For the past four years, Chinese audiences haven’t shown much interest in Hollywood movies.
So, the breakout success of Disney and 20th Century’s “Alien: Romulus,” a gory sci-fi thriller that earns its R rating, has been a welcome surprise. The newest chapter in the long-running horror saga has been the rare bright spot among American imports with $82 million and counting in mainland China. It’s expected to reach $114 million (RMB819) by the end of its theatrical run, according to forecast from Chinese ticketing agency Maoyan.
So far, only one other 2024 U.S. title, the Warner Bros. tentpole “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” has managed to make a dent on China’s box office charts with $134 million. And in terms of Hollywood wins, those riches come with an asterisk because the monster mashup was produced by Chinese-owned Legendary Entertainment and distributed by the company’s China local unit Legendary East.
Otherwise, major studio offerings like Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($58.6 million), Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” ($54.9 million), Universal’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” ($51.7 million) and Disney’s “Inside Out 2” ($47.1 million), brought back modest returns in China, but far less than would have been expected a short five years ago. Disney’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” ($28.9 million) basically a wipeout while Warner’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” ($8.3 million) and Apple and Universal’s spy thriller “Argylle” ($2 million) were painful flops.
In the case of “Alien: Romulus,” box office analysts are impressed the movie was permitted to play in China at all. It’s only the third (of seven) films in the “Alien” franchise to score a release in China. 2012’s “Prometheus” generated a decent $35.2 million and 2017’s “Alien: Covenant” earned a healthy $45 million. But those ticket sales weren’t all much at a time when Hollywood blockbusters — Pixar’s “Coco” ($189 million), “War for the Planet of the Apes” ($112 million), “Thor: Ragnarok” ($112 million) and the mammoth “The Fate of the Furious” ($392 million) — were regularly crushing the $100 million mark in Chinese theaters
Box office analysts point to several reasons for the unexpectedly promising performance of “Alien: Romulus,” including positive reviews and word-of-mouth — with strong scores on local rating systems Maoyan (8.9 out of 10), Taopiaopiao (9.1 out of 10) and Douban (7.5 out of 10). There’s also been a dearth of compelling local options and a void of truly scary movies. China’s summer season slate has been heavy on crime, comedy and feel-good dramas, and short on anything with much bite. And moviegoers were able to watch “Romulus” in all its uncensored glory. Unlike “Deadpool & Wolverine,” in which drug references and sexual innuendos were removed for Chinese audiences, the “Alien” movie is playing in China without any cuts. That’s rare for an R-rated picture in the market, since theatrical films can be accessed by moviegoers of all ages.
“It’s surprising an R-rated horror film got into China, but ironically that’s one of the major reasons for its success,” says Stanley Rosen, a professor of political science and international relations at USC. “It’s very different than anything else playing in China at this time.”
And although “Romulus” extends a franchise that began 45 years ago with Ridley Scott’s 1979 monster adventure “Alien,” Rosen believes the newest entry benefitted from the fact that audiences don’t need to have seen every prior installment to make sense of the latest action with xenomorphs. Fede Alvarez directed the film, which centers on young intergalactic colonists (Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux and Isabela Merced) who come face to face with a terrifying life form while scavenging a rundown space station.
“Even though ‘Romulus’ references prior ‘Alien’ films, you can see this one as a standalone story unlike, say, ‘Star Wars,’ where each one builds on the other,” Rosen says.
China’s government has absolute control over which movies play in theaters, and often avoids ones with salty language, gratuitous violence or blasphemy. However, censors have been more lenient in recent months in efforts to aid in the Chinese box office recovery, according to Erich Schwartzel, author of “Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy.” Revenues are down more than 21% in China compared to the same point in 2023. So, the box office could use a robust release calendar.
“Though Hollywood imports aren’t making as much as they used to, they’re still making some money in China,” he says. “The financial precariousness of the market has forced them to be more open with what they’re letting in.”
China was particularly strict about Hollywood fare between 2020 and 2022. Some of the decisions were political (“Top Gun: Maverick” was seen as unwelcome U.S. propaganda and not given an import permit) while others were due to grievances with Marvel (Disney’s “Eternals” and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” didn’t get in either). COVID’s impact on Hollywood production timelines and release schedules also contributed to the slowdown. Also during this time, China was limiting the number of approvals for movies that were made elsewhere.
These days, there’s little talk of quota restrictions. And even the Chinese regulators’ past practice of granting short marketing windows and unfavorable release dates to imported titles has been partly relaxed. “Alien: Romulus” enjoyed an old-fashioned day-and-date outing, opening on Aug. 16 in both China and North America.
This doesn’t mean that U.S. movies are having an easy time. It takes one hand to count the American-produced box office successes in China since the pandemic: “Fast X” ($139 million in 2023), “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($86 million in 2023), “Avatar: The Way of Water” ($245 million in 2022), “Jurassic World Dominion” ($157 million in 2022) and “F9: The Fast Saga” ($216 million in 2021).
Hollywood product used to dominate ticket sales in China. But that’s changed as Chinese audiences developed a stronger preference for local content. At the same time, China’s commercial filmmaking has improved in terms of budget, craft skills and emotional relevance. Box office grosses for feel-good boxing film “YOLO” ($639 million), sports comedy “Pegasus 2” ($474 million), social-climbing dramedy “Successor” ($454 million) and crime satire “Article 20” ($343 million) loom so large, “Alien” doesn’t pose much of a threat.
