Overseas Mulan Box Office Reaches $6-Million
Mulan Debuted On Digital In The U.S.A. What About On Big Screens Overseas?
Everyone is watching how Mulan will do on home digital via Disney+. However, Forbes watched how many tickets sold in foreign markets.
Mulan debuted on Disney Plus’s PVOD platform over the weekend in participating markets, but it also opened in several overseas territories. The Niki Caro-directed action drama, which earned good-but-not-great reviews and similar word-of-mouth, opened in 6% of the normal international marketplace; earning $5.9 million in the UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and elsewhere. It posted the biggest opening weekend of the year in Singapore and Thailand… Chinese word-of-mouth (via previews) is frankly poor so far, which was always a possibility considering that Chinese moviegoers aren’t starving for onscreen representation IN China. Breaking big in China was always a coin toss.
Mulan: Mediocre Fan Reviews In China
In his piece, Mendelson cited the following tweet:
Mulan get 5.9/10(rated by 6.6k users) on Chinese Douban film site. #Mulan pic.twitter.com/h3oPUaEROH
— Gavin (@gavinfeng97) September 5, 2020
Meanwhile, the movie fared better with American critics (if not audiences):
Mulan: One Interesting Review
Note: I have not yet watched the film; wanting — of course — to find time without distraction to watch and review the movie. However, one particular review heartened me.
As befits an expensive movie mounted with the intention of captivating both Chinese and American audiences (Disney had its gaze fixed Eastward when it moved forward with the project), Mulan is consistently gorgeous. Although many of the “unrealistic” elements evident in the animated project have been removed, the film nevertheless retains the feel of a fantasy adventure. Although the movie loses some aspect of its intended spectacle on the small screen (it was originally intended for theatrical distribution; the 2020 coronavirus pandemic resulted in its being released domestically to the Disney+ streaming platform), it remains a compelling and engaging adventure that represents not only an effective retelling of the 1998 film but arguably the best of the studio’s animated-to-live action reconstructions.
Have you seen Mulan? What did you think? Let us know in the comments…