There is no question that Disney and Lucasfilm have succeeded withRogue One: A Star Wars Story. The movie is going to cross the $1 billion mark at the box office any day now and for the first of these newStar Wars anthology movies, that is pretty impressive. Despite the success, for some reason, Disney can’t get Chinese audiences to loveStar Wars. Case in point;Passengersabsolutely obliteratedStar Wars: Rogue Oneat the box office in China this weekend.
According toThe Hollywood Reporter, theChris PrattandJennifer Lawrencesci-fi adventure movie debuted to $17.5 million in China, whileRogue One: A Star Wars Storyonly made $9.8 million. That represents an incredibly steep 71 percent drop from last weekend, whenRogue Onedebuted to $31 million. That $31 million number in itself was fairly disappointing, but the fact that a movie likePassengerswas able to dethrone the latestStar Warsmovie in such a big way is truly telling.
Part of the problem is that the originalStar Warsmovies weren’t released in China, because the market wasn’t open for movies made in the U.S. at the time. The prequel trilogy did get released in China, but those were, as most of us know, not nearly as beloved as the original trilogy to say the least. So, many people in the country aren’t as familiar with the characters and universe thatStar Warsinhabits. Despite Disney’s massive marketing campaigns for bothStar Wars: The Force AwakensandRogue One: A Star Wars Story, a movie that included two very recognizableChinese actorsin the form ofDonnie YenandJiang Wen, they haven’t been able to crack the market wide open.
On the flip side,Passengershas underperformed on the domestic side of things and wasnot well received by critics. The movie currently has a pretty terrible 31 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, whereasStar Wars: Rogue Onehas a very solid 85 percent approval rating. That didn’t seem to matter to Chinese moviegoers. Outside of China,Passengershas also performed well outside of the U.S. and has grossed $147 million in other foreign markets. That is good, considering that the movie had a reported production budget of $110 million and has only made $90 million domestically so far.
For comparison’s sake,Star Wars: The Force Awakensmade $2.06 billion worldwide, good enough to become the third highest-grossing movie of all-time. However, only $124 million of that came from China, which was only the 13th biggest movie in the country that year.Star Warshas managed to dominate in virtually every other market but China seems to be the tough cookie Disney just can’t crack. Despite that,Rogue One: A Star Wars Storywill still do just fine, since it has made just shy of $1 billion with very little help from Chinese moviegoers. As forPassengers, the Chinese box office will help make that movie profitable, as opposed to the bomb it looked like it might be when it didn’t quite connect with U.S. audiences. Maybe Disney can getChris PrattandJennifer Lawrenceto join the cast of aStar Warsmovie and see if that does the trick in China.
