TheEconomistAugust 29th 2020 471H
ordes of invaders gallop into China,
armed with sinister, supernatural
powers. As they thunder towards the capi-
tal, it falls to a simple country girl to foil the
attack. Over mountains and across deserts,
dodging arrows and unleashing batteries
of fireworks, in 115 action-packed minutes
plucky Hua Mulan sees off the dastardly
foreigners and brings honour to China.
“Mulan”, which opens on September
4th, is a tale of invasion in more ways than
one. Disney, Hollywood’s biggest film stu-
dio, has spent five years and $200m on the
live-action remake of its 22-year-old ani-
mation, in the hope of conquering the Chi-
nese box office. The film is calibrated to
appeal to Asian as well as American audi-
ences, from its plot (Mulan’s sidekick, a
wisecracking dragon who irritated the Chi-
nese, was written out of the story) to its
promotional campaign (Disney touted its
release in the form of a classical Chinese
poem). “Shang-Chi and the Legend of theTen Rings”, Disney’s first Chinese-themed
superhero movie, is due next year. There is
already talk of a “Mulan” sequel.
Hollywood has reason to look across the
Pacific. In the past 15 years China’s box-of-
fice takings have risen 35-fold, to $9.7bn.
That is not far off America’s $11.1bn. This
year receipts have sunk as covid-19 forced
cinemas to shut. But they may fall a bit lessprecipitously in China, which after early
cover-ups has controlled the virus better
than America, where most theatres remain
closed (and where “Mulan” is going
straight to streaming). China may emerge
from the pandemic with the world’s biggest
box office (see chart 1 on next page).
The country was becoming central to
Hollywood’s business before covid-19.
America’s blockbusters have increasingly
relied on Chinese audiences to recoup
their vast production budgets and Ameri-
can studios have tapped Chinese investors
for finance. Between 2010 and 2019 Dis-
ney’s share of revenues from Asia nearly
doubled to 11.5% and now rivals that from
Europe. Hong Kong and Shanghai each has
a Disneyland. Universal (owned by Com-
cast, a cable giant) is building a theme park
in Beijing. Sony, a Japanese conglomerate
with a big entertainment division that in-
cludes Columbia Pictures, last year earned
10.2% of its revenues in China, up from
6.7% five years earlier.
However, Hollywood’s desire to capture
both Eastern and Western imaginations—
and wallets—increasingly faces two sets of
problems in China. First, mainland studios
are giving Tinseltown a run for its money
on their home turf. And China’s censors are
becoming more active in shaping the tales
that Hollywood tells, imbuing America’s
soft power with Chinese characteristicsHollywood and ChinaRed carpet
China’s box office is poised to become the world’s biggest. What does that mean
for Hollywood—and America’s soft power?Business
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