What is Wolf Warriors 2?
Dissecting the game-changing hit at the Chinese box office

What is Wolf Warriors 2?
Wolf Warriors (战狼) is a a Chinese action film that did tidy business at the box office in 2015. In many ways the silly, over-the-top action film is essentially a Chinese version of any jingoistic American action film from the 80’s — instead of Syvester Stallone or Chuck Norris, we have the limber director/star Wu Jing in the lead.
In the mere two year interim, Jing expanded his filmmaking ambitions noticeably. While the first film has the charm of a shoot ’em up B-movie, Wolf Warriors 2 ( 战狼2) widens it’s scope to include underwater fisticuffs, huge gunfights, and highly choreographed tank chases.
The result? Over 500 million dollars at the Chinese box office in just over two weeks.
Wolf Warriors 2 opened with a spectacular $147.8 million in its home country. Then in weekend two, it did the impossible. It made $163m more in China.
What record did Wolf Warriors 2 break?
It’s incredibly rare for films to make more money in the second weekend than their first.
Most of the films in modern times that have pulled an increase benefited from a second weekend that falls on a holiday. They also tended to start much, much smaller in the first place. It’s one thing to talk about Garry Marshall’s Mother’s Day going from $8m to $11m to when the eponymous holiday rolled around the next weekend after release. Maintaining a total above 100 million in the second frame is unthinkable.
The result? Over 500 million dollars at the Chinese box office in just over two weeks.
Prior to Wolf Warriors 2, the largest second weekend total was Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. In America, it earned $149m following a $247m opening weekend. That’s a small drop of 39.8%. Typically, films drop 45–65%, with larger openings falling on the higher end of the range. For The Force Awakens to only drop ~40% is excellent! Of course, VII ended up with a mighty $936m in one territory alone.
It’s hard to say at this juncture if Wolf Warriors 2 can best that total. But the remarkable increase in a stunning record in its own right. I doubt that any film which opens to over 100 million will wind up with more money in week two ever again.
How did Wolf Warriors 2 succeed?
Most countries do not have the perfect storm of circumstances that helped create Wolf Warriors 2. China is in the middle of a “Hollywood Blackout.” In addition to a yearly quota on Western imports, China also controls when Hollywood films can be released. They reserve the bustling summer moviegoing period for local fare. Luckily, the spectacle of Wolf Warriors 2 is an fairly adequate replacement for the missing Hollywood-level blockbuster filmmaking.
Combine a (presumed) unmet demand for bombast and also a local appreciation for a film starring a popular Chinese actor, and you get a massively popular movie.
Having seen both the new film and it’s predecessor, I can also confirm that it’s a solid improvement in the franchise. The first one was a modest success and this one was poised to do better simply because it has a bigger budget and better action going for it.
Most countries do not have the perfect storm of circumstances that helped create Wolf Warriors 2.
Interestingly, Hollywood franchise wranglers The Russo Brothers (Captain America: Civil War) helped “consult” on the movie. The full nature of their involvement is unclear. One article suggested that they helped to facilitate better stunt work in the film. The result might be a record-breaking Chinese-produced film, but it’s notable that a degree of the quality came from ape-ing Western-style filmmaking.
Back in the 90s, Hong Kong re-invented action cinema and then Americans like The Wachowski Siblings brought it across with films like The Matrix. Elements of that style of filmmaking became mainstream and eventually mutated into the modern action movie. Now, mainland China is taking that formula back and adding their own twist.
What does this mean in the future?
Wolf Warriors 2 doesn’t just borrow Western style filmmaking techniques but older tropes as well. The jingoistic plot comes straight out of 80’s action cinema, albeit with a Communist twist.
For the Rambo-esque premise, our rugged hero Leng Feng — a former special forces op — must go into an African warzone to rescue innocent Chinese nationals caught in the crossfire when his government can’t intervene. The complex political set-up allows for the conflict to include A) an insane amount of gun violence and B) constant political commentary.
The movie isn’t just content to show Feng gunning down swathes of mercenaries. It also presents conflicts that highlight traditional Chinese values. For example, when the UN helicopter can only take some refugees out of a war zone, how does Feng suggest that they fix the problem? A unified journey to the coast. They solution is to work together.
The result is an odd thematic tension between Feng presented as a traditionally-American rogue hero and a more Communist friendly “soldier” who’s all too willing to die for his country. On the whole, it’s not too different from any conservative ra-ra action movie, but given the particulars of Chinese culture it sometimes zigs when we’d expect a zag. It comes close to criticizing Chinese governmental bureaucracy for inaction, but never really gives that argument bite. Feng’s power isn’t his individualism, but his loyalty to a great system.
At the end of the film, the symbol of the Chinese flag is enough to actually stop a battle in progress. It’s carefully noted that China is not intervening in the conflict though. That’s for the Africans to settle. The geo-politics of the vague revolution are ignored to deliver a final message on the might of China. The last frame is literally a Chinese passport and a promise to help all Chinese in danger.
Note, of course, that these observations are made to the extent that I — an American white dude — can even understand what I’m seeing.
I also wasn’t alive in the eighties when Rambo II and The Delta Force were being made. I don’t necessarily know the reaction to the films at the time. It’s easy to view Wolf Warriors 2 through the lens of our modern understanding of 80s action cinema as a inherently flawed, conservative, and macho territory.
It’s one thing to condemn Wolf Warriors 2’s casual racism or roll your eyes at the overt patriotism oozing from every frame. But I’m not sure that we can deny the apparent pleasure of an audience getting to see big budget filmmaking giving them original heroes.
Wolf Warriors 2 had a ways to go to truly equal Hollywood spectacle (there’s some shockingly shoddy CGI now and then). I’m sure that Wolf Warriors 3 will have an even increased budget and even higher ambition.
Let’s see what records it can devour.

