No paywall:
Interesting points:
Some moviegoers in China and the U.S. have said the new “Avatar” movie didn’t have a different enough story or a big enough leap forward in visual effects to generate the same excitement as the last two entries.
In contrast, Chinese audiences were pumped for the sequel to 2016’s “Zootopia,” which was previously the highest grossing American animated film in the country, at $236.1 million. Disney opened a Zootopia-themed land in Shanghai Disneyland in 2023 and has been promoting the franchise in China since that year with public events, partnerships with local companies including Luckin Coffee, and animated shorts released online.
So, saturation is the cause of the (relative) downfall of Fire and Ash. This makes me think Disney will delay Avatar 4 from December 2029.
The Chinese government in September approved Disney opening the movie in the same week as the U.S. That gave the studio two months to officially advertise “Zootopia 2,” compared with the few weeks most foreign movies get.
When Disney’s top film executive, Alan Bergman, traveled to the movie’s premiere at Shanghai Disneyland in November and met with his local team, he told them he thought the sequel could significantly outperform the original, despite the recent weakness of the China market. “They thought I was a little crazy,” he recalled.
Interesting.
by AGOTFAN
3 Comments
Never underestimate a talking animal movie from Disney.
Back in the 90’s, The Lion King was given to their “B team” because they expected Pocahontas to be the big, prestige hit out of the two. And in the 2010’s, surely they weren’t expecting Zootopia to outgross both their superhero movie (Big Hero 6) and new Disney Princess musical (Moana)
The China performance is truly an exception; it’s the biggest US film in China’s history. However, Zootopia 2 made $1.24B without China, it’s a huge success without China. Zootopia 2 made $840M without China and North America; its a massive success even without the two biggest markets China and North America.
I mean, yeah. This is only a surprise if you weren’t paying attention. Zootopia land sells out Shanghai dates again and again, and there was pent-up demand on both sides of the Pacific. Couple those with Disney’s marketing machine (and a new Shakira single), and… we got a hit.