Marvel Comic’s “Sword Master” Explained: Cultural Inspirations Behind the New Chinese Superhero

NetEase Comics in association with Marvel Comics released two digital comics in Mainland China one year ago; Sword Master and Aero. In July of 2019 both of these comics became available here in the United States.

One of these comics, Sword Master, has deeper Chinese cultural influences in its storylines than the other. That if the average American reader knew about, they would appreciate the new Chinese superhero even more.

So, let us dive into the world and culture of the Middle Kingdom and explore: Sword Master Explained!

Sword Master issue one cover art – Sword Master (center)

By Ryan Carroll, Editor-at-Large

Sept. 2019

Joining the 616

Sword Master and Aero officially made their Marvel Comics debut (joining the Official 616 Canon) in June during a limited four issue run of New Agents of Atlas. That continued in August with issue #1 of Agents of Atlas.

We covered their debut in a recent article which examined why Marvel Entertainment has brought over their Chinese Superheroes to the United States, to the 616 Canon. Subsequently, releasing their first issues translated from Chinese just days before the San Diego Comic Con announcement of the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Phase 4 MCU film.

Their American English language release also happened two months after NetEase and Marvel Entertainment extended their partnership agreement in China, from just the digital comics of Sword Master and Aero. To producing games, comics, and “television” products of Marvel properties for China and beyond.

A deal that happened just before Beijing Regulators would allow foreign entities to invest into Chinese streaming services.

Leading us to look at (in the linked article above) if Marvel and NetEase are planning Sword Master and Aero streaming series for China, that may end up on Disney+. Connecting them in an ancillary fashion to the MCU?

Out of either of these two new-ish properties, Sword Master is prime for a big budget (even big for China) adaptation for a streaming series as it contains several Chinese elements that would appeal to the Chinese streaming (and movie-going) audience.

Who is Sword Master and why may he be the more important of the two Chinese superheroes developed by Marvel and NetEase? What is it about this character that American comic readers may be missing out that if they knew they may better appreciate their comic reading experience?

Sword of Goujian

The Sword of Goujian is a 2000+ year-old artifact from the Spring & Autumn period of Chinese Ancient history that was rediscovered in Hubei Province in 1965, at an archaeological tomb dig site.

Sheathed in an air-tight scabbard of wooden black lacquer, the tin-bronze Jian sword (the “gentleman’s sword of Ancient China) had its blade’s edge and its ornate decoration preserved, as if it had just been forged yesterday.

Sword of Goujian

The mystery (mysticism?) was, how could the Sword of Goujian be in such rare pristine condition when it was discovered, after being completely submerged in underground water for over 2000 years?

A sword truly made for a king – which is was, in fact, the King of Goujian.

In the comic Sword Master‘s (Lin Lie) father discovers a rare sword at an archaeological dig called the “Sword of Fuxi” (more on that in the next section), and upon his mysterious disappearance the only thing his father has sent to Lin Lie was this sword.

A sword that bears striking resemblance to the Sword of Goujian, which to Chinese readers would hold a subconscious semblance as the Sword of Goujian is considered to be such a rare and historically important artifact. That it is prohibited from leaving the country, after a 7-millimeter crack occurred while on exhibition in Singapore.

The Sword of Goujian is now on the official List of Chinese Cultural Relics Forbidden to be Exhibited Abroad.

Sword of Fuxi – Sword Master issue one

Warriors of Three Sovereigns

Sword Master is not the title of the comic in China, but only the name of the superhero character of Lin Lei. The title of the series is The Warriors of the Three Sovereigns as Lin Lei is a direct descendant of the first of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Fuxi.

Hence, the “Sword of Fuxi” and where he derives his powers from.

Fuxi is a cultural hero of Chinese mythology, and credited with Nuwa his sister-wife and the Mother Goddess of Ancient China, in the creation of humanity. Along with, Shennong the “Divine Farmer” they make up the Three Sovereigns.

Lin Lei is a direct descent of Fuxi, which is referenced in issue #3 and his best friend Cheng (issue #1) and the female “demon hunter” Ji Shuangshuang (issue #2) are the descendants of Shennong and Nuwa. The other Two of the Three Sovereigns with Fuxi.

It becomes clear that by issue #3 that these descendants were brought together by the mythical Yellow Emperor – who may or may not be based on one or more real life King or Warlord from a pre-China’s ancient past. To fight and defeat another King-Deity named Chiyou.

Chiyou like the Yellow Emperor, who is looked at as being the First Emperor of China, or as it was referred to in a more poetic name Huaxia (which is also used in the comic, and the name of our bi-monthly newsletter The Huaxia Report), may also be based upon stories of a real-life General or Warlord.

Who fought the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor, aka the Flame Emperor) at the mythical-historical Battle of Zoulu, where the original Warriors of Three Sovereigns first defeated Chiyou – who is now regarded as the God of War and worshiped not only in China but throughout other parts of East Asia.

Turning real life historical generals or leaders into deities in China is not uncommon, as one of the most recognizable figures that is known to real history is the General Guan Yu from the Three Kingdoms Period and made famous in the classic Chinese literature Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

As he is worshiped in China, Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and in Overseas Chinese communities, among Buddhist, Daoist, Chinese Folk Religious followers, admired by Confucianist, and the Triads.

During the Qing dynasty promoted the worship of Guan Yu among the Mongol tribes, making him one of their most revered religious figures, second only to their lamas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guan_Yu#Worship_of_Guan_Yu

issue #1 with the “Warriors of the Three Sovereigns”

All of this, and the Chinese title Warriors of the Three Sovereigns being so very culturally specific with core elements of Chinese legend and mythology behind its naming. It is understandable that Marvel Comics decided the change the name to Sword Master for the U.S. publication.

As seen in the cover art for issue #1 above the other two descendant superheroes who will join Sword Master (as his sidekicks?) both have ancient weapons, a whip and some form of magical bracelet(?), that have not yet appeared. From the “Creators’ Corner” in the back page of issue #3 of Sword Master there is a hint that Ji Shuangshuang’s bracelet is another ancient artifact that contains stones that Nuwa used to patch cracks in the sky, in another myth from China’s ancient past.

Sword Master is only scheduled for five issues and it is unclear if the comic is popular enough for Marvel Comics to continue translating and publishing the comic for the non-Chinese market. Hopefully, we will continue to see where the story leads, so we may fully learn and discover all of these Chinese cultural intricacies as they are only being given to use piece-by-piece. And, even for us seasoned China Watchers it is difficult for us to decipher all of the clues given from issue-to-issue until the full story comes to light.

Tomb Robbing Genre

Another genre that teeters on the edge of Chinese-ness and those of Western superhero elements is the Tomb Raider genre in China, that Mojin: The Lost Legend and its sequels best represent.

A film that began as a serialized story on Tencent’s China Literature, as Ghost Blows Out the Light, before moving to the big and small (streaming video) screen. A genre where its elements help propel both the superhero films of Aquaman – where we discuss in our podcast – and Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider at the China Box-Office.

Mojin: The Lost Legend

Looking at Sword Master’s costume it is a little boring and unassuming, but digging into why his costume looks the way it does gives American readers an entirely new perspective on its design.

Sword Master’s costume is taken from the Tomb Raiding genre of China, fitting into the aesthetics and cultural influences of the country. Providing American readers with this knowledge, they may find the costume to be less boring and less inspiring.

To give an idea of the Tomb Raiding genre of China, one could compare it as a cross between the Indian Jones movies with the Tomb Raider franchise (both Angelina Jolie’s and Alicia Vikander’s), with elements of Chinese historic supernatural and adventure storytelling.

Sword Master’s origin story is also intrinsically linked to the Tomb Raiding genre, as his father’s disappearance and the origin of the Sword of Fuxi, are linked to tomb robbers destroying the archaeological dig site where his professor-father was working: the Valley of a Thousand Tombs.

