10 Reasons Why 2016's Blockbuster Season Sucked
7. The Rising Influence Of China
Diversity in the casts and locations of Hollywood blockbusters is far from a bad thing, but when its a blatantly commercial exercise solely designed to entice audiences in the world's fastest growing market for cinema it becomes nothing more than cynical.
The shoehorning in of Chinese characters, dialogue and product placement in Independence Day: Resurgence was almost painful in its obvious desire for box office dollars, while the decision to set a large portion of the already-convoluted Now You See Me 2 in Macau ultimately saw the movie earn more in China than it did domestically.
Even Renny Harlin can get a hit movie in China; the by-the-numbers Jackie Chan/Johnny Knoxville buddy movie Skiptrace earned over $133m.
The desire of Hollywood studios to score a slice of the increasingly-lucrative Chinese box office is even more pandering when you realize that it isn't a two-way street; mega-hits The Mermaid ($553.8m worldwide) and Monster Hunt ($385.3m) earned less than 1% of their haul in the United States.
Unfortunately, with the Chinese box office set to overtake the States as the world's biggest market as early as next year, the trend is only going to become more obvious.