Source:
https://scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3006238/trade-war-or-not-marvel-studios-avengers-endgame-breaks-pre
Business/ China Business

Trade war or not, Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame breaks pre-release sales record with millions of China’s movie goers

  • The movie sold a record 247 million yuan in tickets on Maoyan on Monday for the midnight show on April 24, putting it on track to surpass the 2.4 billion yuan in box office receipts by the 2018 instalment Avengers: Infinity War
  • The greatest appeal of the blockbuster is with the male, postmillennial audience, according to Maoyan’s data
People at the ticket counter at a cinema in Wuhan, Hubei province, on August 13, 2013. Warner Brothers and China Media Capital (CMC) have formed a venture called Flagship Entertainment Group to develop Chinese-language movies, adding to a wave of tie-ups between Hollywood studios and Chinese partners to tap China's fast-growing box office. Photo: Reuters

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures’ Avengers: Endgame has broken the record for pre-release ticket sales in China, more than a week before Marvel Studios’ fourth instalment of the Avengers superhero series goes on show in the world’s second-biggest box office market.

The blockbuster sold a record 247 million yuan (US$36.8 million) in tickets on Maoyan as of Monday afternoon, a third of which are for the midnight show on April 24 in 3D IMAX format, according to data by China’s largest online ticket site. The 100 million yuan goalpost was surpassed within 10 hours of sales commencing.

That puts Avengers 4, as the movie is also called, on track to surpass the 2.4 billion yuan in ticket sales reported by its 2018 prequel Avengers: Infinity War, establishing it as the most successful Marvel movie in China, said Huatai Securities’ analyst Xu Juan.

Avengers 4 could “reach 3 billion yuan or more” in box office takings, Xu said. “China’s box office had a dismal March due to a lack of good films, so [Avengers: Endgame] will help release the pent-up demand” for entering a cinema, she said.

The greatest appeal of the movie, which counts Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in the ensemble cast, is with the male, postmillennial audience, where 57.8 per cent of the 1.63 million people who have expressed the desire to see the movie are men, while 81 per cent are between 20 and 34 years old, according to Maoyan’s data.

Elsewhere, Avengers: Endgame continues to set presale records since tickets went on sale on April 2. The movie is scheduled for release in Hong Kong on April 24, ahead of the US release on April 26.

Poster of Avengers: Endgame. Photo: Handout
Poster of Avengers: Endgame. Photo: Handout

The 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has sold five times as many tickets on Fandango during its first week of presale as Avengers: Infinity War during its first week last year.

The franchise would be a welcomed news for China’s box office sales, which declined 19 per cent in March to 4.14 billion yuan. A forecast by Caitong Securities points to April ticket sales to rise by a third to 5.15 billion yuan.

The rising tide could lift all the country’s listed film distributors, cinema operators and ticket sales platforms like Tencent Holdings’ Maoyan. China Film Group, the state monopoly that is a codistributor of the Avengers movie, may earn between 147 million yuan and 188 million yuan from the film, Xu said.

A likeness of Marvel Studios’ Ironman on display in Causeway Bay for the Avengers: Endgame exhibition, sponsored by Hot Toys, on 12 April 2019. Photo: SCMP/Dickson Lee
A likeness of Marvel Studios’ Ironman on display in Causeway Bay for the Avengers: Endgame exhibition, sponsored by Hot Toys, on 12 April 2019. Photo: SCMP/Dickson Lee
China Film’s shares rose by as much as 7.2 per cent on the Shanghai Stock Exchange to 20 yuan, the highest intraday level since May 2017. IMAX China Holding, the local unit of the company that specialises in wide-format movies, advanced for the second day, jumping by as much as 8.8 per cent to HK$21.10 on the Hong Kong exchange.

Wanda Film, a unit of Dalian Wanda Group, rose 0.9 per cent to 22.59 yuan in Shenzhen, while Guangzhou Jinyi Media gained 3.4 per cent to 21.40 yuan.