Green Book’s Oscar win may not mean box-office success in China

Mar 01, 2019 06:00 am

BEIJING/SHANGHAI: The win at the 2019 Oscars by Green Book was a victory for its Chinese investor Alibaba Pictures, but there is no guarantee the best picture winner will be a hit in China where viewers prefer blockbusters.

The film follows the friendship of an Italian-American man (Viggo Mortensen) who was a driver for a gay black pianist (Mahershala Ali) in the 60s. The low-budget movie is going to hit China today, marking the first nationwide release of a film of its kind, centred on race relations, in a market more receptive to the likes of franchises like Transformers.

Mr Wu Jian, an Alibaba Pictures analyst, is betting that the post-Oscars glow will drive up its box-office earnings. He said: "It could even reach 300 million yuan (S$60.5 million) if third- and fourth-tier cities can receive this movie."

That would still be far behind The Fate Of The Furious' earnings of 2.67 billion yuan in 2017, the best performance by a US film in China so far.

The Revenant, which won Leonardo DiCaprio a best actor Oscar, brought in less than 400 million yuan in 2016, making it the best performing Academy Award-winning film in China. - REUTERS