Late to the Star Wars Party: China's Force Won't Awaken Until 2016

[Updated 12/1/15] Who knows what it is about the holidays that makes us all want to get out and watch a flick in a giant climate-controlled room. It’s just one of those traditions, and it gives you that much needed break from being around that crazy family member that has an opinion on everything. But unfortunately it will once again be slim pickings in the foreign film department this December. As the holiday season quickly approaches, Hollywood films have been locked out as usual, with all of the allotted 34 non-Chinese films scheduled or already released in 2015.

Here’s a list of what we have left:

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 - Friday, November 20
The Martian - Wednesday, November 25
The SpongeBob Movie: SpongeBob Out of Water - Tuesday, December 1

While the SpongeBob movie will undoubtedly be a triumph of the cinematic medium, one massive film that we’ll have to wait to see is Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens, which will be released on December 18 in America, but our force won’t awaken here in China until January 9. 

It appears that regulators are maintaining their strategy of not putting major Hollywood films head-to-head against Chinese productions so as to diminish foreign box office dominance on home turf during peak movie season. Though frustrating, we can’t blame them for wanting to stimulate the domestic film market.

But there has to be a better and less sneaky way to do it, maybe by not packing six major foreign titles into one month? November has seen and will see the release of Everest, Maze Runner, Peanuts, Specter, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, and The Martian. All money makers but they will undeniably be taking away business from each other as nobody goes to the cinema six times in a month. 

More stories by this author here.

Email: danielkippwhittaker@thebeijinger.com

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