'Avengers: Endgame' is breaking box-office records in China, and it shows why Marvel is a more valuable franchise than 'Star Wars'
- "Avengers: Endgame" has become the first Hollywood movie to earn $500 million in China.
- The Marvel movie hit the milestone on Thursday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
- It's the latest example of how audiences in China love the Marvel Cinematic Universe much more than "Star Wars."
- If you add up the total box office of the "Star Wars" movies that have played in China since "The Force Awakens," it would be over $100 million less than what "Endgame" made in a single week there.
- Here's why Disney can't seem to make "Star Wars" a thing in China.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
When it comes to the second-largest movie market in the world, Disney is dominating with one franchise but surprisingly can't do the same business with another - though both are global sensations.
"Avengers: Endgame" has exceeded all industry projections on how it would do in China to the point that, by the end of its theatrical run there, it could be one of the country's top three biggest box-office earners ever. After breaking records for everything in the Middle Kingdom from presales ($92 million) to single-week performance ($386 million), the movie is now Hollywood's first half-billion-dollar earner in China, having hit the $500 million mark on Thursday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. On Wednesday, it became the highest-grossing foreign film in China, passing "The Fate of the Furious" ($392.8 million).
By the time the movie wraps up in China, "Endgame" is projected to make $625 million, according to THR. That would knock off "Operation Red Sea" ($576 million) as the third-highest-grossing movie in China.
The better-than-expected performance by "Endgame" in China has fueled the movie's international box office over $1 billion (and the movie has only been out for a week overseas), proving that the Marvel brand is extremely strong there.
But that same can't be said about "Star Wars."
"The 'Star Wars' brand doesn't resonate in China like it does in other parts of the world because there has not been a long-term relationship with the franchise," Comscore box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Business Insider last year after "The Last Jedi" couldn't even open at number one its opening weekend in China. "The characters that have become iconic in other countries - in the United States Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo have been elevated to revered cult status - there is no such feeling in China and that has impacted the box office prospects there."
It seems unthinkable that "Star Wars" would not be as popular as the MCU in China, a country with a rich cinematic history, but you can blame politics for that.
For decades the country blocked Western culture. The region was first introduced to the "Star Wars" saga (beyond bootleg copies of the movie) in the late 1990s when the prequels were released there. The original trilogy wasn't released in China until "A New Hope" opened in 2015.
And though Disney has tried to build a fanbase there for the galaxy far, far away - even casting Chinese stars Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen in 2016's "Rogue One" (the movie took in $69.5 million in China, the best "Star Wars" movie performance there since the $124 million made by "Force Awakens") - it's clear this is the studio's perhaps only weak spot when it comes to global domination of the box office.