3D ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ Leads 2D ‘Dark Knight Rises’ On Day 2 In China

COMMENTS (12)

• Well, that is unfortunate. Perhaps Chinese audiences didn’t want to see the dark adventures of a wealthy American capitalist. Their loss! For Amazing Spider-Man was the worst comic book movie of the summer. (It also had the least amount of action in a comic book movie, ever.)

  I know what you’re thinking. Here’s the part where The Watcher calls for Sony to sell Spider-Man back to Marvel Studios. Well, I’m going to surprise you. Today I’m just going to point out all the fans want Spidey to go back to Marvel Studios, and that it’s never a good idea to go against the fanbase, because of all the negative word of mouth and ill will that generates. When you think about, the hill a potentional ASM sequel would have to climb just gets steeper and steeper, costlier and costlier.

  Comment by The Watcher — Tuesday August 28, 2012 @ 1:49pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • …still…money talks..nobody walks.neither film was the best of its character but you can’t ignore the money made.

    Comment by Isa — Wednesday August 29, 2012 @ 11:01pm PDT  Reply to this post

• That sucks. Didn’t know China likes crappy movies like The Amazing Spider-Man instead of well made dark films like The Dark Knight Rises

  Comment by Farzan — Tuesday August 28, 2012 @ 3:28pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • The Amazing Spider-Man is a better movie than The Dark Knight Rises, hands down.

    Comment by China — Thursday August 30, 2012 @ 5:30pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Oh sweet Jesus! We really need to reevaluate our trade negotiations with China. This is just insane!

  Comment by Alboone — Tuesday August 28, 2012 @ 4:07pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Dark Knight Rises didn’t do as well because China Film Group’s marketing was atrocious.

  They started showing ads for the movie 3 days before it was released! And they were only advertised on the little TV screens in the subway cars.

  Since July, probably every expat was hounding the internet for news of when DKR was going to be released.

  Spiderman had giant adverts plastered all over subway station walls, bus stops, buses, TV, websites, etc. as if it were a CHINESE movie.

  But I guess these movies really need the marketing push.

  Comment by Brian — Tuesday August 28, 2012 @ 8:40pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Wow. Some of you posters don’t know? Naturally a less serious movie but high on action and special effects movie like Spider-Man is going to be more popular than The Dark Knight Rises. That’s the way it usually is when dealing with other cultures. But the big point not being discussed is pairing them together was intentional not for the main reason noted but because it’s obviously punishment for Christian Bale’s stunt in China earlier in the year and a message to Hollywood. I’m sure Beijing knew given the choice Spider-Man was going to attract more people in China. I know people are going to complain just like someone here thought it was outrageous to open two movies on the same day. Wow, like that has never happened before. Face it, Hollywood doesn’t own China. And bragging about how Hollywood movies are more popular than domestic ain’t going to help you. They can stop all Hollywood movies all together if you get too cocky. Besides don’t think it’s because Hollywood makes better movies. The rules in China for Chinese filmmakers don’t allow then to make Hollywood style movies. Most of the content in Hollywood movies are forbidden for Chinese filmmakers.

  Comment by Sacramento — Tuesday August 28, 2012 @ 10:02pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Oh please, The Dark Knight is a sloppy mess of poor structure and poorer logic for most of it’s runtime. Where it isn’t being overly convenient that is.

  Comment by eh? — Wednesday August 29, 2012 @ 11:46am PDT  Reply to this post

  • I doubt that’s the reason behind the results… But boy do I agree with you!

    TDKR was one of the most indigestible movies to hit the screen this year, I was cringing in my seat the whole second half. People were literally laughing in the cinema when the final “twist” came up.

    And people call that great cinema…

    Comment by allan — Thursday August 30, 2012 @ 6:07am PDT  Reply to this post

    • i think you are full of crap about people laughing. because at the imax theater i went to they were cheering at the end of the movie i think you are not telling the whole truth.and the reason TASM is pulling in more money is because it in 3D and playing in more theaters.in china a 3D ticket is more then in the US i will bet they sold about the same amount of tickets

      Comment by rom — Thursday August 30, 2012 @ 4:06pm PDT  Reply to this post

• The simplest explanation is that Spider-Man is just more popular in China than Batman. I can speculate on the reasons: Spider-Man is more approachable; the adolescent-wish-fullfillment aspect carries more weight with Chinese cinema audiences (which skew even younger than American ones); Spider-Man is more merchandisable and therefore gets more exposure. There’s also the fact that all of the previous Spider-Man movies were released in China, whereas only Batman Begins got a Chinese theatrical run. Of course plenty of Chinese saw The Dark Knight as a DVD or a download, but heading to the theater for Batman doesn’t carry the same “ritualistic” charge as it does with Spider-Man. Instant nostalgia is big in China, and today’s theatergoing college students and twentysomething professionals are likely to have fond memories of seeing the original Spider-Man trilogy as schoolkids.

  Other factors to consider: the 3D surcharge and the slightly lower screen count for TDKR (about 2,400 vs. 2,500 for Spidey), even though TDKR runs a half-hour longer and would therefore need more screens to achieve the same number of daily showings. The lopsided marketing focus noted by Brian may have had something to do with it, but I suspect this is putting the cart before the horse — my guess is that China Film put more effort into marketing Spider-Man because they figured it had more built-in appeal and they just needed to let people know it was out there.

  Comment by Bob Violence — Wednesday August 29, 2012 @ 8:06pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Chinese are now out of their senses
  They think that releasing two epic on same day wud definately pull out their local cinema and could have helped financially
  Bt the fact remains that hollywood movies are far more good than their chinese counterparts
  Its really a bug thinking of chinese govt. And also trying to prove that they are a reigning in terms of decision making in shitt..
  Craps…

  Comment by Rahul grover — Friday August 31, 2012 @ 6:42pm PDT  Reply to this post