 million in sales for the day, followed by the first installment of Chinese director Wuershan’s historical fantasy Fengshen Trilogy.

The soft start for Barbie is a continuation of a trend of Hollywood films earning less in China than they once did. Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One debuted in third place in China last weekend, behind a pair of holdover Chinese hits.

In the first half of 2023, total ticket sales for U.S. movies in China clocked in at just $592 million, a 69 percent slide from the $1.9 billion earned during the same stretch in 2019. Local Chinese movies, on the other hand, are performing better than ever, with ticket revenue surging to $2.8 billion in the first half of the year.

The reasons for the decline in Hollywood’s box office performance in China are complex, but they likely include factors such as the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, as well as the rise of streaming services in China.

It remains to be seen whether Barbie will be able to turn things around in China, but for now, it seems that local films are the ones to beat at the box office.

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