But Chinese fans weren’t impressed, criticizing the move as an afterthought and ploy for a bigger box office share. “Iron Man 3,” released in 2013 by Disney and Chinese company DMG, attempted to attract Chinese movie-goers by adding a cameo of Chinese actress Fan Bingbing into a special version for China. These kinds of moves to localize a production don’t always work in China, however. “Then I showed them the different versions and they completely changed their view,” he said. “Originally, exhibitors in China felt that the English subtitled version would be 80% of the revenue, while Mandarin would be 20%,” Mr. Katzenberg said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal that he wouldn’t be surprised if Chinese viewers saw the film twice so they can catch the differences. The studio even reanimated characters’ lips and facial expressions to match them with an entirely different script that makes quips about Chinese food and culture.
Oriental DreamWorks hired stars like Taiwanese pop singer Jay Chou and veteran Chinese actor Huang Lei for voice overs. The other will be in Mandarin.īut this is no simple dubbed voice over, says Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks’ chief executive.
One will be the English-language version the rest of the world sees, featuring voice overs from Hollywood stars like Jack Black and Angelina Jolie. To draw more viewers in China, the studios are also releasing two different versions of “Kung Fu Panda” in the Chinese market. They have stocked Chinese grocery store shelves with Kellogg’s “Kung Fu Panda” cereal boxes and teamed up with social media app WeChat, making “Panda” graphics available for download. audiences but flopped in China.Īs a co-production, “Kung Fu Panda 3” is guaranteed a bigger cut of China's box office than foreign films get. Most foreign films don't take home all of their China profits, as Chinese regulators, who tightly restrict the market, cap the share at 25%.īut Oriental DreamWorks and DreamWorks are trying a few other tricks to boost their take-home. Other co-productions, like 2010’s “Karate Kid” and 2014’s “Man of Taichi,” pulled in U.S. It’s also a litmus test for future Hollywood-China tie-ups, which have had a rocky road in recent years.