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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever & Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania To Get Marvel’s First China Releases Since 2019

January 18, 2023 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER Image Credit: Marvel Studios

China appears to have lifted its unofficial three-year ban on Marvel movies, with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever & Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania set to release there next month. Deadline reports that the two films will release on February 7th and 17th, with Marvel confirming the news on its Weibo account.

The last Marvel film to release in the country was Spider-Man: Far From Home, which arrived in June of 2019. Deadline reports that securing release dates for Wakanda Forever and Quantumania have been in the works for a while.

Marvel films are not the only Hollywood films to not get releases in the country in the last few years; though they are perhaps the most notable. Black Widow, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love and Thunder all failed to get releases in China, where only a few films from the West were allowed in. The first major Hollywood release in a while to get a release was Avatar: The Way of Water last month.

The move should be a boon to Marvel, as their films have done good business in China. Ant-Man and The Wasp grossed $121.3 million there, while Black Panther grossed $105.1 million in the country. Spider-Man: Far From Home grossed $199 million there as the last MCU film allowed in.

Wakanda Forever has grossed $450 million domestically and $837.3 million worldwide to date. Quantumania hits worldwide on February 17th, the same date it opens in China.