Chinese Mega-Blockbuster 'The Wandering Earth' Wanders Onto Netflix

The Chinese sci-fi film The Wandering Earth is an international smash. It's earned $600 million worldwide in a little over two weeks of release, and in China, it's already the second highest-grossing film of all time. That's the type of hype Netflix can't resist, so the streaming giant has snapped up the film with plans to release it soon. The 2,500-year spanning story is set in a future where the sun has died, forcing the inhabitants of Earth to turn the entire planet into a spaceship that they can move across the solar system.

The Wandering Earth is big. How big? Well, it's already 2019's highest grossing film worldwide, and hauled in RMB 3.3 billion (about $491,155,500 in U.S. dollars) in only a few days. In short, it's something of a phenomenon, and now it's headed to Netflix. We recently talked about the film on our podcast, and we'll have a review forthcoming. And if you haven't seen the film yet, Netflix is ready to fix that.

"Netflix is committed to providing entertainment lovers with access to a wide variety of global content. With its high-quality production and story-telling, we believe that The Wandering Earth will be loved by Sci-Fi fans around the world," said Jerry Zhang, Manager of Content Acquisition at Netflix.

Here's the synopsis:

The Wandering Earth tells the story of a close future in which the sun is about to expand into a red giant and devour the Earth, prompting mankind to make an audacious attempt to save planet. The multi-generational heroes build ten-thousand stellar engines in an effort to propel Planet Earth out the solar system, in the hope of finding a new celestial home. During the 2,500 year-long journey, a group of daring heroes emerge to defend human civilization from unexpected dangers and new enemies, and to ensure the survival of humanity in this age of the wandering Earth.

Creating The Wandering Earth was a massive undertaking, requiring two years of post-production and special effects work, and featuring over 10,000 specifically-built props, while employing more than 2,000 special effects shots. Have I mentioned this movie is big?

"Audiences from over 190 countries will soon meet The Wandering Earth on Netflix," said Wandering Earth director Frant Gwo. "I am glad that our movie can reach to people from different parts of the world. This is a movie created for the Chinese audience around the world, and it has been positively received since its premiere, we are very excited about it. To my surprise, this movie also resonate outside Mainland China. Netflix will translate it into 28 languages, enabling more viewers to enjoy it regardless of geographical and linguistic differences. I hope they will like it."