director of the millennium

While Wu Yuan was busy calming his wife's emotions, the release of "The Monkey King" in China and throughout Asia was still in full swing.

As a thoroughly commercial blockbuster, although it failed to enter the European and American markets, the IP of "Journey to the West" is still very popular in the Greater China cultural circle.

Especially in Japan and Southeast Asia.

In Japan, "Journey to the West" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are considered to be the most well-known Chinese classic novels. Since the 1970s and 1980s, there have been a large number of film and television works and game works adapted from these two novels. The influence of the latter is even greater than that of the former.

However, the influence of "Journey to the West" cannot be considered low, and this is all thanks to "Dragon Ball".

Although "Dragon Ball" only borrowed the character settings, monsters and mythological elements of "Journey to the West" before the Saiyan chapter, as a hot-blooded comic of Japanese national level and even with top global influence, the success of "Dragon Ball" has undoubtedly made "Journey to the West" more well-known in Japan.

Even in Europe and the United States, because of the success of "Dragon Ball", many blond-haired, blue-eyed white foreigners know the story of "Journey to the West", or at least know the Monkey King Sun Wukong.

This is also the reason why "Black Goku" was able to arouse a relatively enthusiastic response overseas. On the one hand, the game CG video was indeed well-made, and on the other hand, this IP is really not unfamiliar to foreigners, and can even be said to be very familiar.

So when "The Monkey King", which was riding on the popularity of "Journey to the West", was released widely in Asia, the market immediately gave it a very good response.

The influence of Wu Yuan + "Journey to the West" is no less than that of the combination of Wu Yuan + Hollywood blockbusters!
For the movie "Monkey King" released in Japan, the distributor invited Akira Toriyama, the original manga author of "Dragon Ball", to help draw a promotional poster and signed it, which was considered a strong endorsement for the movie.

Thanks to this, the initial box office of "Monkey King" in Japan exceeded 5 million yen, and the final box office is expected to reach about 30 billion.

It seems that the box office performance is much worse than that of "Your Name", and it is even inferior to "Departures".

But Japan's film market is no longer what it used to be.

Among the top 2018 movies in Japan’s box office in 20, there were 8 animated films and one live-action animated theatrical version, “Gintama 2”.

票房前十名中动画电影占了四席：《名侦探柯南：零之执行人》、《哆啦A梦：大雄的金银岛》、《寻梦环游记》、《超人总动员2》分列第2、7、8、9位。

Japan is the source of ACG culture and also a region where the ACG industry is extremely mature.

The strong ACG atmosphere makes going to the cinema to watch animated films a common thing for Japanese people.

Animated films, like romance films, science fiction films, and action films, are the types of films that Japanese people often choose when watching movies.

Therefore, in Japan, animated films have a larger audience and can achieve better box office results.

The current Japanese film market has been completely dominated by animated films. Movies that can break the 50 billion box office are almost all the theatrical versions of various anime and some special effects movies.

In terms of live-action movies, Japan's box office market has been very sluggish, and even has to rely on live-action adaptations of comics to support the market. A truly original live-action movie that can achieve a box office of 20 billion in Japan is already considered a great success.

Even the Marvel series of films, which have been successful worldwide, have repeatedly failed in Japan. The highest-grossing Marvel film in Japan, "Avengers 4," only earned more than billion yen.

However, "Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire", which was released in the same year, earned 79 billion yuan at the box office.
This shows how serious the situation of one dominant force in Japanese anime theater is now.

Even "Dragon Ball", which took advantage of the popularity of "The Monkey King", had its box office performance in the theatrical version that was re-produced in recent years similar to that of "The Monkey King".

"Dragon Ball Z: Rise of the Gods", released in 2013, had an initial box office of 6.8 million yen and a final box office of 29.9 billion yen.

"Resurrection of F", released in 2015, had an initial box office of 9.6 million yen and a final box office of 37.4 billion yen.

"Dragon Ball Super: Broly", released in 2018, had an initial box office of 10.5 billion yen and a final box office of 40 billion yen.

The initial box office of "Monkey King" was 5 million yen, which is already a very good result. After all, in Japan, the fake "Monkey King" cannot perform better than the real Li Kui in "Dragon Ball"!
Moreover, the expected box office of around 30 billion is already a very good box office result in Japan. At least it is popular all over the country, but it has not reached the level of a phenomenal hit.

"The Monkey King" was not released only in Japan. South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries are also mature markets that Light and Shadow Era has developed for many years.

And because "The Monkey King" is Wu Yuan's film, countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, and the Philippines have also actively introduced this film. After all, Wu Yuan still has some influence in these countries.

Not to mention anything else, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series and later films such as "Interstellar", "The Martian", and "Doctor Strange" also had a great influence in these countries. It can be said that a large number of young people in these countries grew up watching Wu Yuan's movies.

Although they seldom watch Chinese films, they are very willing to watch a Chinese film directed by Wu Yuan. "Ready Player One" was previously released in these countries and achieved pretty good box office results, so this time the distributors in these countries were more active in introducing "The Monkey King".

By the end of January 2019, "The Monkey King" had been released on a large scale in almost all countries in East Asia, earning a total of nearly 1 million US dollars in overseas box office!

Among non-Hollywood films, "The Monkey King" is probably the only one this year that can earn $1 million in overseas box office outside the domestic market. It is the only one left in a world film market that is firmly dominated by Hollywood.

Even Japanese movies, which have a lot of globally popular comic IPs, did not achieve such good results this year.

Apart from American films, only Japanese films can achieve box office revenue of more than 1 million US dollars in overseas markets outside of the domestic market, and only Japanese anime films can do this.

Well, the Chinese market contributed most of the overseas box office for this.

"The Monkey King" is the only movie this year that has earned over 100 million US dollars in box office in overseas markets.

Sorry, the last movie that achieved this result was Wu Yuan’s movie, “Ready Player One” which conquered Asia and South America!
After nearly two years, Wu Yuan once again brought a Chinese blockbuster back to the attention of Asian moviegoers, taking a lot of movie tickets out of their pockets! (End of this chapter)