纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英为何好莱坞大片在中国不再吃香

Before the sequel to “Aquaman” was released in China last month, Warner Bros. did everything it could to sustain the original movie’s success.

《海王》续集上个月在中国上映前，华纳兄弟曾竭尽全力想要延续前一部影片的成功。

The Hollywood studio blanketed Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, with movie clips, behind-the-scenes footage and a video of an Aquaman ice sculpture at a winter festival in Harbin, a city in China’s northeast. It sent the franchise’s star, Jason Momoa, and director, James Wan, on a publicity tour in China — the type of barnstorming that had disappeared since the Covid pandemic. Mr. Momoa said China’s fondness for the first “Aquaman” was why the sequel was debuting in China two days before the U.S. release.

这家好莱坞电影公司在抖音放出了大量电影片段、幕后花絮，以及一段哈尔滨冰雕节上“海王”冰雕的视频。华纳出动了该系列片的明星杰森·莫玛和导演温子仁到中国巡回宣传，这种宣传方式自新冠病毒暴发后就没有了。莫玛说，中国人对《海王》的喜爱是这部续集早于美国两天在中国上映的原因。

“I’m very proud that China loved it, so that’s why we brought it to you, and you guys are going to see it before the whole world,” he said in an interview with CCTV 6, China’s state-run film channel.

“中国人喜欢这部电影让我很自豪，所以我们要把它带来，中国观众可以最早看到它，”他在接受中国官方电视台央视电影频道采访时说。

The big push didn’t work.

这些宣传攻势并未奏效。

“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” has collected only about $60 million in China after a few weeks of release. That was nowhere near the 2018 original’s $90 million opening weekend in China on its way to a $293 million haul, accounting for a quarter of that movie’s $1.2 billion box office success.

《海王2：失落的王国》在中国大陆上映几周后只收获了约6000万美元的票房。这比《海王1》2018年在中国首映的那个周末收获的9000万美元的票房差远了，《海王1》在中国的最终票房收入达2.93亿美元，占该片大获成功的全球12亿美元票房的25%。

The producers of the “Aquaman” movies are not the only ones finding that China has become a lost kingdom.

《海王》的制片商并非唯一一家在中国市场失意的电影公司。

In 2023, no American films ranked among the 10 highest grossing in China despite highly anticipated sequels in the “Mission: Impossible,” “Fast & the Furious” and “Spider-Man” franchises.

尽管《碟中谍》、《速度与激情》、《蜘蛛侠》电影系列都在2023年推出了备受期待的续集，但没有一部美国电影进了中国年度票房的前十名。

Neither “Oppenheimer” nor “Barbie,” two of Hollywood’s biggest hits last year, cracked the top 30 in China at the box office, according to Maoyan, a Chinese entertainment data provider that has tracked ticket sales since 2011. The only other recent year when Hollywood was shut out of China’s top 10 was 2020, during the pandemic.

据自2011年以来一直跟踪票房收入的中国娱乐数据提供商猫眼的统计，好莱坞去年最卖座的两部影片《奥本海默》和《芭比》都没有进入中国票房的前30名。这之前，好莱坞被排除在中国电影票房前十之外是在2020年，也就是新冠病毒大流行期间。

Chinese moviegoers who once flocked to Hollywood films have been steadily disappearing. China is, by far, the biggest movie market outside the United States, and a place that American studios rely on for growth and profitability as the film industry struggles.

对好莱坞大片趋之若鹜的中国电影观众正在逐渐消失。到目前为止，中国是美国以外最大的电影市场，随着电影业困难重重，中国市场也是美国电影公司实现增长和盈利的倚重之地。

“The days when a Hollywood film would make hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars in China — that’s gone,” said Stanley Rosen, a professor at the University of Southern California who studies Chinese politics and the film industry.

“一部好莱坞大片在中国赚到数亿美元的日子已经一去不复返，”南加州大学研究中国政治和电影业的教授骆思典(Stanley Rosen)说。

China’s film industry is producing more high-quality movies that resonate with domestic audiences. The country’s top two films last year highlight the diversity of offerings: “Full River Red,” a dialogue-rich suspense thriller, and “The Wandering Earth II,” a science-fiction blockbuster heavy with special effects.

