China's taste in movies: Actors' attractiveness that important? - Gods of Egypt

[MicroBrew]

So do you have some superior metric to quantify this national Goodwill towards a movie? Please share your secret access to China's zeitgeist.

I just go by the reports on Chinese reaction to movies like Transformers and other such CGI dumb movies relative to their reaction to great movies .

 

[Zazen]

This thread is just nonsense. All of the big money movies in America are the same thing. Big budget CGI films, lets not pretend that Americans are somehow superior in their taste of film.

Gods of Egypt isn't even popular over there. I was living there when the movie released and nobody was talking about it. Ready Player One did very well however. Gaming is huge over there and many people are addicted to it so the whole message of experiencing the real world rather than the virtual one really spoke to people.

I also want to mention that many movies never go to China. Their government censors a lot of things and so they only get about 35 or so foreign films per year. So yes some movies will simply do well because there aren't any better alternatives.

Oh and if you really want to know how Chinese think of a movie just visit douban.com

It is their version of IMDB

 

[JbModest]

the deal-breaker

Her sister was hot tho.

 

[0verlord]

They thought it was Carter..

 

[bad seed]

I just go by the reports on Chinese reaction to movies like Transformers and other such CGI dumb movies relative to their reaction to great movies .

and which reports might that be? You're sort of missing the point here that the vast majority of moviegoers in both China and USA just want to watch mindless fluff. There is absolutely no inherent sophistication or superiority to the American moviegoing audience. Do you think niche art films dont exist in China?

 

[Eusung]

This thread is just nonsense. All of the big money movies in America are the same thing. Big budget CGI films, lets not pretend that Americans are somehow superior in their taste of film.

Gods of Egypt isn't even popular over there. I was living there when the movie released and nobody was talking about it. Ready Player One did very well however. Gaming is huge over there and many people are addicted to it so the whole message of experiencing the real world rather than the virtual one really spoke to people.

I also want to mention that many movies never go to China. Their government censors a lot of things and so they only get about 35 or so foreign films per year. So yes some movies will simply do well because there aren't any better alternatives.

Oh and if you really want to know how Chinese think of a movie just visit douban.com

It is their version of IMDB

What's w/ this automatic assumption that the OP is comparing America to China?

Or that the go to response when a culture is under scrutiny...is to defend it by attacking Americans?

Box office results in the US are pretty similar to in the UK. For example, both the US and the UK are crazy about Star Wars compared to the rest of the world. Whenever a big movie comes out, the UK or South Korea (very recently) is usually #2 behind North America in box office numbers...unless the film manages to get lucky in China.

As someone living in Asia....I do honestly think Westerners are more passionate about story and character in movies....at least until recently.

Things have gotten much better in South Korea. The new generation are much more in tune with the plot of a movie...whereas just 10 years ago people would go watch a movie and forget the movie within a week. I remember watching movies with my ex GF (Korean) and I would try to chat with her the next day about the movie only to be disappointed that despite enjoying it a lot, she totally forgot like 90% of the film (No Country For Old Men, Warrior (the Tom Hardy mma movie))

But now...South Korea is the #3 market in the world for the MCU. The MCU would never have been a big thing in South Korea in previous decades. But the younger generation is much more able to keep up with franchises.

So many of the Gen Z in S. Korea love the MCU...and have watched almost every MCU film and keeps up with all MCU news.

they also love Game of Thrones here. Whereas previous generations (more conservative) wouldn't take too kindly to it.

They are so passionate about the story that they got pissed off over mistranslations in Avengers:



"We're at the Endgame now" got translated as "There is no hope" or "We are doomed".

It became a huge news story in Korea...and now almost everyone and their grandma there knows the definition of "endgame" LOL...

 

[TheLinguist]

How is it that Gods of Egypt is so popular in China? So much that Chadwick Boseman won most popular American actor in China?

Is it because it has attractive people in it by Hollywood/entertainment business traditional standards?

I read an article about how Chinese audiences want to see beautiful people in movies....and that's one of the reasons they didn't watch The Last Jedi. They saw it as insulting and a slap in the face that such an "ugly American stereotype" was chosen to represent them. They also joked that if Will Smith was Finn, not John Boyega, they would have been more willing to watch.

So is the attractiveness of the cast THAT important in China?

Sure in South Korea and Japan they are very vain and obsessed with looks....but it isn't a deal breaker...not to the point where freakin news articles are written about how "ugly" the actors of a movie are (The LAst Jedi).

Haven’t read or heard this anywhere, asked a bunch of colleagues and they have never seen gods of Egypt.

Star Wars isn’t like here mainly because the original triology came out around the same time when Mao Ze Dong died.

So no childhood fandom

That and the new movies are shit no matter what country you happen to be from.

 

[Eusung]

Haven’t read or heard this anywhere, asked a bunch of colleagues and they have never seen gods of Egypt.

Star Wars isn’t like here mainly because the original triology came out around the same time when Mao Ze Dong died.

So no childhood fandom

That and the new movies are shit no matter what country you happen to be from.

You are absolutely correct.

