Here’s The Real Reason That Transformers 4 Had Its Premier In Hong Kong And Not In The United States
There’s no doubt that the epic Transformers movie series is hugely popular around the world. However, Hollywood chose to come to Hong Kong to premier the latest movie in the series.
Instead of holding the premier of Transformers: Age of Extinction in some swanky uptown theater in New York, LA or similar upbeat and happening city in the United States, the movie was premiered in Hong Kong. While it may be a tribute to the fact that many scenes in Transformers 4 were shot in Hong Kong, the real reason largely pertains to the growing prominence of these regions for American movies, reported The Standard.
The decision to hold the premiere in Hong Kong is a fitting compliment to the growing clout of movie audiences in mainland China. The country, along with many other Far Eastern regions like India, Japan, and others now greatly outnumbers the entire audience base from the U.S.. In fact, China is now the world’s second-largest movie market in terms of box office. Additionally, if this trend continues, China alone could overtake the U.S. by the end of the decade, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The need to hold the premier of Transformers 4 in Hong Kong has multiple reasons, two of which are Li Bingbing and Han Geng. Both have appeared in many of the hit movies made in China. Their star power is huge and can easily generate a formidable reaction from movie-goers. Though these two play major characters in Transformers 4, there is one another actress, Fan Bingbing (not related to Li Bingbing), who plays a minor role in the Transformers movie. She was also seen briefly in last year’s Iron Man third installment.
If these popular movie stars are not reason enough, consider the fact that many movies with an average box office in the United States did quite well in China. More notable examples include sci-fi alien invasion movie Pacific Rim, which did not do well in the U.S, managing to score just $101.8 million, earned handsomely in China. Chinese movie-goers allowed Pacific Rim to make almost $700 million. Interestingly, even re-mastered movies do well here. Titanic 3D, which managed to pull just $57 million in the U.S, succeeded to make almost triple the amount in China.
It has been observed that movies involving sci-fi and robotics as their central theme do especially well in China. Even Transformers 4 is expected to do quite well here. Hence, it simply makes sense that Hollywood is courting the Orient.
[Image Credit | mynerfherder.com]
