Why ‘Monster Hunt’, China’s biggest movie, was a monster flop in the US
The family blockbuster Monster Hunt was the biggest movie ever in China with US$381 million in theatre ticket sales, but what arrived with a splash in its home country barely made a ripple in the US.
READ MORE - Film review: Monster Hunt - a distinctly Chinese live-action debut
Independent distribution company FilmRise, which acquired the US rights to the movie, hoped that the computer-animated, live-action hybrid would cross over into local Chinese communities and appeal to consumers of fantasy films.
It didn’t. The movie opened in 44 theatres in January to just US$21,000 in its debut weekend, for a dismal average of less than US$500 per location. It only lasted about a week in limited release.
“It’s probably the biggest movie most people in North America have never heard of,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore.
China’s filmgoers are highly coveted by Hollywood, which sees that country’s fast-growing cinema industry as an opportunity. Box-office receipts in China, already the world’s second-largest film market, rose nearly 50 per cent to US$6.8 billion last year.
However, the theatrical flop of Monster Hunt illustrates the difficulty of delivering China’s homegrown blockbusters to American audiences. Whereas Hollywood pictures such as Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Jurassic World continue to draw massive crowds in China, the country’s own movies have met with little success in the US.
Chinese hit Detective Chinatown, for example, has pulled in less than US$500,000 from its US run.
