After four years, "The Wandering Earth 2" exceeded one million US dollars in North America, not only maintaining a box office performance similar to its predecessor, but also setting a new high for Chinese films since 2019.
However, on the other hand, compared with Asian neighbors such as Japan and India, the exposure of Chinese-language films overseas is still limited, and it may be difficult to reverse the disadvantage by relying on the play of a single project.
More than one million lines were released simultaneously, and the overall reputation was better than the previous work
According to IMDbPro statistics, "The Wandering Earth 2" has been rolled out to 142 theaters in North America since the 27th, and the weekend box office reached 1.44 million US dollars, just ranking 10th on the list, with a single revenue of 10,100 US dollars.
In fact, "The Wandering Earth 2" has been released since the 22nd, that is, the previous Sunday, but the specific data was not disclosed at that time; As of the 29th, "The Wandering Earth 2" has accumulated to 3.01 million US dollars, and it can be speculated that the total harvest in the first 5 days should be 1.57 million US dollars.
In contrast, "The Wandering Earth" debuted on Tuesday in February 2019, with a total of $1.69 million in the first weekend, and a total of $2.19 million in the first six days, and the results of the two films are difficult to directly compare. However, the release scope of "The Wandering Earth" is only 64 theaters, and the revenue of a single theater exceeds 26,000 US dollars, which is significantly higher than the sequel.
Among the new films that debuted at the same time, "The Wandering Earth 2" is not the best non-Hollywood film. "Patan" starring Shah Rukh Khan debuted on the 25th, earning $1.49 million in 647 theaters on the first day, even surpassing "Avatar: The Way of Water" to win the first place on the day, becoming the second film to beat the latter this year. Subsequently, "Patan" expanded slightly to 695 theaters, earning $6.88 million in the first weekend, and $9,902 in revenue per museum, accumulating $9.48 million.
As a result, "Patan" broke into the top three of the weekend list, second only to "Avatar: The Way of Water" and "Puss in Boots 2", two "old faces", far behind other new films such as "Doomsday: The Rise of the Antichrist", "Infinity Pool", "Billy Alish: O2 Live" and "No Need to Fear".
In the past weekend, "The Wandering Earth 2" fell 56.5% to $624,000, and the cumulative box office has exceeded $4.12 million, and it is expected to eventually be closer to its predecessor. In contrast, although "Patan" fell 61% the following week, it earned $14.26 million in two weeks, becoming the first foreign language film in North America to break 10 million this year.
From the perspective of word of mouth, the freshness of "The Wandering Earth 2" is 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the popcorn index that characterizes the audience's preference reaches 96%, which is higher than the 70% and 49% of the previous work, respectively; In the end, "The Wandering Earth" ended with $5.88 million, and the sequel is expected to catch up with or even surpass this achievement. In addition, the two indicators of "Patan" are 90% and 81%, which is closer to the wind rating of "The Wandering Earth 2".
Even in the face of the impact of many new films, "Avatar: The Way of Water" shrank by 21% to $15.97 million, with a cumulative box office of more than $620 million, completing an astonishing seven consecutive championships without suspense, equaling the streak of the previous "Avatar". In its seventh weekend alone, "Avatar: The Way of Water" just surpassed "Top Gun: The Lone Ranger" ($15.51 million), but the gap between the two has narrowed to more than $20 million, and the battle for the North American title is tilting towards Tom Cruise.
DreamWorks animation "Puss in Boots 2" once again showed super stamina, only falling 10% to $10.62 million, and North America has exceeded $140 million, about to catch up with the overall result of the first film ($149 million). After opening with a low $12.43 million in the opening weekend, "Puss in Boots 2" remained above $10 million for the next 5 weeks, and the decline never exceeded 20%. After a three-year turbulent period of no single piece breaking 100 million, "Puss in Boots 2" achieved a turnaround with a high reputation, putting DreamWorks Animation back on track.
In addition, among the works shortlisted for the Oscar "Best Picture" competition, "Instantaneous Universe", which led with 11 nominations, struck while the iron was hot, and it was estimated to win $1.01 million after falling to 1,400 theaters, and the cumulative box office increased to $71.02 million, continuing to push up the single-film extreme value of distributor A24. "Women's Talk" jumped 156% after expanding to 707 theaters, ranking 15th with $970,000. Other multi-nomination "Inisherin's Banshee" (+381%), "Lust for Life" (+353%), "Triangle of Pathos" (+324%) and "Tal (+142%) also rose significantly, but "Dream House" only rose 68% after adding 1,015 theaters, and its ranking fell from 12th to 17th.
