As Chinese film goers pivot to local content, Hollywood loses out

A preference for local movies as well as ongoing US-China tensions have eroded the market for Hollywood movies in China.

With China’s box office takings expected to return to near pre-pandemic highs in 2021, the world’s largest movie market is becoming more attractive — and more tricky — for Hollywood studios. Ticket sales from movie theaters in China, which has largely contained the coronavirus, may jump to 60 billion yuan ($9 billion) this year, according to Rance Pow, founder of consultancy Artisan Gateway, closing in on 2019’s record haul of 64 billion yuan. By contrast, with outbreaks still raging, U.S. cinemas may take in about a third of that tally, Wedbush Securities estimates, underscoring Hollywood studios’ growing dependence on the Asian country. China overtook the U.S. to become the top movie market last year, as the pandemic shut American film theaters for longer than their Chinese peers. But the increasing reliance comes as Chinese viewers pivot to local language films, and show a greater sensitivity toward portrayals of China and its people in Western culture, amid simmering geopolitical tensions with the U.S. Adding to the pressure on studios, a bilateral pact that required China to import a minimum number of American movies every year, has expired.