China Beat Hollywood at Its Own Game: “They Used Marvel to Destroy Marvel”

For years, Hollywood could rely on China to turn its biggest blockbusters into billion-dollar winners. That partnership is over now, and it’s not looking like China wants it back.

A top Hollywood talent agent who works with several Marvel actors told Variety, “There’s a reset of what a hit is, and I don’t see them consistently hitting $1 billion as before — without China, with Disney+ exposure, post-COVID, without megastars. China used Marvel, Disney and the U.S. film industry to seed their own.”

Another industry insider was even more blunt about the loss of Chinese box office power: “We are never going to have those days again.”

For decades, the United States was the biggest movie market in the world. No one came close, until China’s movie industry exploded. Every movie at the top of the charts was Chinese, and the biggest of them all was Ne Zha 2.

The animated fantasy didn’t just win the holiday — it crushed records. In three days after release during Chinese New Year, it made 1.1 billion yuan ($137 million), the fastest movie that year to hit 1 billion yuan. By day four, it passed 2 billion. Day five, 3 billion. On day six, it crossed 4 billion — smashing the old record set by Detective Chinatown 3 in 2021.

By day eight, Ne Zha 2 passed 5 billion yuan ($684 million), breaking the record set by The Battle at Lake Changjin in 2021. It also became the highest-grossing animated movie in China, passing the first Ne Zha. On day nine, it had already crossed 6 billion yuan.

By February 8, the film had made over 7.2 billion yuan, making it the highest-grossing Chinese movie ever, beating Wolf Warrior 2 and The Battle at Lake Changjin. It also beat the single-territory box office record set by Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the U.S. On the global stage, it became the top animated movie in history, beating Inside Out 2. It was also the first non-American, non-English animated movie to hit that level.

On March 9, Ne Zha 2 passed $2 billion worldwide — the first animated film and first non-American movie to ever do it.

The film also made waves overseas. Its Los Angeles premiere sold out instantly, and it earned $7.2 million in its U.S. opening weekend, far above the first Ne Zha. In Singapore, it smashed records for the biggest first-day and total earnings for a Chinese film, making over $4.5 million there.

If this is the future, Hollywood may have to get used to watching China create billion-dollar hits without them. The next few years could see more Chinese movies topping the world’s charts, while Hollywood struggles to find the same success in China.

And if Ne Zha 2 is anything to go by, the center of the movie world might shift, with Beijing and Shanghai taking just as much of the spotlight as Hollywood.

Insider statements were first brought by Variety.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!