Hollywood blockbusters at one point were guaranteed success over seas in China but recently this has not shown to be the case.Two big indicators to foreign film companies that this was in fact the case were Dunkirk and Transformers:The Last Knight both films did terrible at the box office as Box Office Mojo reports Dunkirk made only a little over 51 million dollars at the Chinese box office, as well Dunkirk was boycotted by Chinese audiences as Will Butler reported. Transformers:The Last Knight how ever is much more of the indicator to Hollywood and the foreign companies of the failing blockbusters
Transformers is a film series that makes almost all of its profits overseas in China, the series about robots from a another world fighting their battles here on Earth are huge with Chinese audiences so much so that the last entry in the series, Transformers:Age of Extinction, had its last act take place in China. As Paul Schrodt of The Outline reported that film grossed 320 million dollars at the Chinese box office where as Transformers:The Last Knight grossed only 229 million.
Numerous reports have shown that more and more Hollywood blockbusters are failing in China, a good question to ask is of course why is this happening? The answer is quiet clear as The Outline put it "Hollywood's current strategy of trying to appease American and Chinese audiences simultaneously";it is no surprise that while still catering to American audiences Hollywood has been trying much harder to appease Chinese audiences, and this mixed message to filmmakers on who they need to appease has led to many films receiving lukewarm reception in both American and China. As big Hollywood blockbusters fail in China smaller films seem to be succeeding.
Sylvester Stallone is not only a big hit with American audiences he is now a big hit with Chinese audiences and the good thing is he comes cheap. Stallone's 2010 film The Expendables costed Chinese distributors only 3.4 million dollars for distribution rights and the film ended up grossing 216 million dollars and its sequel The Expendables 2 making 330 million dollars as South China Morning Post reported. The success of these cheaper to distribute films coupled with the huge success of domestic films like Wolf Warrior II have led the Chinese film market to rethink its approach to foreign films.
Suzanne Gaber of The Huffington Post talked about this changing relationship between Hollywood and China in her article "Why the China-Hollywood Relationship is Complicated". In the article Gaber talks about how enticing China's potential for a huge audience is to Hollywood, and this is especially important when you understand that American audiences are not taking to summer blockbusters like they use to. Derek Thompson of The Atlantic reported that 2017 was "the worst box office summer in more than a decade", with this past Labor day weekend being reported as the lowest in 20 years. The failing of the blockbuster here in the states shows why Hollywood was so dependent on China to bring in the big bucks. Dwayne Johnson star of this past summers blockbuster flop Baywatch was quoted on twitter as saying it was fine for Baywatch to not do so hot in the states since since it's international opening had not even happened, China end up not even distributing the film.
Hollywood blockbusters are seeming to bomb both in the states and abroad, it seems that China is no longer the safety net for Hollywood like in the past. Hollywood now has to rethink it's films for next summer top guarantee success in America, China and the rest of the world; It will be likely that more films like Spider-Man Homecoming and Wonder Women will be produced seeing how these films preformed extremely well domestically and internationally.