It's a combination of the two. The Force Awakens didn't do awful in China. It made 125 million...not terrible. TLJ made 1/3 of that. That's a huge decline.

S. Korea didn't exactly grow up with SW either...I mean they had access to it...but not many people were big fans of it in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. The Star Wars that most people of Gen X are familiar with are the prequels.

The first Star Wars movie to be popular in Korea was The Force Awakens. It created a new big group of fans in South Korea...because the kids never saw A New Hope...so to them it was a fresh original story.
then The Last Jedi did the opposite of TFA and made less than 8 million here (TFA made 24 million...66% drop just like China, ouch)

SW at the S. Korea box office (adjusted cuz S. Korea prices in late 90s early 2000s super cheap)

The Force Awakens: 25.1 million
Revenge of the Sith: 13 million
The Phantom Menace: 10.6 million
Attack of the Clones: 9.8 million
The Last Jedi: 7.9 million
Rogue One: 7.7 million
Solo: 1.8 million (OUCH.....)

 

[Plutoburn]

Surprised Rogue One did so little considering Donnie Yen is in it.

 

[TheLinguist]

You are absolutely correct.

It's a combination of the two. The Force Awakens didn't do awful in China. It made 125 million...not terrible. TLJ made 1/3 of that. That's a huge decline.

S. Korea didn't exactly grow up with SW either...I mean they had access to it...but not many people were big fans of it in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. The Star Wars that most people of Gen X are familiar with are the prequels.

The first Star Wars movie to be popular in Korea was The Force Awakens. It created a new big group of fans in South Korea...because the kids never saw A New Hope...so to them it was a fresh original story.
then The Last Jedi did the opposite of TFA and made less than 8 million here (TFA made 24 million...66% drop just like China, ouch)

SW at the S. Korea box office (adjusted cuz S. Korea prices in late 90s early 2000s super cheap)

The Force Awakens: 25.1 million
Revenge of the Sith: 13 million
The Phantom Menace: 10.6 million
Attack of the Clones: 9.8 million
The Last Jedi: 7.9 million
Rogue One: 7.7 million
Solo: 1.8 million (OUCH.....)

Most informative.

Solo was sooo bad

 

[TheLinguist]

Surprised Rogue One did so little considering Donnie Yen is in it.

Donnie yen is an arrogant prick and it came to light a few years ago, the public aren’t as hot about him as before. I’ve also met him and have two stories about him being a massive prick

 

[Eusung]

Donnie yen is an arrogant prick and it came to light a few years ago, the public aren’t as hot about him as before. I’ve also met him and have two stories about him being a massive prick

Would love to hear it.

 

[MaureenCretis]

the deal-breaker

 

[loyalyolayal]

Donnie yen is an arrogant prick and it came to light a few years ago, the public aren’t as hot about him as before. I’ve also met him and have two stories about him being a massive prick

You don't end a post like that.

 

[moreorless87]

I also want to mention that many movies never go to China. Their government censors a lot of things and so they only get about 35 or so foreign films per year. So yes some movies will simply do well because there aren't any better alternatives.

I would imagine this is a big factor in certain films doing surprisingly well in China, people want to see a Hollywood release and they'll only be one option for maybe 2-3 weeks.

One thing I think people underestimate is how much the Chinese love Americana, its I'd imagine a large part of why stuff like Fast and the Furious does so well over there.

 

[bad seed]

One thing I think people underestimate is how much the Chinese love Americana, its I'd imagine a large part of why stuff like Fast and the Furious does so well over there.

How is F&F representative of Americana? It has the most diverse cast of any franchise and popularized import car culture.

 

[moreorless87]

How is F&F representative of Americana? It has the most diverse cast of any franchise and popularized import car culture.

Americana in a more modern sense rather than just the Malbro man, Fast and Furious is very much following your MTV kind of image of the US that itself is getting on a bit in age.

What China doesn't seem to have as much of as Japan in the same Anglophile obcessions that make films like Harry Potter so massive there.

 

[MicroBrew]

and which reports might that be? You're sort of missing the point here that the vast majority of moviegoers in both China and USA just want to watch mindless fluff. There is absolutely no inherent sophistication or superiority to the American moviegoing audience. Do you think niche art films dont exist in China?

I think there certainly is a difference in countries' audiences reaction to movies. China does seem to have a general audience that is more easily satisfied with FX and big name stars in lieu of plot and script. But they are still much more critical than South Asian audiences who are easily satisfied with garbage. Japan seems to have a much more discriminatory audience than China . And I would say Western Europe is much more discriminatory than America and less likely to be entertained by mindless garbage.

 

[Eusung]

I think there certainly is a difference in countries' audiences reaction to movies. China does seem to have a general audience that is more easily satisfied with FX and big name stars in lieu of plot and script. But they are still much more critical than South Asian audiences who are easily satisfied with garbage. Japan seems to have a much more discriminatory audience than China . And I would say Western Europe is much more discriminatory than America and less likely to be entertained by mindless garbage.

They had to rename the Captain America movies in Germany.

And the Cap movies still under performed there.

 

[TheLinguist]

You don't end a post like that.

I’ll make a thread on it rather than distract from this thread