Valley of a Thousand Tombs / Valley of the Spirits

It is interesting note that the origin story of The Mandarin gaining his powers through the Ten Rings, is from an alien ship that crashed landed at the “Valley of Spirits” in China. A name that is very similar to the English translation of where Lin Lie aka Sword Master gain his powers through the Sword of Fuxi, found by his father at the “Valley of a Thousand Tombs”.

Both of these may just be a coincidence but coming from the House of Ideas and the upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, that will feature the classic Iron Man villain himself, The Mandarin. It is unlikely that these two names are just similar in their English-to-Mandarin / Mandarin-to-English translation.

In a previous article we examined the timing of the Sword Master and Aero comic books being released in English and them officially joining the 616, and how they may be referenced in the upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings MCU movie.

Along with, Disney+ and NetEase possibly developing a Sword Master series together, in cooperation via Marvel Entertainment, that may exist in the periphery of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Either way, we shall see as the first 5 issues of Sword Master are planned for release in the United States, with the appearance of Doctor Strange to train Lin Lie in controlling the magical side of the Sword of Fuxi in issue five.

Magic & Sword Master’s Connection to Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange feature in the NetEase Comic Sword Master released in China in 2018

It makes sense to add Doctor Strange as the first Marvel Comics character to the Chinese NetEase / Marvel superhero comic. As the MCU film Doctor Strange starring Benedict Cumberbatch may not be the most successful MCU film in terms of box-office, but it is one of the most leggiest superheroes flicks of all times at the China Box-Office.

With a second weekend drop of only -49% and a total box-office multiplier of 2.5x. A box-office hold and multiplier that was only beaten by another superhero film, one that contained an extensive mid-film sequence that was very similar to the Tomb Raiding genre of China: Aquaman.

Doctor Strange 49% second weekend drop-off, 2.5x lifetime box-office multiplier

Adding Doctor Strange adds other benefits to solidify Sword Master as apart of Marvel Comics. The benefits of Benedict Cumberbatch who is much loved in his role in Sherlock, making the character of Doctor Strange a household name among comic and superhero movie fans.

With the element being that of magic and mysticism. An element that is ingrained in Chinese storytelling, and integral to Chinese the martial arts and wuxia genres of any storytelling format – from light novel to comics to films. Elements that every Chinese has grown up knowing.

Phase 4 of the MCU: Where Magic & Mysticism Meets Science

Phase 4’s line-up contains more films related to Magic & Mysticism than the entire Phase 1 through 3 did combined: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, The Eternals, Thor: Love and Thunder, and WandaVision (on Disney+) that will lead up to Doctor Strange: Into the Multiverse of Madness (a callback to H.P. Lovecraft’s novella At the Mountains of Madness which itself a successor of the novella Who Goes There by John W. Campbell Jr. that was later adapted into the cult classic, John Carpenter’s The Thing).

In Phase 4 we will be seeing where the Science of the MCU truly meets the Magical and Mystical sides of the cinematic universe, that has only been touched upon in the Thor trilogy, Doctor Strange, and briefly in Avengers: Endgame. Taking us into a whole new area of the MCU, that brings the notion of a Sword Master streaming series in China, developed by NetEase and Marvel; even more of a possibility.

Future

Will Sword Master live beyond his first five issues as a solo comic in the U.S. or will there not be enough readership to continue translating and printing the ongoing series from China for American readers? The character is apart of Agents of Atlas but that itself may be a limit run comic.

How long and often will we see this Chinese superhero? It is unclear, but his appearance, along with Aero, may be paving the way for a Chinese streaming series that could be released in the Middle Kingdom by Marvel Entertainment’s local partner NetEase and internationally via Disney+.

No matter where this leads, Sword Master, and to a lesser extent Aero, has introduced American comic readers to a wider array of Chinese cultural diversity and mythology that they have not seen before, and as we move forward. With the extended deal between NetEase and Marvel Entertainment, we will most likely be seeing more heroes emerge from the Middle Kingdom that will eventually join the 616 and maybe even the MCU.

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Stay Tuned China Watchers!

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If you liked what you read please — Follow & Share.

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About the Author

Born and raised in the Missouri-Ozarks Ryan studied Film Production, and East Asian Culture, at the University of Kansas where he was a UGRA recipient that led him on a seven-year long, Journey From the West, to China. Where he worked with Warner Brothers, the China Film Group Corp. and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Before returning to the States, where he specializes in Chinese Anime & Comics, China’s Box-Office, and Chinese entertainment-tech industries. He has a dog in China, Abigail, and a dog in the Arkansas-Ozarks, King Blue, who help ease his anxiety of suffering from the “Two-Dimensional Complex” that is trying to understand the Culture Industry landscapes of the Middle Kingdom.

After ‘Ne Zha’ is China Ready for Their Own Superhero Universe?

Ne Zha has become only the 7th film ever to cross $700MMUSD worldwide and only the 2nd to do so at the China Box-Office, making it the second highest grossing film ever there behind Wolf Warrior 2.

By Ryan Carroll, Editor-at-Large

Sept. 2019

Analysis

With the inception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Shared Universe model has attempted to be replicated by multiple studios, to less fanfare than they would have imagined possible. With Warner Bros / DC Ent. even struggling to create their own, from an already established shared DC Comic Universe.

Like the other studio attempts, this shared universe did not have a singular creative mind behind it, as its architect. Rather, it had meddling from studio execs, and divergent creative heads, with an absence of an editorial mind to converge all the pieces together in long-term vision and plan.

As Hollywood begins to get dismayed in their, rushed, attempts to create their own franchised shared universe successes, another emerging film market has been looking at this business model.

The China Box-Office. Where the Marvel Cinematic Universe has already made $2.8BnUSD and with the upcoming release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, we could be looking at $3.3Bn-$3.5BnUSD for the MCU in the Middle Kingdom.

China already has their own history of serialization in the form of serial fiction, the literature version of the film serial. A common form of cinema that saw its Golden Age in the 1930s and 40s, and it has been argued that the MCU is the modern day version of the serialized movie. 

Legend of the Condor Heroes, by Jin Yong (the Lord of the Rings of Chinese literature)

Jin Yong, Gu Long, and other wuxia novelist have had their stories published in serialized formats in both Hong Kong and Taiwan, in magazines and newspapers, before making their way to book form.

With Jin Yong selling over 100M books, not including the bootlegged copies sold in Mainland China. Where he is regarded as, one of their most famous writers.

While Tencent’s China Literature’s entire business model (based on Qidian’s – the first Freemium online publishing site in China), is made up of releasing stories in the serialized format, one chapter at a time.

Designed not only in a way to profit more heavily through micro-purchases of each chapter, but it fits into the busy smart device on-the-go consuming nature of the modern urban Chinese. While also being a format, from the print world, that is familiar to Chinese in the recent past.

snippet of Legend of the Condor Heroes Ming Pao magazine

Starting in the 1930s up through the 1940s, it was common to have short cartoons (Looney Toons / Tom and Jerry / early Disney), short-form films (The Three Stooges), and serialized pictures to be shown before the beginning of the featured matinee. An early studio model that was utilized in way to get people coming back week-after-week. With such iconic characters such as, Batman and Shazam! (then called Adventures of Captain Marvel) having their first onscreen appearances in serial films.

This in itself stems from the serialized nature of storytelling in the heyday of radio (something that is having a small resurgence in the podcast sphere – which sounds exciting!), which also utilized comic book superheroes in their tales. 

How Superman Fought the KKK… FOR REAL! || NerdSync

We even saw a small revival of short format films from Marvel themselves, in their Marvel One-Shots, to fill in the gap between the Marvel Cinematic Universe serial movies. Something that I personally loved, and other than the audio commentaries, were the reason to even purchase the Blu-ray upon its release.

So, why have we not seen something like this in China? Some may argue that we have! In the form of incredibly long television story-arcs, to which I disagree. Even though in TV we do have serialized storytelling, it is not the same.

