Here’s a curious hint. There have been many discussions if Marvel Studios will manage to release any films in China this year due to various factors. Shang-Chi still hasn’t gotten one and there was no sign Eternals wouldn’t face the same fate. Chloé Zhao‘s win at the Oscars was heavily praised by the country until comments surfaced that changed their attitude to muting anything in relation to the director online. As such, it seemed unlikely her film will get a Chinese release. Yet, a new banner may have hinted at
Twitter user @FILMemesTW shared a banner that reveals Eternals will release in Hong Kong theaters as of November 4th. The curious aspect is that it would be a day before it releases in the States. There hasn’t been an official statement so we might still need to take this with a grain of salt for now but it popping up online is curious.
China has been very strict with its releases as of late, which has kept many productions from hitting any record numbers in their international box office. F9 and Godzilla vs. Kong have made around $200M alone in the Eastern country, which boosted their international standing quite a bit. The current leading film worldwide is a Chinese propaganda film that has garnered almost one billion in the country alone.
Marvel Studios has still been performing well even without their usual Chinese release. Shang-Chi seems to be on route to pass $400M in its runtime which would be on par with films like Ant-Man in non-pandemic times. Black Widow also had the added benefit of releasing on Disney+ Premier Access which gave it a nice boost in numbers but added its own issues when it came to a foreign release. Still, it’ll be interesting to see if the Chinese release gets announced and how it may benefit the Zhao-directed project’s overall box office performance.
Source: Twitter, The Numbers
