<\/p>\n
At the Beijing premiere of \u201cZootopia 2\u201d last week, Walt Disney Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer Jared Bush encountered a wall filled with letters from people throughout China, all writing about what the original 2016 animated movie meant to them.<\/p>\n
They highlighted the optimism of rabbit cop Judy Hopps and how they wanted to emulate her sunny outlook. They cited the unlikely friendship between Judy and her partner in crime, a fox named Nick Wilde, as hope that they could find common ground with different family members. It was a display Bush didn\u2019t see at any other premiere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more than just a story,\u201d said Bush, who wrote and directed \u201cZootopia 2,\u201d directing alongside Byron Howard. \u201cA lot of the time, these characters have helped people through difficult moments of their life. They have a lot of love for these characters.\u201d<\/p>\n
To this day, the original \u201cZootopia\u201d ranks as China\u2019s highest-grossing Hollywood animated film, with a total box office haul there of $236 million. Marketing ahead of the new film has included promotions with 10 brands, as well as displays throughout the country, including in Shenzhen, Chengdu and Beijing.<\/p>\n
But over the years, the China market for U.S.-made films has changed dramatically, leading to questions about whether \u201cZootopia,\u201d which heads to theaters Wednesday, and its loyal following can break through the more difficult landscape that American movies face there today.<\/p>\n
Once seen as a major \u2014 and lucrative \u2014 destination for big Hollywood blockbusters, the country now has a more robust local film industry that\u2019s pumping out strong competitors. The fraying geopolitical relationship between the U.S. and China also hasn\u2019t helped, nor has the increasing trend of younger audiences watching short-form content on their phones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to the industry that both \u2018Zootopia\u2019 and \u2018Avatar\u2019 work,\u201d said Andrew Cripps, head of theatrical distribution for Walt Disney Studios, referring to the upcoming James Cameron-directed \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash.\u201d \u201cThe overall industry needs some success at year-end, and I think this would be a tremendous sign of confidence in the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n
China was once seen as a gold mine for certain films \u2014 namely, big studio movies \u2014 that could get approval from its government for release.<\/p>\n
A decade ago, Hollywood movies would regularly haul in more than $100 million at the Chinese box office, with massive blockbusters like 2015\u2019s \u201cFurious 7\u201d and 2014\u2019s \u201cTransformers: Age of Extinction\u201d drawing north of $300 million each. Some films with softer domestic debuts could count on China to supersize their box-office returns, like 2016\u2019s \u201cResident Evil: The Final Chapter,\u201d which grossed nearly $160 million in China alone, but just $26.8 million in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n
In 2016, the domestic Chinese film business saw a significant slowdown in box-office growth. As a result, revenue from imported films \u2014 largely those from the U.S., such as Universal Pictures\u2019 \u201cWarcraft\u201d and Disney-owned Marvel Studios\u2019 \u201cCaptain America: Civil War\u201d \u2014 increased by 10.9%, said Ying Zhu, author of \u201cHollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World\u2019s Largest Movie Market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those foreign films accounted for 41.7% of the total market share at the time, up from 38.4% in 2015, she wrote in an email. To help boost year-end revenue, Chinese regulators even relaxed the so-called blackout on imported films during December, which was traditionally saved for local movies.<\/p>\n
\u201cZootopia\u201d opened in China to just $22 million at the box office, but momentum grew in subsequent weeks. Though a movie from the U.S. typically got a four-week run in China, Chinese regulators made an exception and added two extra weeks, said Bush, who co-directed and co-wrote the 2016 film.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Zootopia\u2019 was somewhat of a real surprise to us here in China,\u201d he said on a video call from Beijing while on the film\u2019s publicity tour. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know that it was going to turn into this phenomenon here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Known in China as \u201cCrazy Animal City,\u201d the film\u2019s dynamic between lead characters Nick and Judy and their imperfect but caring relationship appealed to Chinese audiences, as did Judy\u2019s backstory of moving from a small town in the countryside to a major metropolis, Bush said. Animated films have also long been popular in the market.<\/p>\n
After the film\u2019s success, Disney built the \u201cZootopia\u201d-themed land in Shanghai Disneyland, which opened in 2023 and is the only such land in any Disney park. The studio recently held the movie\u2019s Shanghai premiere at the themed land, as crowds of fans (both there and in Beijing) dressed up as characters from the film, including lesser-known ones like Fru Fru the shrew and Officer Clauhauser, a pop culture-obsessed cheetah.<\/p>\n
But since 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, China has pulled back from its embrace of Hollywood films, particularly as its political relationship with the U.S. has chilled.<\/p>\n