The Walt Disney Co. film, directed by J.J. Abrams, is projected to bring in a total of 1.5 billion yuan ($229 million) in China, according to David Hao, a research analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG in Hong Kong. China’s movie market will become even more vital to Hollywood as the government tilts the economy toward consumers and services, adding fuel to a ballooning industry of studios, cinemas and distribution.
The 40 percent annual growth of China’s entertainment market is reshaping the business worldwide, according to Jeffrey Towson, professor of investment at Guanghua School of Management at Peking University and co-author of “The One Hour China Consumer Book: Five Short Stories That Explain the Brutal Fight for One Billion Consumers.” He projects China’s market will be the world’s largest in a year or so, surpassing the U.S.
“Could George Lucas have imagined in 1977 that Chinese consumers were one day going to be his biggest audience?” Towson said. “The explosion of Chinese entertainment, driven by the arrival of middle class Chinese consumers, is going to be one of the biggest stories of 2016.”
The crowds of smartphone-tapping customers flocking to China’s cinemas this weekend are a far cry from the almost non-existent consumer culture in the country back in 1977, when the original film in the franchise opened in the U.S.