Supported by "Avatar: The Way of Water" and a number of new films, the North American market edged down 2.3% to $72.43 million over the weekend; It is worth mentioning that the top 14 films all harvested more than $1 million over the weekend, slightly lower than the week (15 films) led by "Bullet Train" on August 12 last year, setting the second highest number of records in nearly three years. As a result, the total box office in January was fixed at $581 million, up 49.1% from the same period last year, making a good start for 2023.
Chinese-language films will retreat if they do not advance, and Asian neighbors remain strong
"The Wandering Earth 2" grossed more than one million US dollars over the weekend, setting a new high in North America for Chinese films in the past three years.
In 2020, when the global theaters suffered a huge shock, only "Pioneer" and "Jiang Ziya" landed in the North American market, accumulating 794,000 and 215,000 US dollars respectively, while high-grossing films such as "Eight Hundred" and "Me and My Hometown" did not appear. Of course, looking at the whole year, only "Trip to Busan 2: Peninsula" exceeded one million foreign language films in North America, highlighting the difficult situation faced by the entire film industry at that time.
Entering 2021, with the gradual recovery of the offline viewing format in the spring, the North American market ushered in the outbreak of more non-Hollywood movies, "Ghost Slayer Blade Theatrical Version Infinite Train" collected nearly 50 million US dollars, "My Hero Academia: World Hero Mission", "Freckled Princess", "Drive My Car" and "Sword Art Online Attack Aria of Starless Night" all exceeded the million line, and "The World's Worst Man" and "Pushpa: Rise - Part 1" from Norway and India also collided.
In contrast, the performance of Chinese-language films is still unimproving, with the highest-grossing Hong Kong films "Anita Mui" and "Furious Heavy Case" getting 557,000 and 385,000 US dollars respectively, "Changjin Lake" 333,000 US dollars can only be regarded as better than nothing, "Hello, Li Huanying" and "Detective Chinatown 3" are even missing.
This downturn continued until last year: "This Killer Is Not Calm" and "Changjin Lake Water Gate Bridge" earned $186,000 and $117,000 respectively, while "Walking on the Moon Alone" and "Miracle Stupid Child" handed over white rolls. In contrast, Japanese movies still maintain the top position, with "Dragon Ball Super Super Heroes", "Spell Return 0 Theatrical Version" and "One Piece: Red" all easily exceeding ten million dollars.
In addition, Indian films that have been hit hard in the previous two years have also made a strong comeback, not only "RRR: The Two Heroes Uprising" set a new box office high since "Baahubali King 2: The End", but also more than 10 works in 2022 exceeded the million dollar line. The recovery journey of Korean films is a little bumpy, in addition to the live concert Permission to Dance of South Korean boy group BTS which received 6.84 million US dollars, Park Chan-wook's "Determination to Break Up" lasted more than 2 million US dollars, and the local champion "Crime City 2" stopped at 813,000 US dollars.
Although the results of Chinese-language films in North America before 2020 are also difficult to say, in 2019, "The Wandering Earth" and "Nezha: The Devil Child Descends" both exceeded 3 million US dollars, and many reached more than 500,000 US dollars, maintaining basic exposure in the local area. This time, "The Wandering Earth 2" has returned to the million line, laying the foundation for Chinese films to regain confidence.
Compared with foreign language films competing for audience attention in North American theaters, Hollywood giants' dominance in the world is quite solid. As of January 29, the global box office of "Avatar: The Way of Water" soared to more than $2.116 billion, rising to No. 4 in film history while only less than $100 million from "Titanic" in front of him.
Disney also said that in addition to the North American copyright of "Titanic" still belongs to Paramount, the remaining two "Avatar", "Avengers 4: Endgame" and "Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens" ranked in the top 5 in film history are all under its command, highlighting the strong brand appeal of Marvel, Lucasfilm and the original Fox assets. It is worth mentioning that "Avatar: The Way of Water" topped the film history in France with more than 136 million US dollars, becoming the largest overseas market with a local record.
At the same time, the global harvest of "Puss in Boots 2" rose to $334 million, attracting a lot of audiences outside of home; considering that the UK (February 3) and Japan (March 17) are still awaiting debuts, "Puss in Boots 2" is expected to eventually move closer to $400 million, even surpassing "Walking on the Moon" into the top 10 of the overall list.
In a preview report released this week by The-Numbers, the total box office forecast for North America in 2023 was revised up to $8.8 billion, largely driven by the overproduction of a number of films in January. Among them, the summer top three "Guardians of the Galaxy 3", "Captain Fantastic 2" and "Indiana Jones 5" are all expected to exceed 300 million US dollars.
In other words, if there are 1 or 2 500 million films similar to "Top Gun: The Lone Ranger", the total revenue for the year has the opportunity to hit the $9 billion mark, that is, another 22% increase from 2022. Although there is still a gap from the record of $11.9 billion set in 2018, it is more feasible to at least return above the 10 billion line.