China is taking over Hollywood and it’ll be interesting to see how it changes the mega-blockbusters in the future. I think a small sample size is the forthcoming The Great Wall, which stars Matt Damon in a mystery centered around the construction of the Great Wall of China.
Let’s be honest…The Great Wall is going to make $12 here in the States when it’s released on February 17 (I at least know I’m buying a ticket). It’ll be deemed a huge bust and disaster by those who have no understanding of box office numbers. So, let me nip it in the bud a month prematurely. The Great Wall appears to be a booming success already.
A quick, curious glance over at Box Office Mojo shows that this Chinese co-production has already pulled in $182 million internationally, which means it will, at the bare minimum, cross the $200 million line before it even releases here in the U.S. We have no idea what the budget was, including marketing, but a good comp would be something along the lines of Terminator Genisys, which cost $150m, and bombed here in the States yet ended up making $350m worldwide. The international success of that film may have fueled such co-productions and changed the face of Hollywood for the next decade or so.
The thing that rubs me the wrong way, though, is that The Great Wall was clearly not made for U.S. audiences, yet will be sold as such (Matt Damon!). Does this mean we’re to expect a ton of Blockbusters to get lost in translation as they battle for both Chinese and American eyeballs? Only time will tell…
The full cast includes Matt Damon, Willem Dafoe (Antichrist, Spider-Man), Pedro Pascal (“Game of Thrones”), as well as Chinese superstar Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs, which was remade as The Departed), pop icon Luhan, and actress Jing Tian(who will also appear in next year’s Kong: Skull Island).
“This is a Hollywood monster movie and needs to be made in that style,” director Yimou Zhang (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) told EW a few months ago.
“The film takes place about 1,000 years ago. At its core, it is a period piece and an action film. The fantasy element does play a major role because of the monsters. But, what makes our film unique is that these are ancient Chinese monsters. Even though it’s a fantasy movie, we filmed it in a very realistic way. We want it to feel like the events actually happened. Other than the monster, all aspects of this film are backed by either scientific or historical research.”
