Disney has picked China’s Internet giant Youku Tudou as their official exclusive marketing partners in China. With an impressive catalogue of over 500 million unique monthly users across its various online brands, Youku Tudou has proved to increase the performance of Marvel films in China through its rigorous online campaigning and promotions over the past years making it the right choice for the exclusive partnership.
The Chinese film industry has now acquired the spot of world’s second biggest film market. Marvel superhero movies already have a huge fan following in the country and now with Youku Tudou’s unique promotion strategies for the upcoming films through trailers, online ticketing, live events and original programming, the performance of Marvel films in China can be expected to improve.
Youku Tudou claims that with their previous online marketing campaigns, Marvel films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy have experienced boost in their performance at the Chinese Box Office. According to the numbers stated by the company for the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the revenues have increased ten times at $130 million compared to $13 million of the earlier Captain America films.
Victor Koo, Chairman and CEO of Youku Tudou stated, “We are committed to expanding our media and entertainment ecosystem by working with strong partners. These partnerships, like the one with Disney, are multifold and give Youku Tudou the opportunity to use its strengths to further its business model and drive future revenue streams through high-quality content, innovative marketing efforts, and merchandising channels.”
Marvel has an impressive lineup of films set to release this year as well as over the next years. Ant-Man is set to hit theaters on July 17, 2015. Other films in making include, Captain America: Civil War on May 6, 2016, Doctor Strange on November 4, 2016, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on May 5, 2017, Untitled Spider-Man on July 28, 2017, Thor: Ragnarok on November 3, 2017, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 on May 4, 2018 and Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 on May 3, 2019.
