Donald Trump’s bizarre trade war is likely to now see China banning Hollywood movies from its cinemas. More here.
While the era of vast box office sums fattening the coffers of Hollywood studios has dwindled down hugely in the past few years, American movies still managed to earn almost $600m at the Chinese box office last year, a not insignificant amount when everybody is scrabbling around trying to find fresh streams of revenue in a new economic reality.
Speaking of new economic realities, the orange president of the United States has begun a trade war (you may have heard about it) with just about every nation he can find on the globe in the Oval Office, plus some penguins. Presumably after spinning it wildly and pointing a wherever it stops with vengeful glee (the globe, not the penguin). After China responded to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products with retaliatory tariffs of its own, Trump has threatened even greater measures which have, in turn have reportedly led China to consider a series of responses, including banning all US films.
The age of China providing a huge box office boost to American studios is long gone now: you’d have to go all the way back to 2012 to a golden era for Hollywood when seven out of the top 12 films at the Chinese box office were American. Even as recently as 2019 though, Avengers: Endgame picked up a cool $600m at the Chinese box office.
Last year, all of Hollywood’s films that got past the increasingly tricky film censorship board only made $600m in total, but should a total ban be decreed, that’s still $600m that US studios are going to have to find elsewhere. Executives behind some of this year’s biggest action blockbusters such as Jurassic World: Rebirth or Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning might already be hastily revising their finanical outllooks accordingly.
We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it. It’s brilliant when very rich people get the levels of power.
