Shanghai Blog Post #6: Avengers Mania!

If you thought the Avengers was only big in the US, you should really come to China. The recent release of Avengers: Endgame has exploded at the box office, taking in $330 million in the first weekend alone, which is right on the tail of North America’s $357 million opening. During its first five days, Endgame ticket sales constituted 99% of all movie tickets sales in China with many theaters holding screenings once every fifteen minutes. Many showings sold out weeks before the release as tickets sold for several times the normal price worth.

Iron Man in the local subway station!

Chinese poster for Avengers: Endgame

It’s not just movie theaters that have captured the franchise mania. While walking around Shanghai, I’ve seen more Marvel bus posters, commercial ads, and even life-sized statues than I can count. Local businesses are clearly cashing in on this global phenomenon and joining the mass hysteria surrounding this franchise. And hysteria it is; several news sources picked up a story of a woman from Ningbo (a city near Shanghai) who cried so hard during Avengers: Endgame that she had to be hospitalized.

Why do Chinese people like the Avengers so much? Despite its America-centric origins, some speculate that the franchise’ expansion in the 2000s/2010s has suited the younger Chinese generation’s rising tastes for individualist pursuits and international products. The Avengers franchise also faces less competition from Chinese filmmakers in terms of big-budget action films, although the latter has been developing more blockbusters in recent years.

With the Chinese Endgame box office reaching 500 million (the biggest for any foreign film ever), it’s safe to say the mania won’t stop anytime soon. The movies’ influence has spread to other parts of Chinese popular culture as well. For example, with recent US-China tariff tensions, people have taken to Weibo (Chinese Twitter) to compare President Trump to Marvel villain Thanos, joking that the former is snapping his fingers to “wipe out half of Chinese investors.” Which, political implications aside, also proves that China’s excitement for the Avengers goes beyond extending American pop culture to take on a life of its own.

For my part, I went to see Avengers: Endgame on the Thursday, April 25. (China had released the film the preceding day, which was two days before the rest of the world so I got to see the movie before all my friends back home. Haha). And while I didn’t cry as hard as the woman from Ningbo, the intensity of this 22-movie finale drew me in for the whole three hours and left me with a sweet, satisfying sense of closure. I hope you all have the chance to see it too!