China's Box Office Blitz 2014: Hollywood Rakes it in

Kipp Whittaker | Dec 19, 2014 5:40 pm | Add a comment | 2865 reads

This year, the Chinese box office is expected to hit USD 4.9 billion which would be the new box office record and USD 1.3 billion more than in 2013. This is a huge increase and just goes to show how the success of the Chinese market will continue to influence Hollywood in the coming years.

The Hollywood Reporter stated that this year’s total box office receipt from overseas movies grossed a total amount of USD 1.81 billion, about 37 percent of the total. The most successful film of the year was of course Transformers 4: Age of Extinction with USD 319.58 million in receipts. Currently, that Hollywood is dominating the foreign film market here in China isn't much of a surprise.

Currently the overseas film quota in China consists of 34 films per year, which is a substantial increase from previous years where only 20 releases were sanctioned. However, although 34 foreign films were scheduled to be released only 33 made it to theaters, as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 was pulled from its scheduled opening date to make it easier for domestic movies to rake in some cash in the last quarter of the year. Officials are expecting both Gone With the Bullets (also delayed but now open) and John Woo's The Crossing to make a big showing this month.

In a side note, it has been slated that there will be more art house movies screened in 2015, possibly raising the quota to a whopping 44 imported films per year. As these movies aren’t huge moneymakers, and usually don’t feature epic battles with robots or superheroes, they won’t compete with the success of big budget domestic productions.

Here is the run down of Box Office receipts in 2014:

1. Transformers 4: Age of Extinction — USD 319.58 million
2. Interstellar — USD 121.63 million
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past — USD 118.24 million
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier — USD 115.50 million
5. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes — USD 108.47 million
6. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 — USD 96.11 million
7. Guardians of the Galaxy — USD 93.37 million
8. Godzilla — USD 78.63 million
9. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug — USD 74.87 million
10. Need for Speed — USD 67.28 million
11. Edge of Tomorrow — USD 66.42 million
12. How to Train Your Dragon 2 — USD 65.15 million
13. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — USD 63.58 million
14. RoboCop — USD 50.90 million 
15. Maleficent — USD 48.30 million
16. Frozen — USD 48.24 million
17. Penguins of Madagascar — USD 40.98 million
18. Rio 2 — USD 39.50 million
19. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit — USD 25.91 million
20. The Maze Runner — USD 24.39 million
21. Ender's Game — USD 22.39 million
22. Transcendence — USD 20.43 million
23. Mr. Peabody & Sherman — USD 19.95 million
24. Into the Storm — USD 17.78 million
25. Non-Stop — USD 16.93 million
26. Hercules: The Thracian Wars — USD 13.20 million
27. Snowpiercer — USD 12.28 million
28. The Monuments Men — USD 7.69 million
29. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown — USD 6.60 million
30. Battle of Myeongryang — USD 2.91 million
31. Tarzan — USD 2.12 million 
32. Eyjafjallajokull — USD 0.65 million 
33. Mandela — USD 0.11 million
34. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 — release pushed back to Feb. 2015

Photos: www.interstellar-movie.com, cdn.hitfix.com