Hollywood’s summer release schedule in China is coming into greater focus.
Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Paramount’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts have both locked down release dates in the country, which remains a major potential revenue driver for U.S. tentpole films.
Across the Spider-Verse will open June 2, followed by Transformers 7 on June 9. Each film will release simultaneously in North America, which should help with marketing momentum.
Other major U.S. films to recently have gotten the green light from Beijing’s film regulators include Marvel/Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5), Universal’s Fast X (May 17) and Warner Bros.’ long-coming DC superhero entry, The Flash (June 16).
Collectively, the tentpoles will provide some valuable insight into the current health of the Chinese film market for Hollywood movie product. Recently, U.S. movies have stumbled in China, while Japanese anime is on the rise. Disney/Marvel’s Ant-Man 3 earned only $39 million (compared to China totals of more than $100 million for each of its franchise predecessors) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie has brought in just $20 million, a smaller than usual share of its boffo $895 million global total. And Warner Bros’ Shazam! Fury of the Gods earned a scant $6 million, but that film was a disappointment everywhere, totaling just $133 million globally.
Some analysts have begun to speculate that the past few years of spiraling diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China have begun to take a significant toll on the popularity of American pop culture among Chinese consumers. By mid-June, Hollywood should have an answer on whether it needs to reassess the current earnings potential of the world’s second-largest theatrical box-office territory.
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