Chinese moviegoers attend ‘Avatar 2’ premiere in full hazmat suits as COVID-19 spreads

A sequel 13 years in the making, Avatar: The Way of Water debuted in many parts of the world this week including in China. The film is on track to becoming a cultural phenomenon in the same way its predecessor was. But how far would you go to be part of the sensation? Would you risk your health and sacrifice your comfort just to see the film?

You might say no. But in China, many people would. Despite an unprecedented wave of COVID-19 cases that are currently ravaging the country, The Way of Water opened in Chinese theaters on Thursday night and attracted a large crowd of viewers at midnight screenings in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

In a Weibo post that has been making the rounds on the site, a Beijing resident shared a photo of several viewers wearing head-to-toe hazmat suits when lining up in a movie theater. “The lengths people are willing to go just to see Avatar are crazy,” the person wrote in the caption.

In China, James Cameron’s latest science-fiction blockbuster has been highly anticipated, based partly on the extraordinary success of the first Avatar. Before the Chinese premiere of Avatar 2 on December 16, the film had already sold 155 million yuan ($22.2 million) in advance tickets. Its total box office earnings in the country are expected to ultimately cross 3 billion yuan ($430.2 million).

The timing of the Avatar sequel’s theatrical run in China is rather auspicious in a year that has been extremely challenging. Earlier this year, due to pandemic lockdowns across the country, China fell to second place in global box office rankings. In November, China’s box office receipts were down 35% compared with 2021. Even the National Day holiday from October 1 to 7 — which is traditionally a box office bonanza — failed to be a big moneymaker for movie theaters as receipts dropped 67% from last year.

So when news came out in November that The Way of Water would become one of the few foreign films to be shown on the big screen in China in recent months, owners and employees of Chinese cinemas immediately pinned high hopes on it.

They had reasons to have high expectations: The original Avatar grossed $262 million in China, including nearly $60 million from a re-release last year that showed there’s still a widespread interest in the property. Director James Cameron also has a high profile in the country, with his film Titanic widely seen as an all-time classic among Chinese film lovers.

Early in December, the excitement surrounding the sequal’s box-office performance grew even stronger when the Chinese government announced that it would ease up COVID-19 restrictions. During the historic protests against COVID curbs that erupted in late November and prompted the policy change, film fans on Chinese social media clamored for greater “cinema freedom,” with “I wanna see a movie!” being a rallying cry for lockdown-fatigued citizens online. Encouraged by the policy adjustment, cinemas across China have since then accelerated their resumption of business and rehired the workers they had laid off previously to prepare for an upcoming stream of customers.

However, while the government policy is on The Way of Water’s side, other factors have dampened the expectations. In the past week, the steep prices of the film’s presale tickets became a topic of discussion on Chinese social media as people found out that some fans paid upwards of 400 yuan ($57) for a midnight screening of the film on its opening day, a purchase of experience that they said was unworthy, especially amid an economic downturn. Meanwhile, with most virus control measures lifted, China is now facing what is likely the world’s largest COVID-19 surge of the pandemic, which has led many urban residents to hole up in their homes.

China’s film business aside, the Avatar sequel has a lot riding on it. Produced on a budget of around $400 million, the film is one of the priciest blockbusters in history. It’s also the first of three planned follow-ups in Cameron’s series. The director said in interviews that the movie would have to be one of the five highest-grossing films ever to be considered a success, and to make that happen, Chinese moviegoers will have to pull their weight.