A television show may have a beginning, middle, end, and can have a serialized nature to it, most recently seen in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. They are not serials.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. promo logo

Television shows are series, as film serials & serialized novels, are designed to be open ended; even though they have an ending. Something similarly seen in comic book universes, since Marvel modernized the industry in the 1960s. While TV series are designed to eventually come to an end, and have a definitive stopping point at that time. Or, it will leave a sour taste in its audience, who has spent, potentially years, invested into its narrative.

Though, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Arrowverse over at the CW, began taking serial format to heart, particularly after their first seasons, but neither were designed from their conception to be a serial picture, but a series itself.

TV or streaming shows in China, which though they have a serialized narrative, are still series in that they always have a conclusion, in some form or another, at the end of their run.

This does not need to be the case in China, especially in their film industry. We the beginning of a serialized cinematic universe (movie serial) in the form of Huayi Bros’ (pretty-good) Detective Dee franchise from Hong Kong director, Tsui Hark. But, not one of a shared cinematic universe.

Cover of the original Mingy Dynasty Detective Dee story that went on to be adapted by European crime novelist into the Detective Dee series we know today

During the closing credits of the prequel-sequel Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon were graphic illustrations hinting to other upcoming adventures from the Detective Dee franchise. A series that has a long history in China, and in the West, as it was originally a Gong’an detective novel from the Qing Dynasty in the 18th Century, and later readapted by Dutch diplomat turned novelist, of the modern day Judge Dee series.

A series that became akin to its Western counterparts, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Edgar Allen Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin, but with an “orientalist” twist.

Huayi Bros have the opportunity to create their own shared cinematic universe, by taking their already proposed movie serial franchise, Detective Dee and building upon it from the wealth of stories already available in print.

Detective Dee was the blueprint that Ne Zha followed in that it took a famous Chinese story and modernized it with Chinese familiar elements, adding them together with those of the popular Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero trope.

Another genre that teeters on the edge of Chinese-ness and those of Western superhero elements is the Tomb Raider genre in China, that Mojin: The Lost Legend and its sequels best represent.

A film that began as a serialized story on Tencent’s China Literature, as Ghost Blows Out the Light, before moving to the big and small (streaming video) screen, and one where you can see its genres elements help propel both the superhero films of Aquaman – where we discuss in our podcast – and Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider at the China Box-Office.

Ne Zha with over $700MM at the China Box-Office, the three film franchise of Detective Dee, along with the Tomb Raiding genre that saw Marvel Comics teaming with NetEase Comics to launch the Chinese Superhero Sword Master in China and now here in the U.S. We may finally be seeing the rise of the Chinese Superhero Genre and over the next decade we also could be seeing the Chinese Superhero finding his own voice, just as we saw with the superhero of Japan finding their own in like of Ultraman, and those of manga and anime such as, My Hero Academia.

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Stay Tuned China Watchers!

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If you liked what you read please — Follow & Share.

If you want to continue to see us grow – Please support us on Patreon.

For Speaking Engagements or Consulting Please Contact Directly.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Castbox.fm.

Don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter The Huaxia Report!

About the Author

Born and raised in the Missouri-Ozarks Ryan studied Film Production, and East Asian Culture, at the University of Kansas where he was a UGRA recipient that led him on a seven-year long, Journey From the West, to China. Where he worked with Warner Brothers, the China Film Group Corp. and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Before returning to the States, where he specializes in Chinese Anime & Comics, China’s Box-Office, and Chinese entertainment-tech industries. He has a dog in China, Abigail, and a dog in the Arkansas-Ozarks, King Blue, who help ease his anxiety of suffering from the “Two-Dimensional Complex” that is trying to understand the Culture Industry landscapes of the Middle Kingdom.

‘The Legend of Hei’ Follows in ‘Dahufa’ Inkwash Footsteps

Slowly But Surely, Chinese Indie Animation is Finding Its Voice

By Ryan Carroll, Editor-at-Large

Sept. 2019

An indie feature animation film opened in China on a Saturday taking the weekend box-office number one spot at $12.3MMUSD over a two day period, and continued to maintain its hold through the week. Making nearly $20MM before the following weekend.

This feature animation is The Legend of Hei.

The Legend of Hei is the feature film spin-off of a popular webtoon, and is the passion project of its filmmaker, and Xiao Hei creator, Zhang Ping and his team taking nearly five years to produce.

The Legend of Hei story is similar to another Chinese feature animation, that began its life on Youku-Tudou. A Chinese feature animation that began its life as a short film and took a ten year journey to the big screen – when Chinese feature animation were much less commonly seen than today.

Another animated film that is often compared to Studio Ghibli: Big Fish and Begonia.

Big Fish and Begonia poster

Here in the West we should not view all Chinese indie films as copies, or finding their animation inspirations, from the works Miyazaki Hayao.

As there has been many in China that have found their own distinctive voice, two in particular that gained lauded attention from critics and audiences.

NOTE. Big Fish and Begonia was finished with large capital from Enlight Media and animation service work was done by the legendary Studio Mir in South Korea, between their work on The Legend of Korra and Voltron: Legendary Defender.

The first being Have a Nice Day a 2017 dark comedy feature animation by Liu Jian who did nearly all the animation himself, over three years. The animation style is distinctly non-Ghibli nor child-friendly and it went on to win Best Animation Feature at the 54th Golden Horse Award.

Amazingly, even though it portrays the Chinese underground (not officially recognizing as existing in China at all) it was allowed to screen at Jia Zhangke’s Pingyao International Film Festival in November of 2017.

The other being Dahufa the first film to ever self-classify as PG-13, since the China Box-Office does not have any form of rating system, with all films must being able to screen for the “entire family”. Basically, allowing for an ad hoc censorship shift throughout the year, or film-by-film basis.

Dahufa was released not only to controversy but to praise and was called the Chinese animated film to be watched. Not just for its animation style that harkens back to the most distinctive of all Donghua styles, Inkwash Animation (see below), but because of its subject matter.

Dahufa promo art

Chinese indie animators are finding their voices, not just animation-wise but story-wise as well, and soon one day we shall see an industry that will no longer be dubbed that of “Chinese Anime” but that of Sinomation!

Feeling of Mountains and Water (1988)
Shanghai Animation Studio (Inkwash Animation style)

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Stay Tuned China Watchers!

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If you liked what you read please — Follow & Share.

If you want to continue to see us grow – Please support us on Patreon.

For Speaking Engagements or Consulting Please Contact Directly.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Castbox.fm.

Don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter The Huaxia Report!

About the Author

Born and raised in the Missouri-Ozarks Ryan studied Film Production, and East Asian Culture, at the University of Kansas where he was a UGRA recipient that led him on a seven-year long, Journey From the West, to China. Where he worked with Warner Brothers, the China Film Group Corp. and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Before returning to the States, where he specializes in Chinese Anime & Comics, China’s Box-Office, and Chinese entertainment-tech industries. He has a dog in China, Abigail, and a dog in the Arkansas-Ozarks, King Blue, who help ease his anxiety of suffering from the “Two-Dimensional Complex” that is trying to understand the Culture Industry landscapes of the Middle Kingdom.

Disney+ May Already Be Planning to Enter China Through Its Partnership With NetEase (Part I – VPN Pilot Zones)

By Ryan Carroll, Managing Editor

Analysis

August, 2019.

For Part II of VPN Pilot Zones

Beijing will allow foreign companies, streaming or otherwise, to invest into Chinese streaming services; video games, online publishing, and video streaming, by the end of the year.

This reporting comes from Beijing News in what the Beijing Regulators are referring to as “VPN Pilot Zones” with the program being implemented over the next three years.

Foreign companies that invest into Chinese streaming services will participate in less-than 50% of the revenues in these “VPN Pilot Zones”.

This does not mean that the foreign streaming companies can launch their own streaming service, such as Netflix, Hulu, or Disney+, entering directly into the Chinese streaming market. It simply means that they can invest into an established streaming player like; 163.com (NetEase), Youku (Alibaba), iQiyi (Baidu), Bilibili, or Tencent Video, and potentially have their content distributed via those platforms.

