Hard to be king
'Black Panther' debuts at top of Chinese mainland box office to mixed reviews
Black Panther, Marvel’s first black superhero blockbuster, took in 108 million yuan ($17 million) in the Chinese mainland on Sunday for a weekend gross of more than 421 million yuan, allowing it to top the box office in China during its debut weekend.
The record-breaking film’s performance in the world’s second largest film market drew a lot of attention from overseas media as it has so far raked in more than $562 million in the US alone to become the 33rd film to gross more than $1 billion worldwide.
Featuring a predominately black cast and a story about the rise of the new superhero king of the fictional African country of Wakanda, the film claimed the fourth highest opening for a Marvel film in the Chinese mainland following Spider-man: Homecoming, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War.
Mediocre reviews
While the film is performing well financially, critically it doesn’t seem to have appealed to Chinese audiences as much as it has to audiences elsewhere. The film currently has mediocre 6.8/10 and 7.1/10 ratings on Chinese review platform Douban and movie site Mtime, much lower than the 7.8/10 it has on IMDb and the 97 percent freshness score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
More than 57.6 percent of the more than 58,000 Douban users who reviewed the film gave it three stars or below, with their major complaints being stereotypical characters, “not-very-exciting” action scenes and a cliché plot.
“It’s a Hamlet story decorated with African cultural symbols and moreover, if you replaced the human characters with animals, it is very much like a Lion King sequel,” writes one Douban review that has garnered 1,741 likes.
“A mediocre movie being bragged as the work of a god… Aside from the music, there is nothing to be excited about,” commented Douban user Wandering Swordsman.
“The portrayal of Black Panther as king is too lofty and there is too much preaching in the first half of the film, making it really dry,” wrote film critic Chu Mufeng on Sina Weibo. “Its North American box office success seems to suggest the film’s social significance outrides its content.”
“The lack of popularity of Black Panther’s story in China as well as the film’s loose connection with previous Marvel Cinematic Universe productions may cause the Chinese audience to find the film boring,” Zuo Heng, an associate research fellow from the China Film Art Research Center, told the Global Times on Friday.
Dubbing the film “an African wonder viewed from a Western perspective,” Zuo predicted that the film’s total box office in the mainland should land between 800 million to 1 billion yuan.
There are also moviegoers who have happily given the film a thumbsup.
“Exciting film! The car-chase scene was amazing and made me want to jump out of my seat,” wrote Chinese actor Zhang Junning on Sina Weibo on Saturday.
“I give the film an 80 out of 100,” Zhao Ting, a 22 year-old moviegoer, told the Global Times on Friday. “The music and visuals are great and I think the story is interesting as African-themed films are not very often seen in Chinese mainland cinemas. The African elements were well expressed in this film.”
Not about color
A Hollywood Reporter article published on March 5, four days before the film’s mainland debut, expressed concern that the film might not benefit from “the marketing effect that has come with its status as a cultural milestone in the US.” The article also quoted some analysts who stood by the oft-touted idea that “any blackthemed movie will underperform in China,” which is mainly based on the fact that many recent popular films with black casts, such
as Get Out, were not released in the mainland.
While Zuo acknowledged that a number of recent Oscar-winning films with black leads like Twelve Years
a Slave and Moonlight failed to screen in the Chinese mainland, he said that the reasons behind this have nothing to do with race.
“Actually, many African American stars such as Will Smith, Halle Berry, Zoe Saldana, Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington are very popular in China and a lot of their works have been introduced into the mainland market,” Zuo said.
With the film’s social impact in the US making headlines in the news, some moviegoers in China may have been turned off by the politicized atmosphere that has formed around the film. In response, many Chinese netizens have suggested Chinese moviegoers should look beyond the film’s political implications.
“It is okay to think the film is bad because of its plot, but it’s just unbearable to see someone give the film a negative rating just because of its political significance,” wrote Sina Weibo user RuruRin on Sunday. “Actually the film is not just about African descendants, I think anyone who has been oppressed will resonate with this film.”
“I think Black Panther shows many interesting ideas, such as Pan-Africanism and the connections and conflicts between Africans and African Americans as well as effort of African Americans to seek out their roots,” wrote Sina Weibo user Amazing Doggy. “The film is an amazing attempt to try to blend African cultures together in a fictional
story!”