Enter the dragon: how Australia became China’s gateway to Hollywood

Life

Wolf Warrior 2, for instance, earned US$1.4m in its 2017 Australian release. That might sound relatively small, but it’s not much smaller than the local market for more mainstream Australian fare (in comparison, romcom Ali’s Wedding earned around US$1m in theatrical release). Total box office for Chinese films in Australia last year was approximately US$5m. The growing Australian market for Chinese films reflects the growing Chinese-born population – now 2.2% of the total, up from 1.2% in 2006.

Wolf Warriors 2 made US$854m in China last year and US$1.4m in Australia. Photograph: Deng Feng International Media

Even for films like Guardians of the Tomb or Bleeding Steel, with their marginally Australian dressing – a Shane Jacobson here, a throwdown on top of the Sydney Opera House there – distributors target the Chinese diaspora. “There really isn’t any interest from a western audience,” Barlow says. Chinese students are the key demographic, with the audience clustered mostly in Sydney and Melbourne.

Barlow says Tomb’s small release in Australia reflects its small takings in China. “There’s a long way to go on those co-productions,” he says. “Sometimes they can get stuck in an area where they’re not sure if they’re a Chinese film or a western film.”

Hamilton and Arclight are still looking for the sweet spot in which a project can cater to China but also possess foolproof international appeal. They’re trying to hit it with their next intended Australia-China co-production, Killer 10, a war movie to be directed by Australia’s Phillip Noyce. Despite the martial story, there’ll be none of the contemporary geopolitical resonances of Wolf Warrior 2; Hamilton plans it to be “the first international film to show the Chinese and the Americans fighting arm in arm during World War 2”, and envisions a diverse 10-strong cast of Chinese, American and Australian movie stars.

He professes optimism about the future of co-productions. “All we see are films that haven’t quite worked,” Hamilton says. “The Chinese and the Americans are followers. The minute one [co-production] breaks out as a huge box-office success both in China and the US, everybody is going to follow suit. We’re just seeing the beginning of it.”

Guardians of the Tomb is in Australian cinemas now

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