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The Chinese Box Office is Huge

February 11, 2019 International

Writing for Forbes, Scott Mendelson notes that the biggest movie in China is bigger than even the [biggest US movies](https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/02/11/box-office-china-wandering-earth-avengers-star-wars-wu-jing-vin-diesel-wolf-warrior-imax/#6b9b442a4861):

> 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.

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