Foreign content distributed on a Chinese streaming service, even if their content’s owners have invested into said streaming service, would still need to meet the local content and censorship regulations. While also needing to obtain the proper license for online publication, distribution, or monetization, depending on which type of content it is.

These regulations would be the same as locally produced content, in their need to obtain an official online publishing license before streaming the video, game, or literature content to Chinese online audiences.

NOTE. These VPN Pilot Zones will also include the publication of online games and online literature, but we will not be examining them in this article.

For Chinese streaming video companies like Tencent Video and iQiyi they are limited to how many foreign films, or series, they can purchase for their streaming service per year.

Along with the number of yearly acquisition licenses they have for the purchase of films and series to stream, each video service must have another special license to acquire those films on top of that.

Making the current process of entering the Chinese streaming market one that is under the control of the Beijing Regulators, and easily changed throughout the year.

It is unclear how, or if, this will change with foreign investment into streaming services of these VPN Pilot Zones, but China needs to see continued growth in its “Culture Industries”. With the stagnation of the China Box-Office streaming video holds a path for continued growth.

Disney+

As we discussed in our previous article earlier this month on the recently added Chinese Superhero Sword Master to Marvel Comics, and how this character may be hinted at in the upcoming MCU film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Which may be leading to his own streaming series in China.

Due to an extended agreement between Marvel Entertainment and NetEase, the publisher of Sword Master in China via NetEase Comics. That would see NetEase create more Marvel Comics properties; digital comics, games (especially for mobile), and television series; for China and beyond.

Marvel’s Sword Master (right) Doctor Strange (left) published by NetEase Comics in China

It was the TV series and “beyond” the Chinese market aspects of the deal, that was most intriguing to us here at SilkCelluloid.com. Something that was completely overlooked by all other media outlets who had reported on this extended agreement.

Now with this recent announcement from the Beijing Regulators that will see a rollout over three years, allowing foreign investment into streaming services in China. Something that has been rumored for the past six-months to be in the works. This adds a new layer to the Marvel (Disney) / NetEase extended agreement and the television / beyond portion of it.

While the news of Marvel Ent. and NetEase extending their working relationship in China happening back at the end of May, it is reasonable to assume that executives at NetEase may have known the Regulators were on the path to allow the relaxing of foreign involvement into streaming services to occur.

Being a streaming service, just like any Hollywood box-office blockbuster, without a local Chinese partner Disney+ cannot officially operate in China. Teaming with NetEase to not only produce, possibly Sword Master original Marvel streaming series, but to bring original content over from Disney+ to China makes clear business sense.

As stated earlier this year in The Hollywood Reporter Disney+ with its more family orientated content is more poised to enter the China streaming market than say, Netflix. Who had a licensing deal with iQiyi, who let the deal laps after not being able to get much of Netflix’s Original Content passed Chinese censors.

China’s Streaming Market Growth – Courtesy THR – Source: Media Partners Asia

In 2016 Disney in a joint venture with Alibaba launched DisneyLife OTT a set top box that provided a wide range of content from cartoons to games from Disney in China, but after only 5 months it was shut down with no official reason by Beijing.

Re-entering China’s streaming market would not be as a monumental feet, as it would for its American competitors – especially Netflix. Who has already had years of difficulty entering, then staying in, the China’s growing streaming market.

It will be interesting to see how the fruition of this three-year action plan rolls out, and if any of the American streaming players do invest and through those investment, have any of their content enter into the Chinese streaming market. But, if any of them can make it, it will be Disney+ and the first streaming series it will most likely produce, as a test run, would be Marvel’s Sword Master in cooperation with its partner NetEase Comics.

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For Part II of VPN Pilot Zones

Stay Tuned China Watchers!

–

If you liked what you read please — Follow & Share.

If you want to continue to see us grow – Please support us on Patreon.

For Speaking Engagements or Consulting Please Contact Directly.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Castbox.fm.

Don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter The Huaxia Report!

About the Author

Born and raised in the Missouri-Ozarks Ryan studied Film Production, and East Asian Culture, at the University of Kansas where he was a UGRA recipient that led him on a seven-year long, Journey From the West, to China. Where he worked with Warner Brothers, the China Film Group Corp. and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Before returning to the States, where he specializes in Chinese Anime & Comics, China’s Box-Office, and Chinese entertainment-tech industries. He has a dog in China, Abigail, and a dog in the Arkansas-Ozarks, King Blue, who help ease his anxiety of suffering from the “Two-Dimensional Complex” that is trying to understand the Culture Industry landscapes of the Middle Kingdom.

Chinese ACG Mobile Games Are Now Topping Japanese & Korean Gaming Charts

In the past couple of years, there has been a number of Chinese ACG mobile games, originally inspired by Japanese anime & manga, that have become top grossing games in Japan and South Korea.

By Cheng (Orange) Qi, Guest Columnist

July, 2019.

Why Chinese Developers Made ACG Mobile Games in the First Place?

1. Young people in China, especially those born after 1985 and especially those after 1990 (Generation Z), have been greatly influenced by Japanese ACG (Anime, Comic and Games) culture.

As these young people graduated from high school or university, ACG started to become a very important subculture in China. Many of today’s well-known development teams or companies were founded around 2010, when these young people were in their early to mid-20s.

• MICA Team was founded in 2008, and then developed Girls’ Frontline
• miHoYo was founded in 2012, and then developed Collapse Gakuen 3
• Bilibili was founded in 2009, and then became the biggest ACG streaming and video platform in China – publishing many successful ACG games

2. At first there were not many teams actually developing ACG specific games. These early teams, a decade ago, created these types of games for the simple reason – that they love them so much.

But after the success of several early ACG games in China, more and more developers and publishers started flooded the market. Currently, there are hundreds of studios / companies developing ACG games in China.

With a profitable market outlook, due to marketing costs being kept low as community promotion can be utilizited in ways that other gaming genres cannot, because of the subculture related to the ACG gaming industry.

Take miHoYo as an example:

With high loyalty of users, such games can easily survive for many years.

Take the platform of Bilibili as an example:

—- 80%+ users were born between 1990 and 2009.

—- The yearly retention rate of full members is 79%+.

—- Each user spends 70+ minutes on the platform everyday on average.

ACG games promote more positive emotions among players: as the Vice President of Bilibili has stated, “The revenue from traditional games comes from hatred, from the competition between players, from the belief that I should be stronger than others; the revenue from ACG games comes from love, from the belief that I love the character.”

Why Chinese Developers Are So Good in This Area?

I. If you look at the well-known teams or companies today, you will find that the founders were all deeply influenced by Japanese anime & manga culture, and before some of these founders started working on ACG games. Some of them had been creating fan art, some had been tech “otakus” or “geeks” for a long time, and some had been running ACG fan communities.

II. There are already several good Chinese artists that can create Japanese looking characters and environment, and the developers learned how to work together with famous Japanese CVs, or the developers purchased the game licenses directly from Japan.

III. There were not many experienced developers for PC and console games in China, but for mobile games, Chinese developers started almost at the same time as the developers in other countries. Today, their ability to develop mobile games is as good as, or sometimes even better than foreign developers in some specific fields.

IV. Bilibili, NetEase Comics, Tencent Comics and other social media outlets have made ACG Culture easier to spread across China, attracting more attention in the process.

China has so many people, that even it were a niche market, it would have enough users and generate enough revenue to feed multiple products and development teams. This gives the developers the opportunity to focus on what they are good at. Nowadays, there are more than 80 million core ACG fans in China, and more than 310 million potential ACG fans.

If you compare Bilibili with Nico Nico (the Japanese website that inspired Bilibili), you will find that Bilibili has nearly five times as many views as Nico Nico.

