China Moviegoers Show Hollywood the Money

Ten new movie screens open each day in China as the popularity of cinemas soars in the country, but the appeal of Chinese films has failed to maintain the pace.

Published

4 months ago

Categories

World, Finance

Topics

Asia, Finance, Movies

People

Hu Jintao, Ravi Shankar, Tian Jin, Wong Kar Wai, Pen Kang, Naxin Ping

Places

China, United States of America

Transcript

SCRIPT: China might not be the first place you think of when it comes to movie stars, glitz and glamour. Yet the country is the third biggest film producer in the world - even if few non-Chinese know what it has to offer. That's something China's president wants to change. SOUNDBITE 1 Hu Jintao (man), Chinese President (Mandarin, 8 sec): "The country's cultural soft power should be improved significantly. We should continuously enhance the international influence of Chinese culture." Some 900 films were made last year in China - but industry insiders say there's a shortage of homegrown expertise. SOUNDBITE 2 Zhang Wenbo (man), Vice-President of New Classics Media (Mandarin, 28 sec): "China's film industry is not as mature or perfect as Hollywood's. The industrial chain lacks experience in making, producing and promoting movies. Over the past years the industry has been making up for these shortcomings through cooperation with international film companies." As well as making a lot of films, the Chinese are also avid moviegoers. Last year, they spent 2.7 billion dollars on tickets, making the country the second-largest film market in the world. But more than half the box office sales were for the 30-odd foreign movies allowed in cinemas. SOUNDBITE 3 Zhang Yuxiao (man), moviegoer (Mandarin, 13 sec): "I watch a lot of domestic and foreign films but I prefer foreign ones, like their action and sci-fi films. They're very interesting." Heavy restrictions on domestic films don't help. Every movie needs government approval before being released and this means there's a marked absence of sensitive issues or gritty realism. SOUNDBITE 4 Peng Kan (man), Hong Kong Baptist University Film Academy researcher (Mandarin, 26 sec): "Censorship leaves domestic film makers feeling at a loss as to what to do. They don't know how to deal with contemporary subjects. They turn to classic stories that have nothing to do with reality and comedies that have nothing to do with current situations. Censorship has limited film makers' capacity for innovation." Such limitations might well prove an obstacle to exporting China's soft power. But don't be surprised to see more Chinese films opening near you. SHOTLIST: BEIJING, NOV 25, 2012, SOURCE: AFPTV - Various of '1942' Chinese film premiere BEIJING, NOV 8, 2012, SOURCE: AFPTV - Wide pan of 18th Congress Party taking place SOUNDBITE 1 BEIJING, JAN 10, 2013, SOURCE: AFP - Customers looking at movie posters - Various of people walking into a cinema BEIJING, NOV 28, 2012, SOURCE: AFPTV - Cutaway of Vice-President of New Classics Media Zhang Wenbo SOUNDBITE 2 BEIJING, JAN 10, 2013, SOURCE: AFP - A woman walking into a cinema - Man and woman coming out from a cinema BEIJING, JAN 17, 2013, SOURCE: AFPTV - People buying cinema tickets at box office - People entering cinema area - 'Grandmaster' signboard - Outdoor cinema 'now showing' signboards SOUNDBITE 3 BEIJING, JAN 6, 2013, SOURCE: AFP - Close-up of a poster of film "The Grandmaster" - VAR of movie press conference HONG KONG, JAN 14, 2013, SOURCE: AFPTV SOUNDBITE 4 BEIJING, CHINA, JAN 17, 2013, SOURCE: AFPTV - Wide of people buying tickets at cinema box office - 'Jungle Master' movie promotion signboard - Outdoor cinema signboards - Chinese citizens wearing masks down the street /// ----------------------------------------------------------- AFP TEXT STORY: China-film-entertainment,FOCUS China moviegoers show Hollywood the money by Sebastien Blanc BEIJING, Jan 18, 2013 (AFP) - Ten new movie screens open each day in China as the popularity of cinema soars in the country, but the appeal of Chinese films has failed to maintain the pace. Box office receipts jumped 30 percent last year to 17 billion yuan ($2.7 billion), lifting China up to become the world's number two cinema market behind the United States, figures last week showed. Yet foreign titles took the bulk of the money, scooping up just over half the revenue in 2012 despite facing an annual cap of only 34 releases -- while Chinese filmmakers produced 893 films last year. "The successful movies are nearly all Hollywood blockbusters," said Pen Kang, a researcher for the Hong Kong Baptist University Academy of Film. "Chinese domestic films have no advantages compared to these Hollywood films. The production standards and technology are less advanced." China only increased its foreign movie quota from 20 in 2012 after long pressure from Hollywood and the World Trade Organization. As a result foreign films edged out domestic ones in ticket sales for the first time in a decade, taking 51.5 percent of the total. Naxin Ping, who manages an antique shop in Beijing, said she went to the cinema several times last year, watching both foreign and domestic titles including "The Amazing Spider-Man", "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol", martial arts film "The Grandmaster" by Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai and "Renzaijiongtu", a Chinese comedy. "That's my taste," she said. She is typical of China's growing middle-class population willing and able to pay the relatively high price of movie tickets -- around $13 -- that has made Chinese theatres such an attractive market. The country's leading property group Wanda became the world's biggest cinema owner last year after acquiring US company AMC for $2.6 billion. But State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) vice minister Tian Jin in November urged domestic filmmakers to "enhance creativity", saying their movies faced tremendous pressure and needed to be more competitive. In recent years Hollywood blockbusters such as "Avatar" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" have brought in whopping sums, though the low-budget Chinese comedy "Lost in Thailand" unexpectedly upended them last month to become the country's biggest-ever box office hit. But Robert Cain, a producer who has worked in China for 25 years, pointed out that it was among the successful domestic movies that "drew large audiences in China because they released at times when Hollywood movies were blocked out of Chinese theatres". Mega blockbusters such as the latest James Bond movie "Skyfall" and the widely anticipated "The Hobbit", based on the JRR Tolkien novel, hit cinemas around the world last year but have 2013 release dates in China -- by which time many potential viewers will already have seen them on pirated DVDs. Just as Chinese movies have lagged domestically, they have also struggled to garner significant popularity or renown abroad, despite being the world's third most prolific film industry according to SARFT. And despite being the world's most populous country, China has failed to produce anything with the global cultural impact of South Korean singer Psy's "Gangnam Style" or Indian musician Ravi Shankar, who died in 2012. President Hu Jintao acknowledged last year that China's soft power had not kept pace with its growing political and economic stature, saying: "The international influence of Chinese culture does not correspond with the international status of China." But Rance Pow, an industry analyst who heads the consultancy Artisan Gateway, was optimistic that domestic filmmakers would steadily improve. "Chinese films remain on course to produce commercial hits not only for the China market but for international audiences as well," he said. The difficulty comes in part from the censorship that China exercises over film and other cultural productions. The Communist Party imposes strict rules over what films are allowed to be seen by the public, banning what it considers any negative portrayal of contemporary politics or issues it says might lead to social unrest. In an open letter last month award-winning Chinese director Xie Fei said the censorship system had "become a corrupt black spot for controlling the prosperity of the cultural and entertainment industry, killing artistic exploration and wasting administrative resources". END