Not only was ‘Avengers: Endgame’ the biggest box office hit of 2019, it also overtook ‘Avatar’ as the highest-grossing film of all time (until James Cameron retook the throne with the release of ‘Avatar 2’). But One film has commercially overshadowed Marvel’s big superhero flagship – at least in Chinese cinemas: “The wandering earth“ by Frant Gwo. The sci-fi film was able to gross the equivalent of around $300 million in its first week of play alone, and by the end of the film’s release, it had a bottom line of $700 million – which even made the ‘Avengers’ finale look old.
Would “The Wandering Earth” – which cost just $50 million, by the way – even have crossed the magical billion mark if it had been released in theaters in the rest of the world? After becoming a huge hit in its home country, Netflix has secured distribution rights for the rest of the world – anyone who wants to see the film will find it with the red N in the streaming service’s repertoire.
This is “The Wandering Earth”
‘The Wandering Earth’ is set in a distant future, where the sun is slowly setting. Faced with an impending catastrophe, humanity is forced to find a new planet on which to survive in the long term. But while a group of astronauts continues to search space for potential new habitats, a crazy plan is hatched on Earth: instead of relocating humanity, our entire planet must be lifted out of orbit and transferred to a new galaxy. Of course, this ambitious undertaking entails many dangers; After all, the goal is to prevent collisions with other planets…
After the enormous success, it was of course only a matter of time that the studio would invest in a sequel. At the beginning of 2023, the time had finally come: with “The Wandering Earth II” a prequel was released in Chinese cinemas – and was able to repeat the triumph of the first part by once again launching the internationally most successful film of the year in its place in the People’s Republic: James Cameron’s two billion dollar blockbuster “Avatar 2: The Way Of Water”. A third part has been announced for 2027.