A Look Back

• Stage I: before 2013 – The pioneers were experimenting and accumulating experience.
• Stage II: 2014 ~ 2016 – Several products stood out and succeeded, attracting widespread attention and more developers to join (that was also when mobile games started growing rapidly in China).
• Stage III: 2017 ~ now – Through self-publishing or working with experienced publishers, looking beyond China to be commercially successful in overseas markets as Japan has done.

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About the Author

Orange is the Director of Investment and Partnership @ Krafton Group, formerly known as Bluehole, the company that brought PUBG Mobile to China. He is a game professional and a Chinese ACG Game specialist, who likes to write about the Chinese gaming industry in English for those outside of China who may find it difficult to keep up with the ever changing landscape that is the Middle Kingdom’s gamer. He resides in Hangzhou.

Editor, Ryan Carroll.

Will DMG Ent. Survive to See Tomorrow?

DMG Entertainment a Chinese-“American” media studio that once co-financed a Marvel Cinematic Universe film for Chinese distribution, and was one of China’s first media and film companies to IPO in the Mainland; now sits in existential limbo of continuation.

After co-financing the 2013 Marvel Studio release Iron Man 3 and being its “distributor” in China, and co-financing the breakout surprise sci-fi cult hit Looper. DMG Ent. was one of the first film or media companies to list on the then burgeoning China stock exchanges.

Listing in 2014 on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange raising $500MMUSD at a valuation of $5BnUSD. A massive valuation that many would say was highly overvalued, for a company that went from an advertising and media agency, to only having one real financial hit under its belt, Looper.

As their share from Iron Man 3‘s China box-office take would have been minimal compared to their investment into the film – even for a film that was one of the biggest hits of the summer in the Middle Kingdom. As they would have been sharing the box-office take with the powerful China Film Group itself, as they were its real “official” distributor since the film fell under the 25 films per year quota system.

This editor was among those pundits who questioned DMG’s high IPO valuation.

Since their 2014 IPO DMG has made a series of poor film investment choices, from the remake of Point Break, that nobody asked for, and the Johnny Depp sci-fi bomb Transcendence, to the more moderately successful comedy Blockers.

They even made a major announcement to bring themed Transformers attractions to China, that have yet to solidify – and probably never will!

From being one of the most valuable entertainment companies in Mainland China to having its SZSE listing seeing a sharp decline, especially over the last year, dropping to $930MM in valuation.

In China DMG Ent. (its American name) is known as Yinji Entertainment & Media Company, which is how it is listed in Shenzhen. With its ticker relisted as “ST YINJI” or “Special Treatment” Yinji, a warning to investors from regulators that this stock is been labeled as “high risk.”

The ST listing either refers to a company that has been at loss for more than a two-year period or is at risk of being de-listed. Which of these is the culprit for DMG’s labeling is unclear, but from what is known about DMG over the past few years it could be either-or.

In the minds of this editor, it’s probably both.

Currently DMG and their former Head of Motion Pictures Chris Fenton are both suing one-another for $30MM. With Fenton claiming he was cut out of his share of the IPO profits, while DMG claiming Fenton used DMG’s clout to pass himself off as a Hollywood-China player. Neglecting his fiduciary duties while cultivating himself, while DMG lost millions.

It is not stated by DMG / Yijin that their losses in the millions (tens of millions?) were caused by Fenton’s actions, but states that he neglected basic managerial duties and took credit from others work.

Either way, with the two-counter lawsuits it is clear that DMG is on the precipice of being the next LeEco / LeTV. A once growing Chinese media and entertainment conglomerate that, due to overspending, poor founder oversight and management, and risky poor decisions, is at risk of completely disappearing.

From bids for major Hollywood studios like Paramount Pictures, that were in the billions, to other deals that were shot down by a year long review in Taiwan. It seems like the Dan Mintz and his two Chinese partners, Peter Xiao and Wu Bing, were playing with money that DMG / Yinji never truly had. But, dreamed they had over a game of Chinese Monopoly.

Little is known about Co-Founder & CEO of DMG Ent. Dan Mintz, and American from New York who has been in China since 1990 and co-founded DMG in 1993 as an ad agency. He attempted to brand himself in a couple of native advertisements around the times of Iron Man 3 and Looper‘s releases as “Hollywood’s Mr. China”.

If Chris Fenton is to be believed, their spending habits, from things like experimental rejuvenation treatments to private jets, its a surprise DMG is even able to be moving forward with their Valiant Comics properties.

Which is the point of this article, their full acquisition of Valiant Entertainment a little over a year ago and the pushing out of CEO / Founder Dinesh Shamdasani, what is going to happen to the Third Biggest Shared Superhero Universe in world behind DC and Marvel?

With Bloodshot featuring Vin Diesel in the lead role still reported to be coming from Sony Pictures, and Dan Mintz doing a media campaign here just recently on YouTube on the DMG Ent. channel and on places like HeroicHollywood.com it seems as if he is attempting to salvage the only thing that could possibly keep his 26 year old company afloat.

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About the Author
Born and raised in the Missouri-Ozarks Ryan studied Film Production, and East Asian Culture, at the University of Kansas where he was a UGRA recipient that led him on a seven-year long, Journey From the West, to China. Where he worked with Warner Brothers, the China Film Group Corp. and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Before returning to the States, where he specializes in Chinese Anime & Comics, China’s Box-Office, and Chinese entertainment-tech industries. He has a dog in China, Abigail, and a dog in the Arkansas-Ozarks, King Blue, who help ease his anxiety of suffering from the “Two-Dimensional Complex” that is trying to understand the Culture Industry landscapes of the Middle Kingdom.

Bob Iger is Playing the LONG Game With Star Wars in China & Its All About Merchandise

Star Wars’ Pre-Chinese New Year Release Dates Has Adversely Affects its China Box-Office Take – But, Will it Affect its Merchandising Growth Long-Term?

By Ryan Carroll, Editor-at-Large

July, 2019.

Opinion.

For the past couple of years, Star Wars has been the Christmas event to attend. Though this is one of the best times to release a movie like this in the North American box-office, it forces its release date in China to early January. A month not known for mega box-office hits, in terms of Hollywood movies.

Today I was catching up on Forbes’ Chinese box-office contributor, and all around one of the best experts in the U.S. discussing the China film industry, Rob Cain. Reading his articles for the past two weeks, many which have derided The Last Jedi, and as I read them I noticed one thing.

This was the first time I felt a sense of bias in his writings in discussing a Hollywood release in China. As he is obviously one of the few who vehemently disliked The Last Jedi, and I could see this in a few articles in particular.

See sources below.

The first one that caught my eye and made me shake my head in disagreement, was a very throw away article based around Douban comments on why Chinese audiences did not like , The Last Jedi.

An outline of four reasons why Star Wars was a “catastrophic” flop; Star Wars was never a cultural phenomenon in China, and The Force Awakens and Rogue One were nails in its coffin.

The first part of this statement is correct but the second half is something I have talked about before, and disagree with. This is not the metaphorical nail in the coffin, but an incredible disappointment for a franchise that Disney hopes to grow in the Middle Kingdom.

One thing I did notice at the beginning of said article is, that Wanda partnered with Disney in creating “Star Wars Art Zones” in 110 cinemas across China. An aspect of Star Wars’ growth that I believe is being overlooked.

The “Star Wars Art Zones” are obviously not for promoting the film itself to purchase tickets for a Wanda Cinema Line screen, but a partnership to drive customers to the Wanda-owned Mtime.com. The leader in movie merchandising in China, and the company that brought in more than $10MMUSD in merchandising products for Warcraft. Before its opening weekend.

This, along with Shanghai Disney Resort, is the key to understanding why Disney will not give up on promoting each Star Wars movie. As, like I said before, Star Wars is not a current known brand in China, but two generations from now; it just might be.

So. Being the proverbial “nail in the coffin”? I doubt it to be. As there is no outcome to which the following Star Wars films; Solo and Episode IX, are not released in China.

