Deadpool makes China debut, but seen to falter

One of Hollywood's most popular superheroes, Deadpool, has made his debut on the Chinese mainland long after the franchise kicked off elsewhere, and has topped the nation's box-office charts since the latest movie opened on Jan 25.

As of Wednesday, the Deadpool film has grossed nearly 207 million yuan ($30.8 million) and consecutively occupied the top spot for six days, making it the most lucrative hit on the eve of the fiercely competitive Spring Festival holiday.

For most domestic fans, it was a surprise to see the unconventional X-Men mutant film imported into China now, as the blood-splattered, foul-mouthed Deadpool 2 was released in the United States and a number of other countries in May, followed by a re-edited, Christmas-toned version titled Once Upon a Deadpool in December.

Usually, a Hollywood blockbuster imported under the box office-sharing quota system opens on the Chinese mainland and in North America simultaneously, or around the same time.

As Deadpool 2 could be watched online after its US release and is rated R, or "restricted", meaning teenagers under 17 should be accompanied by parents or adult guardians, most Chinese fans thought the film would not be screened in Chinese mainland theaters.

But the version released on the Chinese mainland is Once Upon a Deadpool, a PG-13 rated family-oriented film.

Meanwhile, a few days after 20th Century Fox announced the Chinese mainland release of the film in mid-January, Ryan Reynolds, the lead actor in Deadpool films, canceled a scheduled surgery in New York to fly to Beijing to attend the film's promotional events.

Revealing that he had previously planned to have surgery on his injured left arm on Jan 20, he said: "This (the promotion) was more important. And I was not going to miss coming to China."

Reynolds, who is also one of the franchise's producers, says he has been fascinated by Deadpool since reading a Marvel comic book about the character, and spent a decade to bring him to the silver screen.

Describing Deadpool as one of the funniest Marvel superheroes, he says: "Making it (the film) was just so much fun because of the way he looks, because of the way he behaves.

"We get to say and do all these things that no other Marvel character can do. And, for me, that's just the ultimate privilege - to have a character that completely relates to everywhere."

The film's Chinese title is "Deadpool 2: I Love My Family", a nod to China's 1990s household TV sitcom I Love My Family, a 120-episode production about a six-member family in Beijing.

Separately, as a way to localize the marketing, the producers made posters of Deadpool and Cable featuring Spring Festival elements and an advertisement linking Deadpool and iconic Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow's The New King of Comedy.

Despite its initial success, the film's box-office prospects seem uncertain and perhaps not as bright as Hollywood stand-alone superhero films Venom and Aquaman, according to industry analysts.

This is because though the film opened on nearly 40 percent of China's urban screens, it earned more than 58 million yuan on the first day, compared with 241 million yuan for Venom and 165 million yuan for Aquaman. But attendance declined from 10.2 percent on the first day to 1.2 percent on Wednesday.

Also, as a bunch of domestic blockbusters will soon hit theaters to usher in Lunar New Year, the Deadpool film is estimated to ultimately earn less than 300 million yuan, according to Maoyan, a box-office tracker.

A successful Hollywood blockbuster can typically earn more than 1 billion yuan in China.

(China Daily 01/31/2019 page16)