中国电影业正在产出更多引起国内观众共鸣的优质电影。中国去年的两部热门影片凸显了国内影片的多样性：一部是对白丰富的悬疑惊悚片《满江红》，另一部是带有特效的科幻大片《流浪地球2》。

Against the backdrop of growing tensions with the United States, Beijing has advanced its ambitions to become a cultural influence, supporting efforts by local filmmakers to create films that are in line with the ruling Communist Party’s doctrines.

在与美国关系日益紧张的背景下，中国政府推进了传播文化影响力的雄心，支持本土的制片商创作与执政的中共保持一致的电影。

In recent years, some of the highest-grossing films have played up themes of a stronger and more assertive China. The top-grossing Chinese films of all time are “The Battle at Lake Changjin,” a 2021 film that depicts an against-all-odds defeat of the United States during the Korean War; and “Wolf Warrior 2,” a 2017 nationalist action flick in which a Chinese Jason Bourne-like character takes on an American soldier of fortune.

近年来，中国一些票房收入最高的电影渲染的主题都是一个更强大、更自信的中国。有史以来最卖座的中国电影是 2021年上映的《长津湖》，该片讲述的是中国志愿军在朝鲜战争中克服重重困难击败美国的故事。还有2017年上映的民族主义动作片《战狼2》，片中类似杰森·伯恩的中国主角与美国雇佣兵展开较量。

Shi Chuan, vice chairman of the Shanghai Film Association, said many American studios once viewed China as a market where they could always make money. That is no longer the case. Wary Chinese consumers are spending less, and box office sales have not returned to prepandemic levels.

上海电影家协会副主席石川表示，许多美国电影公司曾将中国视为一个总能赚到钱的市场。但现在情况不复如此。谨慎的中国消费者在减少支出，中国的票房收入尚未恢复到疫情前的水平。

“Now I am telling American film companies that this mentality is no longer viable,” Mr. Shi said. “You must study deeply to understand the Chinese market, Chinese audiences and Chinese pop culture.”

“现在我明确告诉美国片商，这种心态现在已经走不通了，”石川说。“你必须要对中国的市场、中国的观众、中国的流行文化有一个深入研究才行。”

Hollywood’s love affair with China goes back years. “The Fugitive,” in 1994, was the first imported American blockbuster, and a year later China started to allow 10 foreign films to be released in the country every year. In 2012, seven of the 10 highest-grossing movies were U.S.-made. At the time, U.S. movie attendance was in a slow, decades-long decline. DVD sales were sputtering. Streaming was in its infancy.

好莱坞对中国市场的热情可以追溯到多年前。1994年上映的《亡命天涯》是第一部引进的美国大片。一年后，中国开始每年允许10部外国电影在国内上映。2012年，排在中国票房前十名的电影中有七部是美国制作的。那时，美国国内的影院上座率已开始了一个持续几十年的缓慢下降趋势。DVD销量惨淡。流媒体还处于起步阶段。

The Hollywood studios, desperate for growth, saw the fast-expanding Chinese market as the solution. When Joseph R. Biden Jr. was vice president, he helped Hollywood win greater access to Chinese cinemas, which were opening at breakneck speed. China raised the quota on American movies allowed into the country to 34 from 20. China agreed to share 25 percent of the ticket revenue for movies that gained entry, up from around 13 percent.

渴望增长的好莱坞电影公司把快速扩张的中国市场视为解决方案。拜登担任副总统时曾帮助好莱坞赢得更多进入中国影院的机会，当时，中国正在以极快的速度建新影院。中国提高了允许进入中国的美国电影数量，从每年20部增加到34部。中国同意让美方获得获准在华上映的电影票房的25%，该比例以前是13%左右。

Since most movies struggle to eke out a profit, the additional revenue from China was valuable. Studios began to change the content of movies to appeal to Chinese ticket buyers. In: visual-effects-driven spectacles. Out: dialogue-heavy dramas and comedies.

由于盈利对大多数电影都是难事，因此来自中国的额外收入很重要。好莱坞的电影公司开始为吸引中国购票者改变电影内容：更多以视觉效果为主的壮观场面，更少以对话为主的戏剧和喜剧情节。

Studios bent over backward to appease Chinese censors, often heeding what they knew to be Chinese red lines in advance. In one highly publicized example, the Japanese and Taiwanese flags on Tom Cruise’s bomber jacket in 1986’s “Top Gun” were replaced with ambiguous patches in the same color scheme in a 2019 preview for the sequel from Paramount Pictures. The flags had been restored by the time “Top Gun: Maverick” was released in 2022.