2017 saw the highest number of international releases in China with over 70+, in a country that has a strict quota of 34 theatrical releases from abroad. This is possible due to the Flat Fee distribution system, an ever growing aspect of how non-major studios are able to get their films released theatrically in China.

Flat Fee distribution used to be the bane of box-office participation release, as it offered little in compensation for those involved, but it was one that allowed producers bragging rights of their films being released in China. Just ask Jason Statham, who has seen nearly every one of his films released in China, through flat fee distribution, and now is starring in the “Chinese” (blockbuster?) film Meg.

I doubt that we will ever see China Film Corp. stop releasing the films that Disney wishes them to release, as seen with every Pixar movie being released in the last ten years. As one day Star Wars just might have its own Coco – when that will be, is up to the stars.

But, if they are dropped from the lucrative quota releases. Disney has other partners in China, who would line up to provide a “back-end” to their flat fee release. Something that is becoming more common, especially among companies who could purchase the flat fee distribution and the streaming rights in China.

If this happens to Star Wars, then we most likely would see a company, that has previously team up again with Disney for Star Wars, to do so again. As giving a deal to Disney for a franchise that is still looking for its audience in China, is better than having no deal at all with Disney.

Tencent would be a prime choice for a Star Wars back-end flat fee distributor deal, due to their previous streaming deal with Disney for Star Wars. A deal that could upend Wanda’s Mtime merchandising rights, by having a one-stop home for Star Wars in China; theatrical distribution by Tencent Pictures, streaming via Tencent Video, and all merchandising / licensing / ancillary products through the array of other Tencent portals.

I would not be surprised to see to see Tencent Literature begin doing more licensing deals with comic book companies in China, such as motion comics for Stars Wars, in order to grow their own audience traction in the burgeoning 2D Culture & Pan Entertainment sectors.

But. I digress.

Back to Rob Cains article! – Two of the other reasons: it’s lightsaber fight scenes are boring, and its aesthetics and color schemes are drab, for Chinese audiences not liking Jedi. Sound more like excuses for Chinese audiences who did not wish to spend their money on the movie in the first place, and likely to have not even seen it.

The last and forth point is that, it’s not “sci-fi” enough for Chinese. A point that has bothered me for the last several months, with several articles popping up discussing Chinese “love of fantasy”!

But, as I have written before, Let’s Stop Confusing China’s Love of Fantasy Films with Hollywood Sci-fi Releases like The Last Jedi.

Getting back to my main thesis: that the North American release dates of the last three Star Wars movies, just before Christmas; negatively affects its hope to dominate, ever, at the Chinese box-office. As all previous films have been released in the first weeks of January in China.

The month that leads up to the Chun jie, aka Chinese New Year, aka Chinese Lunar New Year. A month not know to produce groundbreaking results for Hollywood films at the China box-office, but a month known to produce successes for local films at the China box-office.

The Last Jedi‘s very disappointing opening weekend in China, though not really a shocker, is not due to its rejection by Chinese audiences. As pointed out in any four point lists. But, because there are several local films, one in particular, that are going gangbusters at their local cinemas.

The one in particular is Ex-Files 3 a romantic comedy sequel to a well like franchise, that made $87MMUSD compared to The Last Jedi‘s $28.7MM three day opening weekend.

It’s box-office dominance, along with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle being released, starring China loved Dwayne Johnson. Who only Vin Diesel or Jason Statham are arguably rivals to – making up the Bald Trifecta of Hollywood action stars. Forced The Last Jedi to lose 92% of its showtimes in China. Forcing a Friday-to-Friday 94% record setting drop.

Both, Rob Cain & Scott Mendelson at Forbes, hinted at China dropping the next installments of the Star Wars franchise in favor of more lucrative Hollywood hits, is highly unlikely as I described above.

When you take in Jumanji‘s opening Friday take of $12MM, it will not have a monumentally larger three day open than Jedi‘s near $30MM. As Scott Mendelson has predicted an over-under $36MM opening weekend. Depending on if it reacts favorably with families, for Sunday drop off or not.

How leggy Jumanji will be in China is still up for question, as with Jedi the month leading up to the Chun jie provides stiff competition from the local box-office fair.

Jedi‘s opening weekend is on par with Rogue One which went on to make $69.5MM, so there is obviously a variable of factors for Jedi‘s performance compared to A Star Wars Story. Dwayne Johnson’s presence, Ex-Files 3 continued dominance, which has led to its historic drop and decrees of available screenings in China.

Meaning that, with three Star War films released in China so-far, with no phenomenal success, could only mean one thing; January is a terrible month to release a movie that causes so much hubbub among its fans and critics. Whether it is the biggest hit ever in Chinaland, or not.

It is going to take years for the Star Wars franchise to catch on in China, but with merchandising, licensing, and Shanghai Disney, there will be money to make. We should not prepare for the Qingming Festival this year or next, and go sweep the tomb where the proverbial nailed down coffin rest, that is Star Wars.

Forbes Sources: Rob Cain, Friday-to-Friday Drop – Scott Mendelson, Stop Calling Last Jedi a Box-Office Bomb – Rob Cain, 4 Reasons Jedi Bombed in China – Scott Mendelson, Jumanji Scores in China After Jedi Flops.

Part of this article originally appeared on LinkedIn Publishing in Jan. of 2018.

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About the Author
Born and raised in the Missouri-Ozarks Ryan studied Film Production, and East Asian Culture, at the University of Kansas where he was a UGRA recipient that led him on a seven-year long, Journey From the West, to China. Where he worked with Warner Brothers, the China Film Group Corp. and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Before returning to the States, where he specializes in Chinese Anime & Comics, China’s Box-Office, and Chinese entertainment-tech industries. He has a dog in China, Abigail, and a dog in the Arkansas-Ozarks, King Blue, who help ease his anxiety of suffering from the “Two-Dimensional Complex” that is trying to understand the Culture Industry landscapes of the Middle Kingdom.

Toy Story 4 Being Beat by Spirited Away is Not 3D Animation Saturation in China

Hollywood Studios & Pundits Are Making Excuses of Why Toy Story 4 Got Crushed by a 20 Year Old Japanese 2D Animated Film & They Are All Wrong, Because None of Them Understand the Current ACG 2D Culture Market in China.

By Ryan Carroll, Editor-at-Large

July, 2019

It is not a matter of saturation between 3D pre-school TV animation and the visual sophistication of Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli’s 2D animation work.  It is the fact that Pixar has not resonated with Chinese movie going audiences in general at the China box-office, with the exception of Coco $190MMUSD and that was due to the story of filial honorific rather than Pixar storytelling within itself.

But, one should look at, a $14MMUSD opening box-office weekend for Toy Story 4 in the Middle Kingdom as being absolutely fantastic, and its finally tally may be one of Pixar’s best. Probably not Finding Dory $38MM good but better than some of Pixar’s other releases (some of Pixar’s films in the past never even had an official release in China).

Either way, one should view Toy Story 4‘s opening weekend box-offices as Not a Failure in China!

With Hollywood looking for every possible reason why Toy Story 4 did not open with a $50MM+ weekend, or at the very least higher than that of Spirited Away. The LA trades abound began searching for any possible reason to why this “anomaly” may have happened.

Even with Variety contributing Toy Story 4‘s box-office being half of that of Spirited Away due to it having less than half of the screen count of Miyazaki’s 20 year old film, but why would the China Film Group give a Japanese studio, their mortal enemy of the past century!, a higher screen count than the country that saved them from said enemy???

This is due to Miyazaki’s Spirited Away falling under the hugely popular fandom sub-genre of ACG (anime/comics/games) aka er’ci yuan or 2D Culture, which was a $15BnUSD yearly revenue industry in 2015 and will be at least a $72Bn revenue industry by 2020 (this editor is speculating it to be even higher). 

A couple of months ago My Neighbor Totoro brought in over $25MM at the China box-office.  This fandom is being propelled by the Chinese Gen Z demographic that represents 85% of the ACG viewership aged 17-24 years old, with 75% of them being closer to the age of 17 than 24 years of age.

