Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to be first Marvel movies in China since 2019

The closing of Phase 4 and opening of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be screened in China, making them the grand return to that market since 2019. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever which opened big last November, has secured a scheduled release in China in February, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be joining behind it shortly, according to Deadline.

China issued an unofficial ban on Marvel movies for just over two years for nondescript political and cultural sensitivities. The country also refused to screen one of last year’s biggest movies, Top Gun: Maverick, as it was seen as propaganda of displaying the might of the United States military. And the filmmaking of it seemingly put the kibosh on the Chinese-inspired version, Born to fly. Avatar: The Way of Water was granted permission to show there, and it was the first studio movie to be granted a prime spot in a long time. Since then, the James Cameron action epic earned $2 billion in just under a month.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be the first Marvel movies since Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home to premiere in their market. Very few Hollywood films would be able to gain entry into China over the last year, and the Chinese box office figures saw a dip in numbers with a 36% drop, bringing in $4.35 billion. Avatar: The Way of Water even started its run rather sluggishly after health concerns mounted amid China’s zero-Covid policy. However, the 3D fest gained momentum and has gone on to gross $220 million so far.

According to Deadline, the political situation was a huge turning point as “the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as 2021’s 100th anniversary of the Party, are out of the way, we hear there’s less fear within the government agencies. This was a big issue: No one wanted to make decisions or be seen as doing anything wrong at a time of geopolitical uncertainty and uncertainty within China.”

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is due to his Disney+ stateside on February 1 while Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is scheduled to release in U.S. theaters on February 17.