For the first time since Spider-Man: No Way Home debuted in theaters in June 2019, Chinese audiences will be able to catch a Marvel Studios film in theaters. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania have slated release dates in China, heading to theaters on February 7th and February 17th, respectively.
Though Black Widow didn’t have a theatrical run in China, differences in sociopolitical ideologies reportedly kept Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals from theatrical releases and a historically strong relationship with Disney began to fall apart. Relations seemed to be reconciled with the release of Avatar: The Way of Water and that seems to be confirmed with two Marvel tentpoles now headed to theaters.
The Chinese box office has long given a major boost to Disney’s bottom line and in 2022 films such as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder likely lost $100M or more as a result of the ongoing dispute between China and Disney. In the cast of Multiverse of Madness, the lack of Chinese receipts almost certainly kept it from crossing the $1B mark. On that note, the release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever may push its global total near that same $1B mark as it currently stands at $835M and its predecessor pulled in $105M back in 2018.
Marvel Studios has two other major releases in 2023 in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Marvels. In 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 pulled in over $100M in 5 weeks in China and in 2019, Captain Marvel made just over $150M during its 5-week window. While no word on whether those films will receive release dates in mainland China has come down, the prospects certainly seem rosier than they were just a few months ago.
Sources: Deadline
