How China is trying to take credit for 'Avatar 2' gigantic box office success

'Avatar 2's resounding success wouldn't have been possible without China, Global Times has boasted about the Chinese market.

Washington, Feb 08: James Cameron's magnum opus 'Avatar:The Way of Water' has become the third biggest box-office hit of all time at the international box office.

It has recently surpassed the collection of Cameron's classic 'The Titanic' as 'Avatar 2' has made $1.538 million overseas. However, China has now taken credit for this gigantic success.

In an article published on state-run Global Times, China boasted about making significant revenue for 'Avatar 2' overall collection which helped the movie to beat 'The Titanic' record.

The story with the headline 'Culture Beat: 'Avatar 2' achieves box-office milestone with help of Chinese market' has targeted Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek's earlier comment where he had claimed that his movies will perform well even without China market. The article then talks about the business part of 'Avatar 2'.

Citing Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan, the Global Times report said 'Avatar 2'sold $2.18 billion in tickets worldwide as of Tuesday, with nearly three-quarters of that total coming from international markets, led by China, with $240 million in ticket sales, followed by France ($141 million) and Germany ($ 130 million). It stated that the movie earned $247 million from IMAX out of which it made $170 million outside the US.

"There is no doubt that the resounding performance of Avatar: The Way of Water could not have been achieved without the support of the Chinese film market. The film got a lucky 30-day extension which allowed it to run through the Spring Festival holidays, the most lucrative film period of the year. Chinese moviegoers' high enthusiasm for movie-watching amid the holiday helped it to climb up to take the global No.3 spot behind Avatar and Avengers: Endgame," it boasted about the China market.

The article then slammed the Western media reports for claiming that 'Avatar 2' helped the Chinese film market of recovering due to 'Avatar 2. "Some Western media outlets have boasted that the release of Avatar: The Way of Water greatly boosted the quick recovery of the Chinese film market. In the meantime, data show that it was the Chinese market that contributed to the accomplishments of the sci-fi sequel," the article said.

It claims that China is the second largest film market and movies such as 'The Wandering Earth II' and comedy murder mystery 'Full River Red' has done exceedingly well at the box office. "

However, what the article fails to mention is the percentage of profit that the Hollywood studios will get from the box office collection. Like India or other countries where the studios will get 40 to 50 per cent share, Hollywood films are allowed to take only 25 per cent of their profit under a trade agreement established in 2012.

Moreover, Hollywood studios, like other countries, will not have any say over their own releases and will be at the mercy of regulators of China on film releases. In addition to it, the authoritarian government is known for highly censoring the content.

After all, China allows only 34 foreign movies to release in its country in a year.