New Avatar film gets rare China release
The long-awaited sequel to director James Cameron's blockbuster 'Avatar' will be released in mainland Chinese cinemas on 16 December, 20th Century Studios said on Wednesday.
'Avatar: The Way of Water' will be released in China on the same day as its global release, the studio said on its official Weibo account.
It became one of the few foreign films to get access to the Chinese market in recent months.
Foreign movies have long struggled to gain release dates in mainland China due to strict quotas on the number of international films allowed to show and many are blocked due to content Chinese regulators deem unseemly.
Hollywood blockbusters recently have had a particularly hard time getting clearance to show in China.
Increased scrutiny of Hollywood films has occurred in conjunction with a rise in China's film studios making their own versions of the high-octane blockbusters US studios are known for.
China's total box office take for this year has reached only 28.27 billion yuan ($4 billion) according to Chinese cinema data app Dengta. It is a sharp fall from 2019's 64.15 billion yuan or even last year's 47.04 billion.
