Ever since China opened up a little bit more to allowing more and more western movies to be shown to local cinemas, movie-makers have seen the potential for the market and tried to use it to their advantage.
You might have noticed more and more big Hollywood movies setting scenes in China and it's surrounding areas as a way to both get local funding as well as get local interest in seeing a big Hollywood blockbuster blow up famous local landmarks.
However, while there's more and more money to be made in the Asian market, that market has already been doing incredibly well box-office wise in 2016.
There are at least five movies that are wiping the floor with wannabe U.S. blockbusters in terms of revenue, and yet they've made barely a dent in the American box office markets, and for the most part would have completely bypassed Ireland and the rest of the European market.
So if you're wondering what the blockbusters are like outside of the regular American output, here's some of 2016's most successful movies that you've probably never even heard of.
DETECTIVE CHINATOWN
Worldwide box office: $125.8 million
U.S. box office: $0.47 million
From the trailer, you'd be forgiven it was essentially about two men who aren't quite sure how they're related, just slapping each other for 90 minutes. But apparently it's an action comedy about a man who fails to become a police officer, and meets up with his cousin to solve a murder.
2016 Movies it's made more money than: Ride Along 2, Neighbours 2
IP MAN 3
Worldwide box office: $156.8 million
U.S. box office: $2.7 million
The Ip Man series is well known among martial arts movie fans, but quite why the third one has had such a massive jump in box office success (the second one made $15 million, all in all) can't possibly only be down to the appearance of Mike Tyson, can it?
2016 Movies it's made more money than: Gods Of Egypt, The 5th Wave, How To Be Single
THE MONKEY KING 2
Worldwide box office: $193.7 million
U.S. box office: $0.71 million
Fantasy in western culture seems to stick to the straight and narrow more often than not, with the easily palatable likes of The Lord Of The Rings or Star Wars being front and center. The Monkey King looks off-the-ball bonkers though, with the insanely OTT visuals being reminiscent of Russia's Daywatch series (which is worth investigating if you've never seen it). Donnie Yen played the title character in the first entry, but turned down the sequel to film Ip Man 3 instead.
2016 Movies it's made more money than: The Divergent Series - Allegiant, The Huntsmen - Winter's War
MONSTER HUNT
Worldwide box office: $385.3 million
U.S. box office: $0.03 million
In what initially looks like a family friendly movie, it quickly spins out of control, including scenes of a recently pregnant man attempting to breast feed his newborn monster son, and lots of mushroom monsters being kicked in the face. It was currently the highest grossing movie of all time in China, until...
2016 Movies it's made more money than: Zoolander 2, London Has Fallen, The Angry Birds Movie
THE MERMAID
Woldwide box office: $553.8 million
U.S. box office: $3.2 million
Yep, that's over half a billion, which is more than most Hollywood blockbusters can hope for. $526 million came from China alone, and while the director has had some previous cultish success with the likes of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, nothing compared to the money The Mermaid would garner upon it's release.
2016 Movies it's made more money than: King Fu Panda 3, 10 Cloverfield Lane
