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U.S. film studios have never felt so perplexed by the Chinese market. The country this year resumed importing American films at pre-pandemic levels, but ticket sales for such titles over the first half of 2023 are still down 69% from the same period in 2019, according to film industry advisory group Artisan Gateway.
There’s only so much studios can do to engender success in China given the gatekeeper status of state regulators, but ensuring that films reach more than just the largest demographics certainly helps. “Barbie,” which fared better than expected in China thanks largely to women viewers, is a recent example.
Studios would be well served by creating more moments that resonate with women moviegoers. In fact, Morning Consult data shows that women are about as likely as men to be moviegoers, despite China having one of the most severe gender imbalances globally. Studios can better appeal to the country’s women by more intentionally targeting them in marketing campaigns for the types of films they report being more interested in relative to men, such as musicals, romantic comedies and family-friendly features. In the long term, taking chances by greenlighting more films from these genres is another way of capitalizing on female audiences.
However, global film studios should think twice before overtly implementing a China-first strategy, as basing decisions solely on Chinese box office potential can seem inauthentic to moviegoers in the country while also running the risk of stoking backlash in the United States.
China’s women will increasingly drive box office success
Though China’s gender imbalance has narrowed over the past two decades, the gap remains one of the widest globally. But men outnumbering women isn’t reflected in China’s moviegoer base: Morning Consult data shows that 52% of monthly moviegoers in China are women. This figure, combined with the fact that women account for less than half of China’s population, shows that women have a sizable influence on box office revenue.
This finding is surprising, given that the gender breakdown of moviegoers in the United States and Canada skewed 53% male in 2021, according to the Motion Picture Association. Moreover, despite some studios explicitly targeting Chinese women in recent years, it’s rare to see major productions with feminist themes — like those central to the recent “Barbie” movie — in Chinese theaters. This suggests there’s still work to be done to appeal to female audiences in the country.
Less surprising is how younger generations in China tend to frequent movie theaters more than older ones, as is the case in the United States, while those living in urban communities are more likely to be moviegoers compared with their nonurban counterparts.
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