Writing for Forbes, Scott Mendelson notes that the biggest movie in China is bigger than even the biggest US movies:
The Wandering Earth wrapped up its first week of release in China with a record-breaking $349 million. That’s the biggest one-week total ever in China, besting the $338m debut of Detective Chinatown 2 last year and the $307m launch of Wolf Warrior 2 in the summer of 2017. It was the second-biggest seven day total for any release in any territory save for the $390m seven-day cume of Walt Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015.
Yes, Wandering Earth earned more in its first week in China than Disney’s Avengers: Infinity War earned in North America ($338m) last April.
Yes: it’s complicated because China controls which movies can be released, and how wide they can expand, so it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. But it’s clear that the Chinese box office is simply massive.
Hollywood movies have long been one of the America’s most reliable exports, because you simply couldn’t make a certain kind of movie anywhere else. That’s not true anymore.