Signs suggest force of Chinese consumers is now awakening

In spite of the darkening global growth prospects and the unexpected plunge in the domestic stock market on the first trading day of this year, Chinese consumers will no doubt demonstrate their growing importance to the global movie industry when Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in this country on Jan 9.

This latest installment of the blockbuster series has already earned more than $1.5 billion worldwide so far, and there are anticipations that Chinese moviegoers will give the film a shot in the arm big enough to allow this space opera sequel to finally shoot past the record $2.8 billion box office returns of Avatar.

The filmmaker has expressed worries that, with the movie-going demographic in China becoming increasingly younger, the seventh film in the "Star Wars" series might not attract an adequately large number of Chinese viewers. That is a fair concern given the considerable cultural differences and preferences between Chinese and Western cinemagoers.