Hours after Donald Trump imposed record 125% tariffs on Chinese products entering the US, China has announced it will further curb the number of US films allowed to screen in the country.
The move mirrors the potential countermeasure suggested by two influential Chinese bloggers earlier in the week, warning that “China has plenty of tools for retaliation”.
Both Liu Hong, a senior editor at Xinhuanet, the website of the state-run Xinhua news agency, as well as Ren Yi, the grandson of former Guangdong party chief Ren Zhongyi, posted an identical proposal involving a heavy reduction on the import of US movies and further investigation of the intellectual property benefits of American companies operating in China.
China is the world’s second largest film market after the US, although in recent years domestic offerings have outshone Hollywood imports. However, Thursday’s measure comes as a significant blow to western studios, with Bloomberg reporting shares of Walt Disney Co, Paramount Global, and Warner Bros Discovery Inc all suffering an immediate decline.
Last week, the newly released A Minecraft Movie from Warner Bros topped the Chinese box office with ticket sales of $14.5m – around 10% of the global total. In 2024, the highest-grossing US film released in China was Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which took $132m in that territory, towards a global total of $572m.
The first US film was approved for Chinese release 31 years ago, with the number peaking at more than 60 in 2018. Since then it has declined, according to data from the Chinese ticketing service Maoyan Entertainment, thanks to escalating tensions and the increased popularity of homegrown movies.
Animated fantasy film Ne Zha 2, about a child battling monsters from Chinese mythology, was released in late January and has now taken $1.8bn in China, and $20m in the US.
Man, USA just shooting itself in the foot over and over.
Part of the reason we (USA) have retained so much soft power while being big dick swinging bullies is the reach of our fucking media ecosystem.
American movies, television, and music have been popular worldwide for decades now. We dominated culturally because the whole world was familiar with our culture via our entertainment. Like, literally dominating with media is one of the cornerstones of a Cultural Victory in the video game Civilization.
While Trump and the Republicans won't give a shit because they hate Hollywood and have a bone to pick with it, they fail to realize that Hollywood helped create US cultural significance, and it exported that cultural significance to the rest of the world, leading the whole world to have intimate knowledge of US ideology and customs.
This is throwing all of that in the trash bin because they literally do not understand how soft power works.
You're assuming republicans have any desire in retaining world power or influence.. they are explicitly more interested in isolationist christofascism ambitions. America wanted this.
Yeah these MAGA scumbags were screaming about how Turmp is pro peace and will end all foreing wars in 100 days.
What a surprise instead he's going to continue them and start new wars.. The peasants in the feudal system don't realize they're back under a king again. Most of them don't belive it either. Bloody idiots.