Editor's note: The article is based on an interview with Teng Jimeng, a professor from Beijing Foreign Studies University and a film critic. The article reflects the expert's opinion, not necessarily the views of CGTN

"Thanos Demands Your Silence," but it seemed that the sure-to-be blockbuster "Avengers: Endgame," broke the silence. 

Landing in China on Wednesday, two days ahead of the U.S., this Marvel Studio's superhero narrative has swept the Chinese movie market and have scattered series of box-office records. 

According to Xinhua, the movie sold more than 700 million yuan (104 U.S. dollars) in presale tickets, setting a record for advance ticket sale in China. And Mtime, a database for movie and TV play online reported that the box-office in the midnight premieres of "Avengers: Endgame" has hit 180 million yuan (26.7 million U.S. dollars), trebles the previous record-holder "Fast and Furious 8."

Behind the records, great potential lies in the Chinese movie market. But it does raise a question: Can Chinese homemade movies somehow get inspired from the successful experience of Marvel series, and thus acquire more chances in the market competition?

A good storyteller

According to Teng Jimeng, a professor from Beijing Foreign Studies University and a film critic, Chinese films never lack good stories but the capability to tell them.

He took the characterization in Marvel series as an example. Marvel's heroes are never traditional ones who were born to be omnipotent. Just like other ordinary people, they do have troubles, worries, misfortunes, hesitation abound in life and they too face failures, and sometimes they are even anti-heroes. 

Such characterization help establish a common ground of the movie characters and the moviegoers, and thus more likely to strike a chord with the audience. Teng stated that the Chinese directors should focus more on the authenticity when it comes to character depicting, more careful observations and in-depth analysis should be made in case to have more lifelike characters.

Also, Teng indicates that Marvel is good at "tailoring" according to the audience's requests. For example, a young Peter Parker was created when there were surges in comic demands among the youngsters. Black Panther, the very first black superhero in the movie history have attracted broad attention of the black people. Despite being controversial, Captain Marvel involved debates on issues pertaining to race, gender, and justice over evil, and perhaps America's domestic politics such as being "politically correct."

An article published on TOBYS, a creative website commented that the Marvel never "creates" their heroes out of nothing at all, but combining with the era backgrounds, following the lead of social values and considering the market environment factors. 

Good use of fan effect

Since the first Marvel series saga "Iron Man" debuted in Chinese movie market in 2008, a total of 22 Marvel series have been released in China and the entire box-office has exceeded 15 billion yuan (2.23 billion U.S. dollars), occupies approximately 12 percent of the worldwide gross.

In eleven years' time, the Marvel series has accumulated a huge fan base in China. More than 5790,000 netizens have followed the Marvel studio on Weibo.

Speaking of the audience composition, Teng pointed out that the majority of the Marvel fans in China are baby boomers of who roughly born between 1990 to 2000s. According to Huxiu, a Chinese business website, audiences who are in their twenties occupy 60 percent of the whole movie crowd.

This generation, which is born during the heyday of China's reform and opening-up, spent their formative years reading Marvel comic books and admiring, even adulating Marvel superheroes. Fantasy is a genre that they are mostly exposed to since their early childhood.

To these youngsters who were born in the one-child era, watching Marvel superhero films represents a style of life. Compared with the previous generations, they tend to be more open to the individual acts of heroism. Discussions on the movie often sparked heated debates on social media.

Teng also stressed that the Marvel studio is capable of increasing the thickness of their fans by working hard on the movie itself and outside of the filming. For example, each superhero in the Marvels series gets a solo movie which helps the audience to deepen their understanding of the characters and increase their emotions and thickness to the movie. Therefore, the Marvel series gained great numbers of core fans who are willing to promote the film spontaneously

According to Teng, compared with the top to down film promotion, the people-to-people distributions may sometimes gain even more influences.

What's more, the Marvel studio cooperates with other fields to launch some derivatives, for example, UNIQLO, for two years, has launched a collection of Marvel-themed T-shirts. These products were snapped up once they appeared online.

Avengers Endgames in this phase, but discussions and reflections never end. As an industry which is still at the outset stage, the Chinese movies should never stop trying to learn more.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)‍