Wonder Woman captures the largest film market in Asia

After fighting evil and saving the world for 75 years in comic books and on screen, Wonder Woman, or the Amazonian princess Diana, has just conquered the largest movie market to Asia.

The latest Warner Bros' DC comic book movie has beaten Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and the Indian biographical drama Dangal, the highest-grossing non-Hollywood import in China.

Wonder Woman has yet to surpass the two films in terms of total earnings, but it has beaten them in single-day box-office takings since it opened across China on June 2, according to live tracker Cbooo.cn.

At the end of Tuesday, with 36 percent of the country's 43,000 screens - similar to its debut on Friday - the 140-minute movie had raked in nearly 400 million yuan ($59 million) in China, which overtook Japan to become the world's second-largest movie market in 2012.

Statistics show that Shanghai loves Wonder Woman the most, with the highest number of screenings, followed by Chongqing and Beijing, according to the box office and scheduling tracking site 58921.com.

The ranking is probably due to the movie's Shanghai promotional event attended by Israeli actress Gal Gadot and American actor Chris Pine, industry watchers say.

China's fast-expanding movie market has made Shanghai and Beijing lucrative Asian locations for Hollywood movies. And the stars' interactions with local fans often boost box-office takings.

At a mid-May event, up to 1,000 Chinese fans and the stars watched a 30-minute excerpt from Wonder Woman.

Also, signs of Chinese involvement can be seen in the film.

Before the start of the movie, the logos of Tencent Pictures and Wanda Pictures appear alongside the producers Warner Bros and DC Entertainment.

Sources close to the two companies say that Tencent Pictures, the film arm of Chinese tech giant Tencent, invested in the movie, but they refused to reveal details.

Wanda Pictures, the film division of Chinese real estate Wanda Group, also partnered with the American producers.

This shows that after a series of disappointing coproduction flops such as The Great Wall, cash-rich Chinese investors are finding other ways to participate in Hollywood blockbusters.

In the upcoming sci-fi space horror film Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott's movie, which will open on the Chinese mainland on June 16, Chinese viewers will see the logo of Beijing-based entertainment giant, Bona Film Group, which reportedly invested in the 20th Century Fox movie.

Commenting on the new investment trend, An Ke, an industry analyst says: "Domestic movies have yet to raise their game, major Chinese financers are seeking collaborations with Hollywood."

Meanwhile, the major film review platforms Douban.com and Maoyan.com, two barometers of popularity in China, have given the movie directed by American director Patty Jenkins high scores of 7.4 points and 8.6 points, respectively.

For most Chinese fans, Wonder Woman marks a long-awaited triumph for DC, which has struggled to compete with its powerful rival Marvel.

DC Entertainment and Warner Bros launched its DC cinematic universe with the 2013 Man of Steel, a reboot of the Superman franchise and also the first movie in its ambitious project.

Following this was the 2016 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

But both of them lost out to Marvel's Avengers.

But Wonder Woman is different, says Wang Xiaoyang, a film critic in Beijing.

"Unlike the previous two DC movies, it is charming and funny. It's so far the best superhero movie among DC's films of the extended universe."