China’s Film Industry Is Gaining on Hollywood

Since mid-July, the biggest movie outside the U.S. hasn’t featured a Marvel superhero or dinosaurs from a revamped franchise or even an American action star. It hasn’t been an American film at all, but a Chinese animation/live-action fantasy, Monster Hunt, about a baby monster smuggled through ancient China. Directed by Raman Hui, a director of DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek the Third, Monster Hunt opened in China on July 16 and immediately broke records: Its Saturday, July 18, tally of $29.8 million stands as the biggest single-day gross for a Chinese film and tops the opening day take of many Western hits, including 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction, which grossed $27 million on its first day. Ticket sales have reached $211 million, making Monster Hunt the highest-grossing Chinese movie ever and, with a $40 million budget, profitable, too.

Monster Hunt, produced by Hong Kong studio Edko Films, isn’t the only domestic hit lighting up Chinese box offices. Superhero parody Pancake Man, directed by and starring popular online comedian Da Peng, has brought in $132 million since opening on July 17—its budget was $13 million. The movie was released by privately owned Wanda Media, the film and TV production arm of Wanda Group, one of the country’s biggest conglomerates. The two movies’ success reflects both the growth of Chinese audiences and the maturing of the nation’s film industry. On July 18 the Chinese box office hit $70.2 million in one day, almost all from local films. “You’re seeing Chinese filmmakers getting better at their craft,” says Rance Pow, head of the film industry consulting firm Artisan Gateway.