Much has been made of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s lengthy exile from Chinese theaters, with Spider-Man: Far Fom Home the last of the franchise’s movies to play in the country. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has ended that streak, though, but the results have been less than stellar.
It’s already been widely reported that the 30th installment in the long-running superhero franchise was destined to underwhelm in Chinese theaters, and those predictions are proving to be right on the money. According to box office analyst Luiz Fernando, Wakanda Forever has been severely under-performing on both the critical and commercial front.
On the local aggregation platform Douban, Ryan Coogler’s sequel has been awarded a decidedly middling 5.7/10 score, which has been translated into lukewarm ticket sales. Through its first day in theaters, Wakanda Forever has amassed only $3.1 million, which is admittedly ahead of colossal flop The Matrix Resurrections, but lagging way behind the $3.7 million pulled in by The Batman across its first 24 hours.
Has the MCU bubble finally burst in China, then? The massive earnings brought in by local blockbusters like The Wandering Earth II signals that the industry is as robust as it was pre-COVID, so maybe local audiences are tired of Hollywood fare taking up so many screens.
Either way, we’ll have a much better idea of the saga’s long-term prospects once Wakanda Forever finishes its run, especially with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania also coming to China in the very near future to test the MCU’s ongoing popularity.
