THE release of James Cameron’s “Avatar” in 2010 was a defining moment for the Chinese film industry, effectively kick-starting the box-office boom era that continues in the country to this day.

    The day before “Avatar” opened in China on Jan. 4, 2010, the biggest blizzard to hit Beijing since 1951 dumped a foot of snow on the Chinese capital. With schools and offices closed, filmgoers trundled through the snow and near-zero temperatures to sold-out showings of Cameron’s lush 3-D spectacle. “Avatar” set a single-day box-office record of US$5 million on the day it opened, and soon captivated the nation to earn an unprecedented US$204 million.

    Given how much China’s film market has grown in the ensuing six years, it’s worth re-examining just how huge a number US$204 million was for China at that time. The performance of “Avatar” made up just shy of 13.9 percent of the country’s US$1.47 billion full-year box-office total in 2010.

    According to conservative projections, China’s box office will hit US$9.5 billion in 2016. If “Avatar” were to take the same share of yearly box office today as it did in 2010 (a highly unlikely outcome given how much more competitive the Chinese market has become, but still fun to entertain), it would gross US$1.33 billion in China alone. For comparison, that’s about half a billion dollars more than the biggest movie ever in North America, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

    For a generation of Chinese filmgoers, “Avatar” was the event picture bar none. So, when James Cameron announced last week that he was making four “Avatar” sequels, with release dates staggered from Christmas 2018 to 2023, the news inevitably made a splash in China.

    “This is fantastic news,” said Jimmy Wu, chairman and CEO of Lumiere Pavilions, a prestige movie theater chain with cinemas spread across 30 Chinese cities. “We love what ‘Avatar’ brought to us — quality 3-D helped us establish [our business].”

    Many Chinese commentators on social media platform Weibo expressed excitement mixed with a little impatience.

    “When I think about ‘Avatar,’ everything becomes good and all my worries are gone,” posted Huang Jiaxin, adding, “I still remember how amazing the effects of the first one were. I look forward to parts two, three, four and five.”

    “Oh my god, when the fourth one comes out, I will be 32,” wrote user Zicongyujianni sj, noting that she had just graduated high school when she saw the first “Avatar” film. “I might watch it with my future son,” she said.

    Speaking at the Beijing International Film Festival on Monday, Jeffrey Godsick, president of consumer products at “Avatar” producer 20th Century Fox, said, “The real value of a franchise is the relationship you can maintain with an audience between pictures.”

    Fox is now ramping up efforts — with a particular emphasis on China — to rekindle that bond and abate some of the audience’s restlessness over the nine-year wait for the first sequel.

    In addition to a deal to bring an Avatar-land to Disney World in Florida in 2017, Fox has produced the Avatar-themed Cirque du Soleil show “Toruk — The First Flight,” which will tour China next year.

    “We’re also producing a traveling exhibition based on the planet of Pandora, where Avatar is set,” Godsick said. “This exhibition will launch in Taiwan later this year, and then we will take it to China, where we will travel around for 12 months.”

    “Chinese directors don’t plan movies far in advance, so it’s a little strange for us to imagine waiting for a movie in 2023,” said Beijing Film Festival attendee Lulu Xiao

    (SD-Agencies)