Mickey and Minnie Mouse wave to visitors at the Hong Kong Disneyland on April 21, 2022. The facility reopened to the public on that day after shutting down on January 7 due to a surge in COVID-19 infections. Photo: VCG

Disney's CEO Bob Chapek has been under fire on Chinese social media after he said on a post-earnings conference call on Wednesday local time that Disney's movies will do fine without box office from the Chinese market.

Chapek noted that Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, which is not scheduled for Chinese distribution, had just crossed the $500 million mark in less than a week.

"We're pretty confident that even without China, if it were to be that we continue to have difficulties in getting titles in there, that it doesn't really preclude our success given the relatively lower take rate that we get in the box office in China than we do across the rest of the world," Chapek said.

Chapek's comments were met with criticism in China as netizens believe Disney is being arrogant and looking down on the Chinese market after making huge profits here.

"Why didn't you say so when you were making money in China," wrote a user on Sina Weibo.

"If they had said so I shall grant their wish by not watching Disney films any longer. Let's wait and see who is the final loser," said another netizen.

The film was not released in China and has met an online backlash among Chinese people after the anti-China outlet "The Epoch Times," the mouthpiece of the long-banned cult Falun Gong, appeared in an official clip of the film. Some Chinese filmgoers believe that such a move is not only an insult to China but puts the US and Hollywood to shame.

No matter what it chooses to do, it has almost no impact on China. After all, it will only be a matter of one more or one less US movie in the Chinese market, analysts said. 

China has been one of Walt Disney's most significant sources of revenue for its films and theme parks.

For example, the Avengers: Endgame released in 2019 made $629.1 million in the Chinese box office according to IMDb data, accounting for more than 22 percent of its box office receipts worldwide.

Shanghai Disneyland, as the first to emerge from the epidemic outbreak in 2020 among all its themed parks, also saw rising revisit numbers, boosted by recovering tourism.

After Shanghai Disneyland reopened in May 2020, the data point toward a healthy and improved business conditions the resort had in recent years. 

For example, it showed that the number of visitors who watched Shanghai Disneyland's theme parade rose by 20 percent from 2018 to 2021; it also showed that tourists who revisited the resort had risen by about 50 percent from 2017 to 2019.  



Global Times