There are those who complain that in the last decade the unit of measure to gauge the success of a film has been set by the Marvel Studios productions and that everything that falls outside that territory seems doomed to irrelevance. Proof of this is the huge number of productions that have managed to overcome the barrier of one thousand and 1.500 million dollars in collections that, except in very few cases, are all distributed among the different heroes sponsored by Disney.
From China with love
But from time to time we find surprises that arrive, it is also true, enhanced by the peculiarities of certain markets such as China, which alone is as big as the US, Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan combined, which it allows you to experience exceptions to the Marvel rule that are always welcome. And the name of that exception is none other than moon man.
Produced entirely in China and released in theaters on Friday, July 29, moon man He managed to get a total of 129 million dollars in his first weekend. Doesn't that seem like a lot? Well, if we take into account what other same-day releases have achieved in Western markets, such as The League of Super Pets from DC, surely you can already put it into perspective: only 23 million in a single territory such as the US, and 41 adding those of the rest of the planet.
In this case of moon man we talk about a milestone because You all know how much they continue to restrict the movement of the population in China due to the impact of Covid-19, so achieving such a figure in a single weekend is a sign that things are returning to normal and that viewers are returning to theaters after two years of harsh containment measures of the illness.
If, for example, we compare moon man with the latest big Marvel release, Thor: Love & Thunder He managed to get hold of 143 million dollars in the US alone. and 153 adding other markets in the rest of the world. The differences are still large but it is obvious that it is a record that a production as local as China has been able to hold up so well in its first hours in theaters.
lonelier than one
The history of moon man takes us to the routine life of the last man who survives in the universe and who is left alone on the satellite after a meteorite hit the Earth, extinguishing our entire species from one day to the next. As you can see in the trailer, the comic figure of a kangaroo appears (we don't want to know what role it will have).
Obviously the film still has a long way to go at the box office to achieve higher numbers but, as Edwin Tan, CEO of IMAX China, stated Variety, «moon man marks a major milestone in the recovery of the film industry this year, as well as a big step forward in the production of Chinese sci-fi blockbusters."