It’s official: China is reducing the number of Hollywood films allowed to play in the country as part of its ongoing trade war with Donald Trump. Ear
It’s official: China is reducing the number of Hollywood films allowed to play in the country as part of its ongoing trade war with Donald Trump. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that China was considering a full-out ban on all Hollywood films, so maybe movie executives here should feel lucky that it will only “moderately reduce,” as Bloomberg reports, the number of US movies it imports. “The wrong action of the US government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience’s favorability toward American films,” the China Film Administration said in a statement. What films will be targeted? And how many? That remains to be seen. While Trump put many of his global tariffs on pause, he remains resolute on keeping enormous tariffs on China, having announced that they will be increased to 125% from the initially proposed 104%.
Some analysts have argued that China is no longer a major player in the global box office, but try telling that to last year’s Alien: Romulus, which grossed approximately $110 million there, accounting for about 30% of its total global gross, according to Box Office Mojo. Without China, Romulus would have been a moderate success, but not a surprise hit. Just last week, Warner Bros. and Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie opened number one in China with sales of $14.5 million, according to Deadline. In 2024, the biggest US release in the country was another team-up from Warner Bros. and Legendary, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which grossed $132 million. These numbers are a lot more than rounding errors when it comes to calculating a film’s success—and its chances for a sequel. Sequels, of course, are still what most Hollywood execs dream about at night.
China has been clamping down on Hollywood releases in the country for well over a decade, instead focusing on building its own film industry. Just this year, Ne Zha 2, a Chinese animated adventure film, grossed a staggering nearly $2 billion at the global box office. Even if the government has only partially constrained the number of Hollywood films it will exhibit, it’s striking a blow to the upcoming blockbuster summer season. The most worrisome issue here is that there isn’t much Hollywood can do to appease the Chinese government. In the past, studios have agreed to make changes to their films to gain access to the Chinese market. Transformers: Age of Extinction, whose world premiere took place in Hong Kong, inexplicably features a Chinese ATM in a scene that takes place in Texas. Warner Bros. Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav initially praised Trump’s election, saying that his policies could offer “a pace of change and opportunity for consolidation.” This probably isn’t the change Zaslav wanted to believe in.
Marvel, which will release Thunderbolts* in May and the revamped The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July, has had issues with its films releasing in China before; Spider-Man: No Way Home was barred from release. On the other hand, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 did get a release in China and wound up grossing over $86 million there—which ain’t nothing at a time when a beleaguered Hollywood will take anything.
Marvel just released a Thunderbolts* international poster announcing an April 30 release date in China, but that could change if China decides to give the movie the axe as it reduces imports. This summer, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is at an inflection point. With Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four, the studio is introducing up-to-date characters it hopes audiences will connect with enough to energize its Phase Six series of films—most notably with Avengers: Doomsday, now in production. With this much on the line, the thought of a bump in the road may be enough to make Hulk go smash.
In July, Universal is soft-rebooting (is that what it’s called?) its Jurassic franchise with the Scarlett Johansson–led Jurassic World Rebirth. The Jurassic series has done major business at the Chinese box office. Jurassic World: Dominion made over $157 million there, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom over $261 million, and Jurassic World over $228 million. It could have great implications on the future of this relaunch if it cannot get a release in the country.
The Mount Everest of recent box office success in China is, of course, Avatar: The Way of Water, which was the country’s second-highest-grossing film of 2022, making over $245 million in China alone. With Avatar: Fire and Ash arriving this December, Disney surely wants to replicate those numbers. It’s too soon to tell if the trade war will make that impossible.
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