This is a hugely burgeoning industry that everyone should be watching but it is not one heavily dominated by the box-office but one online by sites such as Bilibili, and one that Hollywood does not truly understand.

The ACG, sometimes referred to as ACGN (with N referring to online Light Novel dominated by Tencent Literature in China), is a force to be reckoned with but one with Pixar’s work, especially Toy Story 4 does not fall under.

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About the Author
Born and raised in the Missouri-Ozarks Ryan studied Film Production, and East Asian Culture, at the University of Kansas where he was a UGRA recipient that led him on a seven-year long, Journey From the West, to China. Where he worked with Warner Brothers, the China Film Group Corp. and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Before returning to the States, where he specializes in Chinese Anime & Comics, China’s Box-Office, and Chinese entertainment-tech industries. He has a dog in China, Abigail, and a dog in the Arkansas-Ozarks, King Blue, who help ease his anxiety of suffering from the “Two-Dimensional Complex” that is trying to understand the Culture Industry landscapes of the Middle Kingdom.

China is Having a Little Mini Movie Poster Revolution

Blackface be Damned, Wakanda Forever!

By Ryan Carroll, Managing Editor

June, 2019

Editorial

With the release of localized Spider-Man: Far From Home promo posters.

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Spider-Man: Far From Home

And, of Alita: Battle Angel that shook the China box-office earlier this year.

Alita: Battle Angel

Alita: Battle Angel

Along with, Venom being a Chinese girl’s perfect boyfriend…..?

Venom (the “perfect boyfriend” – social media promo)

I thought we would take a look back down memory lane to an earlier article on Black Panther‘s Chinese Chun Jie New Year promo poster and the mini-revolution of movie posters at the China Box-Office: without further adieu!

Help us Drew Struzan, you’re are only hope!

Is what Marvel Studio President Kevin Feige should be chanting at night to the MCU Ancients, after looking at the trash posters they have put out. I’m talking about RDJ’s head being Photoshop onto poorly done CGI Iron Man suit, that looks more like an elementary student’s classroom collage project. Than a professionally done movie poster!

People complain about Marvel villains, when they should be complaining about the amateur-hour movie posters they produce, because, at least, the poorer Marvel villains tend to be “mirror-images” of the hero. That in the end does still serve a story-point, in the establishments of those characters.

I am only pointing this out in a short non-thesis article, because look what China just dropped as their official Marvel’s Black Panther movie poster for its upcoming release on March, 9th!

Wakanda Forever!

This is not the first time we have seen some badass Hollywood movie posters reimaged in a localized form, for their Chinese release.

Alien: Covenant

I have no idea why the “Alien” is fishing, but it’s an awesome!

Is he smiling? I think so!

Alien: Covenant

This is a little more on the “traditional take” of what an Alien poster should be.

Still amazing!

Though the movie did not do great in China, but that’s mostly do to Hollywood’s confusion of Chinese love for fantasy with “Hard Sci-fi”, than just a “bad year” for Hollywood sci-fi films in China.

Chinese films may be breaking box-office records at home, but they do not travel outside of the Sinosphere like foreign films do. This can be attributed to their, cultural appeal, and to their lack of quality. Especially, in regards to CGI use in their films – they do have costumes and sets down, but other FX varies wildly from film to film.

TNMT

One area where China is striving in artistic quality, is in their movie posters designs and artwork. Many evoking a Chinese aesthetic to them, adding a local appeal that can even be appreciated outside of the China Cultural Sphere.

One look tells you, not only what the product is – TMNT – but where is it being marketed to.

TMNT

We haven’t seen quality work from movie posters in Hollywood since the heyday of the 80s. Led by the master himself, Drew Struzan. His work was so important that Netflix carried a documentary about his life and work amply titled, Struzan.

John Carpenter’s The Thing

The man even made Masters of the Universe look like it would be a quality piece of work, even though it was from schlock masters Menahem & Yoram aka Cannon Films.

MastersOfTheUniverse

Ah, my childhood…. But, I digress.

When China is put in control of creating original localized movie posters for the market you get something like this for Ant-Man.

Ant-Man and Friends in Hualian

A Jingju Hualian – Beijing Opera Painted Face – inspired teaser poster, that highlights to Chinese audiences that Black Panther, Vision, and Ant-Man all belong to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe).

…. actually, this might be for Captain America: Civil War, but that’s besides the point!

But, when Hollywood marketing teams are in charge of creating the Chinese movie poster for their upcoming tentpole release you get something like this:

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Blackface during Chinese Spring Festival Gala TV performances? OK! …. but, let’s make the black male lead a little tinier, and stuffed between all the cool looking droids & spaceship, because you know….

Yep, this happened…..

Wakanda forever?

Wow, this article got socially-politically charged in ways that was not planned. Maybe, I am channeling my inner Ta-Nehisi Coates, but with a worse writing style?

But, I digress?

Chinese movie posters are one of the most interesting things going on in modern Chinese cinema to date, with some cool work that harks back to Chinese traditional artwork. While others are just trying to find their own style, in a medium that is really taking off to find its own.

From great original animated works, that has influence in Japanese anime, but is finding its own voice in Chinese 2D Culture.

Dahufa

Big Fish and Begonia

To live-action wuxia films that takes inspiration traditional Chinese Inkwash painting, and also remind us of the heyday of Japanese samurai black & white cinema in the 60s.

Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s The Assassin

A little more traditional Inkwash technique that is very well used in Chinese posters.

To some crazy D&D shit!

Mojin: The Lost Legend

To the modern fantasy that China loves so dearly.

Monster Hunt

Mojin: The Lost Legend

China has some really great work and unfortunately, I am not aware of; who these art studios are, if they are done in-house, or if it is a series of artist who is producing the majority of these works???

What I do know is, that there is an art revolution going on in China among young (I suspect young…) artist in the field of Chinese cinema one-sheets.

If you have any information regarding movie posters, please feel free to reach out or comment below.

If you have any personal favorites, please paste them into the comments below.

As I would love to share with the rest of my fellow China Watchers what is available in the Middle Kingdom, and how Hollywood could learn to go back to its poster roots.

Stay tuned China Watchers

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Part of this article originally appeared on LinkedIn Publishing in Feb. of 2018.

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If you liked what you read please — Follow & Share.

For Speaking Engagements or Consulting Please Contact Directly.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Castbox.fm.

Don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter The Huaxia Report!

About the Author
Born and raised in the Missouri-Ozarks Ryan studied Film Production, and East Asian Culture, at the University of Kansas where he was a UGRA recipient that led him on a seven-year long, Journey From the West, to China. Where he worked with Warner Brothers, the China Film Group Corp. and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Before returning to the States, where he specializes in Chinese Anime & Comics, China’s Box-Office, and Chinese entertainment-tech industries. He has a dog in China, Abigail, and a dog in the Arkansas-Ozarks, King Blue, who help ease his anxiety of suffering from the “Two-Dimensional Complex” that is trying to understand the Culture Industry landscapes of the Middle Kingdom.

Alita: Battle Angel’s $65M China Opening Weekend is Not Due to James Cameron

There is only one factor that led Alita to China Box-Office breakout success: Female Superheroes Are Gold!

By Ryan Carroll, Editor-at-Large

February, 2019.

James Cameron’s popularity in China and his pre-release press conference for Alita: Battle Angel did help. A press conference where some of China’s top directors joined Cameron on stage: Zhang Yimou, Wuershan, and recent Kingmaker Frant Gwo. The director of what potentially could be 2019’s biggest single territory hit The Wandering Earth – unless it gets snapped out of existence before the Red Giant reaches it….

The press conference also featured a Q&A with James Cameron and Three-Body Problem / The Wandering Earth author Liu Cixin, followed by another Q&A with Cameron by director Frant Gwo (Guo Fan).