美国电影公司为安抚中国的审查机构而曲意逢迎，提前留意他们已知的中方红线。一个曾被广泛报道的例子是，在1986年的《壮志凌云》中，汤姆·克鲁斯的飞行员夹克上有日本和中华民国国旗，在派拉蒙影业2019年所拍续集的预告片中，这些国旗被有相同颜色的模糊补丁取代了。在2022年发行的《壮志凌云：特立独行》中，这些国旗再次出现。

But when trade and diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Washington worsened, Hollywood was caught in the middle. Studios came under increased scrutiny for yielding to China, most notably in 2020 when a scathing watchdog report got the attention of American politicians, both Democrats and Republicans.

但在中美贸易和外交紧张关系进一步恶化后，好莱坞陷入两难境地。电影公司向中国屈服的做法已受到越来越严格的审视，尤其是在2020年，一个监督组织发表的严厉批评好莱坞的报告引起了美国两党政客的注意。

Over the last year, studio executives have decided that the demand for American films in China, at least for now, has changed so drastically that movie budgets must be recalibrated. Franchise sequels must be made for less money because China can no longer be counted on for the same level of revenue, even though the number of movie theater screens has quadrupled over the last decade.

电影公司高管们去年已作出决定，至少从目前来看，中国对美国电影的需求已发生如此之大的变化，以至于必须重新调整电影制作的预算。必须把更少的资金花在制作大片续集上，因为已不能再指望中国提供以前那种水平的收入，尽管中国电影院银幕的数量在过去十年翻了两番。

In 2014, “Transformers: Age of Extinction” topped China’s box office with $280 million. Last year, the most recent installment in the franchise, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” brought in about one-third that amount and ranked 24th.

2014年，《变形金刚4：绝迹重生》曾以2.8亿美元的收入位居中国票房榜首。去年，该系列的最新一部《变形金刚：超能勇士崛起》的收入约为2014年那部的三分之一，在中国的票房收入中排名第24。

Part of the problem is that Hollywood has been slow to promote its movies on Douyin, where the Chinese public spends vast amounts of time.

部分问题是，而中国老百姓爱看抖音，而好莱坞在这个平台上宣传电影的速度不够快。

Zhao Jin, chief executive of Parallax Films, an international film sales company in Beijing, said that Hollywood studios were reluctant to reveal plot lines and key scenes on social media before a movie’s release, but that doing so was essential in China to build audience interest.

位于北京的海外电影销售公司视幻文化负责人赵晋说，好莱坞电影公司不愿意在电影上映前在社交媒体上透露情节和关键场景，但在中国这样做对于吸引观众的兴趣至关重要 。

“Hollywood blockbusters haven’t quite caught up with China’s marketing yet,” Mr. Zhao said.

“好莱坞大片还没有完全跟得上中国的营销，”赵晋说。

Many of the biggest Hollywood releases last year, including the “Transformers” sequel, the latest “Mission: Impossible” entry, “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” did not have their own official Douyin accounts.

好莱坞去年发行的许多大片，包括《变形金刚》续集、最新的《碟中谍》、《奥本海默》和《芭比》，都没有自己的官方抖音账号。

Hannah Li, 27, works at a technology company in Beijing. She used to watch only foreign films, she said, but that has changed recently. She said her favorite film last year was “The Wandering Earth II,” a story about how the world came together to save Earth from being engulfed by the sun. The film’s message, Ms. Li said, promotes a type of collectivism that she rarely sees in Hollywood movies — and should send a signal to American producers.

现年27岁的汉娜·李（音）在北京一家科技公司工作。她说，她以前只看外国电影，但最近变了。她说，她去年最喜欢的电影是《流浪地球2》，该片讲述的是世界如何团结起来拯救地球免遭太阳吞噬的故事。李女士说，影片宣扬的一种集体主义是她在好莱坞电影中很少看到的，这应该给美国制片商们发出一个信号。

“If you don’t want to get off your high horse to see what we like, then it’s natural that you will be washed-out,” Ms. Li said. “Hollywood movies can no longer bring novelty to Chinese audiences.”

“你如果想要中国大陆这块流量，又不是很想放下自己的身段去看大陆人到底喜欢什么，那被大陆淘汰是很自然的事情，”李女士说。“好莱坞电影再也没有办法带给大陆的观众新鲜感了。”