Avatar: Way of the Water tanked in China, which once again shows that Hollywood sold its soul to China’s Nazis for no good reason.
Avatar 2 was supposed to clear $120 million in China this weekend. Instead, it grossed just $57 million. China is the world’s second-biggest movie market after North America.
And so, “it’s now unknown if the mega-budget sequel [Avatar 2] will match even the $159 million Chinese gross of Universal’s ‘Jurassic World Dominion.’”
Compare that to previous Chinese grosses… [emphasis mine]
…“Avengers: Infinity War” ($356 million in 2018), “Furious 7” ($380 million in 2015)” and “Fate of the Furious” ($390 million in 2017).
The original “Avatar” earned $203 million in China back in 2010, grossing that record-breaking figure on around 7% of the screens that are currently available. Hollywood reacted to the sky-high result by spending a decade chasing Chinese box office (setting tentpoles like “Transformers: Age of Extinction” in China, changing scripts like “World War Z” to make China look more heroic, etc.) as a supplement to its four-quadrant franchise blockbusters and to partially make up for lost DVD revenue.
But here’s the thing…
Hollywood only earned a return of 25 percent of the gross from China, compared to around 50 percent here in the good ole U.S. of A.
Fast-forward to today, and not only is China failing to deliver the gross box office returns it once did, but the fascist slave state is also not allowing as many American movies into its theaters. At one time, pretty much every blockbuster got over the Great Wall. Now very few do.
This really is the perfect case of selling your soul. It always works out this way, doesn’t it? The Devil always tricks you, always screws you, and you discover it wasn’t worth the cost. Forget eternal damnation. You lose the trade right here on earth.
Hollywood tossed out its artistic integrity to satisfy China’s fascist, sexless censors.
Hollywood rejiggered its entire theatrical business model around massive, expensive $500 million gambles to appeal to China’s population.
Hollywood killed its star-making farm teams to drop anyone with muscles in front of green screens wearing spandex and capes. Obliterated was the movie star, the one commodity that can draw $100 million in grosses from a $30 million comedy, drama, romance, or action movie.
Dumb, dumb, dumb…
And now Hollywood is stuck gambling a half-billion dollars every single time. Why? Because it’s all they’ve got left. Hollywood has nothing else to put butts in seats. The star system is dead. And for what? For a Chinese market that turned into a Big Nothing, and now it’s all superhero movies that are losing their luster.
If you look at the past, film genres tend to last about 15 years. Raunchy teen comedies, slasher movies, buddy cop actioners, romantic comedies, science fiction… Hollywood gets about 15 years before audiences tire and move on. Iron Man came out in 2008, and audiences are now tired of spandex and dinosaurs. Sure, these movies still make a lot of money, but not enough to make much of a profit anymore. Nevertheless, you can feel the air going out of them. The excitement is gone. It’s more like we’re being force-marched into Wakanda and Black Adam and Dr. Strange and Thor and Jurassic Whatever because there’s nothing else in theaters. No alternatives.
And that’s Hollywood’s biggest problem. In the past, as audiences tired of a genre, another was waiting in the wings to save the day. The great character dramas of the 70s replaced the Western. Those were replaced by sci-fi. Action movies replaced sci-fi. Superhero movies replaced action movies. What’s next?
Nothing.
Hollywood went all-in to appease China, and there’s no Plan B warming up in the batter’s box.
Stars are gone.
Sex appeal is gone.
Inspiration is gone.
All that’s left are smug lectures, green screens, bloat, bluster, drag queens, and muscle-bound men preaching against masculinity.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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