Inside the ‘Mulan’ Flameout in China and Why Hollywood Can’t Seem to Bridge the Culture Gap
Despite Disney’s extensive efforts to appeal to them, Chinese moviegoers are mostly rejecting the new remake of “Mulan,” leaving the film as the latest example of an American take on Chinese culture that fails to make a big splash in the lucrative Asian market. Through two weekends in theaters, “Mulan” has only grossed $36 million in China and is currently projected to finish its theatrical run with $45-50 million. By comparison, last year’s remake of “Aladdin” made $53 million in China. While “Mulan” is expected to make a modest profit for Disney from its premium video on-demand Disney+ release in most countries, China had been expected to be a major revenue stream for the film similar to how the market provided $120 million of the $1.1 billion overseas gross earned by “The Lion King” remake. Instead, “Mulan” becomes the latest Hollywood import to feature Chinese and Chinese-American actors in a Chinese setting but flop in China itself. “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Abominable” are other examples of this trend, grossing $1.7 million and $16 million, respectively. Disney tried to work around this by casting well-known Chinese stars such as Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen and Gong Li. But instead of a huge...
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