This international media worthy press conference surly helped create buzz surrounding Alita‘s lead-up to its China release, but it was not the key reason for its $65MMUSD opening weekend. An opening weekend tally that took in more money in three days than Alita‘s entire ten day run in North American, at the same point.

There is a growing trend at the China Box-Office that has only caught the attention of a few seasoned China Watchers. A trend that has been tackled more than once by this very online trade publications, the fact that: Female Superheroes Are Box-Office Gold in China!

Even Ghost in the Shell starring Scarlett (White on the Outside, Asian on the Inside) Johansson made $29.3MMUSD at the China box-office, over $20MM more than its next largest international territory Japan….but, let’s not use this as our “prime example!”

This trend first caught China Watchers’ eye when DC’s Wonder Woman became the best superhero multiplier at the China box-office. A feat that appears to have only been outdone by last year’s surprise hit Aquaman.

Unlike Wonder Woman, Aquaman had the unique potential to tap into a series of different genres that appealed to general movie going audience in China. A subject we discussed in our Inaugural MiniCast on Castbox.fm.

A Mini-Podcast from Silk Celluloid that dove into the fact that Aquaman was not just another superhero movie, but one that had style elements of Jim Cameron’s very own Avatar and even a “tomb raiding” genre sub-plot.

Speaking of the Tomb Raiding genre, meeting Female Superhero Gold!

Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider was Q1’s most successful Hollywood tentpole China release in 2018, not because of its final box-office tally but because of its unusual second weekend box-office drop:

• Tomb Raider – Opening Weekend, $41.6MM / Second Weekend Drop 32%
• Black Panther – Opening Weekend, $67MM / Second Weekend Drop 56%
• Maze Runner: Death Cure – Opening Weekend, $21.6MM / Second Weekend Drop 80%
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – Opening Weekend $40MM / Second Weekend Drop 80%
• Pacific Rim: Uprising – Opening Weekend, $65MM / Second Weekend Drop 86%
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Opening Weekend, $28.7MM / Second Weekend Drop 92%

As seen above there is a trend at the China box-office of a second weekend drop of 80-85% for Hollywood blockbusters, franchises, and tentpole releases.

Leading trade pundits to continuously declare box-office failure when looking at Friday-to-Friday drops, as if they were comparing anticipated numbers that one would see in North America to those in China.

Seasoned China Watchers witnessing these drops month-after-month, knew early on that this is now part of the norm. During Q1 / Q2 of 2018 the trend was well established, by the numbers, as a piece of the China box-office that Hollywood should begin anticipating in their China release projections.

Being the first Hollywood blockbuster released after the Spring Festival long holiday, Alita: Battle Angel from producer James Cameron took off with a bang. Opening on Friday at just under $20MM and saw a 25.5% jump on Saturday, leading to a final weekend China box-office tally of $64.8MMUSD.

A tally that is on par with Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and the Tencent backed Kong: Skull Island. It is way to early and unclear to predict Ready Player One box-office numbers, for Alita, as that movie legged its way to $218MM in China. A surprising result no-one ever expected it to reach.

Right now, Alita is looking anywhere between $150-185MM but with its good word of mouth, it could go beyond even Ready Player One‘s range.

This analyst would not be surprised if it did so, but one should expect it to land on the higher end of the $150-185MM project final outcome. In line with other similar releases like Kong: Skull Island.

Alita could be the first Hollywood film of 2019 to break out in China. As it has something most other Hollywood releases do not have: that being Alita is a Female Manga Superhero meets Jim Cameron hybrid.

A unique combinations that its successful predecessors Wonder Woman, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and even Tomb Raider did not have.

Alita has already broken records at the China box-office, being Fox’s biggest opening in China, and potentially its last before the Disney merger is finalized.

Alita also set a new IMAX opening record for the month of February. Which is a surprise, as normally this is the month which the Chinese New Year lands. A holiday that is by far the most important season at the China box-office for the entire year.

Alita being the first Hollywood post-holiday release had a wide open field on IMAX compared to the long holiday of February 5th through the 10th, which saw an increase by 40% YoY grossing $32MMUSD over the ten day. Though, we should point out that actual IMAX tickets being sold were only up 16% YoY, meaning that ticket prices went up from the prior year and may have been raised specifically for the holiday period.

Alita was able to break the IMAX opening weekend record due to the fact that several major Chinese releases, The Wandering Earth, Pegasus, and Crazy Alien, were simultaneously released on IMAX screens before or on the long Chun jie holiday.

We must also take into consideration that The Wandering Earth, currently China’s second biggest domestic grosser of all time, opened in fourth place and only topped out as number one several days later. The Wandering Earth went on to become IMAX China’s highest grossing single film, overtaking 2015’s Mojin: The Lost Legend from Wuershan, with a final IMAX tally of $27.25MMUSD before Alita: Battle Angel took over its screens.

Alita has 15 days (your typical film lifespan at the China box-office) until Marvel’s Captain Marvel opens Day-n-Date in China. With only How to Train Your Dragon 3 coming out in-between these two Female Superhero films. An animated feature which should not pose any threat to Alita‘s box-office dominance.

No matter how much Alita‘s final tally may be over the next 15 days, the China box-office will not save this $170MM+ film from being a studio write-off, as Fox, Cameron, and Friends will only see 25% of the receipts at max.

What the China box-office will be able to provide to the studio and Cameron is, the ability to save-face for a film that will take years of non box-office ancillary revenues to turn a profit. A face-saving feet that allowed Pacific Rim to be “saved” by China, leading to a heart breakingly disastrous sequel gear specifically toward China and kids in the form of Uprising.

The Female Superhero sub-genre at the China box-office, is not the only space Hollywood should be paying attention to in the coming years. As China is following a trend that is already established in the U.S. that Digital Disruption has led to Female Geekdom representing 50% of all Geek Culture related industries. Which means that all fan & comic conventions, gaming, comics, anime, etc. demographically is now 50% female across the board.

Multiple studies on Female Geekdom, both academically and governmental, have show that females are more likely to choose a character that is female, in games, or a female led story in comics, up-to 75% of the time. When provided with an option between a male or female protagonist to choose from. The studies further went on to highlight the fact that the same is not true for their male counterparts, who would only chose a character of their same sex 35% of the time. A major marketing difference between the two demographics.

In China this trend is beginning to be noticed in the hardcore mobile gaming space, seen specifically in the hit MOBA mobile game
Honor of Kings. As 54% of all of Honor of Kings players in 2018 were female.

During this same period, these female players paid more for in-game purchases than their male counterparts. Making them the highest revenues per player and the largest demographic for the world’s largest mobile game.

A win-win scenario and one that should be paid attention to, if Fox and friends wish to monetize the IP that is the Alita film beyond just a potential sequel. To tap into this lucrative and growing demographic – Chinese Female Geekdom – by teaming up with local partners. Such as Blizzard teaming with NetEase Games for its mobile adaptation, Diablo: Immortal, or as Marvel Comics did in the development and publication of their first Manhua Marvel Superheroes with NetEase Comics.

I suspect Alita in its final China box-office tally will be more comparable to last year’s surprise hit Ready Player One than to uber China hits Aquaman and Venom. BUT, I’ve been wrong before China Watchers! So, Stay Tuned as we track Alita: The Superhero Battle Angel in the weeks leading up to the Day-n-Date release of the MCU’s Captain Marvel.

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About the Author
Born and raised in the Missouri-Ozarks Ryan studied Film Production, and East Asian Culture, at the University of Kansas where he was a UGRA recipient that led him on a seven-year long, Journey From the West, to China. Where he worked with Warner Brothers, the China Film Group Corp. and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Before returning to the States, where he specializes in Chinese Anime & Comics, China’s Box-Office, and Chinese entertainment-tech industries. He has a dog in China, Abigail, and a dog in the Arkansas-Ozarks, King Blue, who help ease his anxiety of suffering from the “Two-Dimensional Complex” that is trying to understand the Culture Industry landscapes of the Middle Kingdom.