10 Trends That Are Destroying Modern Movies
7. Everything's Moving To China
The end of Transformers: Age Of Extinction has the action suddenly transplanted to Hong Kong. The rift in Pacific Rim was placed so the Kaiju could attack many different countries, allowing for a major action set piece in Hong Kong. Looper sees young Joe turn into old Joe in the backdrop of Shanghai, the same city Bond visited in Skyfall. Iron Man 3 even had an extra special additional fifteen minutes available only in Chinese theatres. Gee, movies sure are spending a lot of time in China.
The financial reason behind these very similar decisions is simple: there's a lot of money in the Chinese box office. Transformers 4 and Terminator Genisys all cleaned up in the far East, contributing more to the films' overall box office than America. So it's now abundantly clear; to be really successful you need to crack China. And the easiest way to do it is set your movie there.
The likes of Skyfall, with its luridly-lit fight scenes, and Pacific Rim, with its multicultural cast, made this location baiting feel like a natural part of the movie, but the more prolific it becomes the more unoriginal it'll be.
Audiences are tired of our heroes always fighting the forces of evil in American cities, but within a few years the lethargy of seeing them do more of the same in Hong Kong will begin to set in.