‘Aquaman’ makes box office splash in China release

LOS ANGELES — The box office action over the weekend took place in China, where Aquaman collected $94 million in tickets, validating a risky plan by Warner Bros. to release the movie in the Middle Kingdom before anywhere else.

Hollywood has learned a lot about Chinese moviegoers in recent years, but releasing films in the country — the world’s No. 2 market behind the United States — remains a crapshoot for American studios. Warner and other Hollywood companies cannot distribute their own movies in China; they must rely on the state-owned China Film Group. Chinese censors often do not clear American films for distribution until the relative last minute, hindering marketing efforts.

And Chinese audiences have grown more selective about Hollywood movies, at times displaying a new preference for locally made movies like the extravagant Operation Red Sea, directed by Dante Lam, known as the Michael Bay of Asia.

The upshot: Aquaman, starring Jason Momoa as the DC Comics superhero and directed by James Wan, could have easily flopped in China, which would have left a stink on the movie before its global rollout. Aquaman, which cost an estimated $350 million to make and market worldwide, will arrive in 40 more countries Friday. Audiences in North America will have the chance to see it starting Dec. 21.

Warner decided to pursue an early release date for Aquaman in China to avoid the country’s traditional end-of-year blackout period for American movies. Opening first in China — where Wan has a following, having directed the smash hit Furious 7 — would also allow Warner to limit the impact of piracy, which is rampant in the country.

Why didn’t Warner just release Aquaman this weekend in North America as well?

The two weekends after Thanksgiving in the United States are typically among the slowest moviegoing periods of the year, as holiday shopping and related festivities take priority.

There were no new widerelease films over the weekend in North America, where the No. 1 movie was again Ralph Breaks the Internet (Disney), which collected about $16.1 million, for a three-week domestic total of $140.9 million.