On The Radar: Avatar gets coveted Chinese release

While China’s anti-censorship movement continues to gain traction since the protests late last month, one New Zealand-made blockbuster seems to have passed Chinese censors with flying colours.

That film would be the sequel to Avatar, called Avatar: The Way of Water. This long-awaited film is set to be released in mainland China next Friday, 16 December.

According to Reuters, The Way of Water becomes one of the few foreign films to get access to the Chinese market in recent months, with others including the latest film in the Minions franchise and Sony Pictures’ Where the Crawdads Sing.

Foreign movies have long struggled to gain release dates in mainland China due to strict quotas on the number of international films allowed to show and many are blocked due to content Chinese regulators deem unseemly.

Hollywood blockbusters recently have had a particularly hard time getting clearance to show in China. The six latest Marvel movies did not make an appearance in China, including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which was denied a China release.

The Avatar sequel's release represents a huge victory for Disney and 20th Century Studios, and director James Cameron. While the budget of the film has not been revealed, estimates suggest in excess of US$250 million. Cameron recently told GQ magazine the sequel budget is so high, that the film will need to become the third or fourth-highest grossing film in history to break even. That means the film will need to crack the US$2 billion mark globally, and an opening in China is crucial in achieving that.

In 2009, when the first Avatar was released, US$265 million came from the Chinese box office (total global ticket sales were $2.91 billion). The moviegoing clientele has only increased since, and pre-pandemic China was the world’s second-biggest movie market (the US being number one). For the 2021 re-release of the original Avatar, China contributed close to $58 million.

According to CNBC, perhaps most important about this release is that it will take place on the same day as its US debut. Disney saw success with this strategy when it released “Avengers: Endgame” on the same day in the US and China, leading to the highest global opening weekend in cinematic history.

The Avatar franchise has a special place in the hearts of many Chinese people. According to Wikipedia, One of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park’s quartz-sandstone pillars, the 1,080-metre Southern Sky Column, was officially renamed "Avatar Hallelujah Mountain" in honour of Avatar in January 2010. The film's director and production designers said that they drew inspiration for the floating rocks from mountains from around the world, including those in Hunan province.

Avatar: The Way of Water will be in New Zealand theatres two days earlier than all other international markets, next Wednesday (14 December).  

Banner image: Copyright Disney. For editorial use only

- Asia Media Centre