The Variety article I saw the China opening news in clocked TF One as making $5 million -$8 million in China over the week.
I agree that the film industry as a whole is still struggling in this new post-pandemic climate. The concerns for infection are firmly in the rear-view mirror in most places, of course, but the years-or-so long pause kind of muted the inertia a lot of familiar practices had, including this. Between stiff competition from streaming and other more reaily-accessible entertainment, and prices for everything involved (the commute to the theater, the ticket prices, the other expenses like food and stuff attached to it) creeping up to ridiculous levels, there's a lot that's severely hampered movies-in-theaters' ability to reap back their revenue. (Sometimes this is complicated further by absurd production, but that's less an issue with TF One.) It says a lot that they had to bring in The Eras Tour to juice cinema attendance last year.
In general even outside of the whole "get them into cinemas" problem, the creative/production side is also struggling, as studios seem to be reluctant to produce anything anymore unless it's already a surefire BIG earner. Not even just something that'll wind up profitable; it has to be immense. I think Matt Damon discussed this very well on Hot Ones, of all places.
I'm just being cautious about falling back on that justification, as at least part of it is laced with copium.
I do think overall TF One will at least make its budget back (we'll know more after hearing from the other unreported venues), since they appear to have had pennies as the marketing budget. (I'm not counting the toyline here, although that feels a bit less sizeable than ROTB's.)
