BY NORA CHEN
IMAX sees China as a critical new market
Projected to surpass the US to become the world’s largest
box office by 2020, China commands center stage as it continues to undergo
breakneck growth and cinema expansion with the help of an ever-expanding and
aspirational Chinese middle class. According to the Motion Picture Association
of America, the Chinese box office rose 35 percent to US$2 billion last year.
However, as Forbes recently put it, the bulk of this cinematic cash cow still
comes from imported Hollywood films. In 2012, only three domestic movies, “Lost
in Thailand,” “Painted Skin: The Resurrection,” and Jackie Chan’s “Chinese
Zodiac 12,″ made it into the list of the top ten highest-grossing films of the
year. The rest were all American, with “Titanic 3D” leading the way, taking in
935 million yuan (US$150 million).
While the popularity of Hollywood blockbusters among Chinese
moviegoers translates to a larger market for Hollywood — especially following a
new trade agreement with China that gives the United States the chance to
increase the number of films exported to China – and possibly cheaper movie
tickets for local audiences, China’s film industry continues to face
longstanding obstaclesincluding “changing consumer preferences in a diverse
marketplace, an evolving and highly competitive digital landscape, price
sensitivity, intellectual property rights infringement and government control
and regulatory restrictions.”
For example, while imported movies regularly top the charts
in China, delayed and combined release dates are one of many frustrating
regulations with which major filmmakers and production houses have had to
contend. The delayed release of the latest James Bond film, “Skyfall,” many
speculate, was meant to curb the film’s chance of upstaging Feng Xiaogang’s
“Back to 1942.” The China Film Group, which regulates the country’s film
industry, may be planning to release Skyfallat the same time as The Hobbit, in
February.
Yet, the grass is not always greener on the other side, as
domestic Chinese filmmakers themselves are kept on a short leash, and now more
than ever are facing the competition of foreign films right on their doorstep.
Tian Jin, deputy director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and
Television (SARFT), recently said, “The dominance of domestic films in the
Chinese film market has been shaken. The domestic films are facing great
pressure. The objective reason is that the foreign films have dealt a blow to
domestic films.” Director Lu Chuan (“City of Life and Death“) spoke for many
Chinese directors when he expressed frustration at the censorship system,
telling the New York Times:
We need a fair, relaxed and comfortable environment to be
creative, like Hollywood. Their movies can have aliens attacking Los Angeles,
even flooding the White House. Film should not just be a propaganda tool. This
year is a crisis year for Chinese films. If we lose today, it’s possible more
funding will go to Hollywood, not China. And what happens next year?
In accord, Beijing-based filmmaker Dayyan Eng — whose latest
film “Inseparable” was the first wholly local production to feature a Hollywood
star, Kevin Spacey – added, “We are at a disadvantage because the system that’s
in place to regulate or censor [these] things is not the same for Chinese films
and for Hollywood films.” Director Lou Ye publicized his frustration over cuts
SARFT requested for his latest film on his microblog, writing, “We must not be
afraid of movies! If a country, a system feels frightened by movies, it
definitely is not because the movie is strong, but it is because [the country
and the system] are weak.”
Thus, China’s film market continues to be caught between a
rock and a hard place, as it rapidly becomes dominated by Hollywood titles
(albeit after a gauntlet of regulations), marginalizing already highly censored
domestic creations. According to Voice of America, although Chinese lawmakers
recognize that domestic films are facing increasing pressure to compete with
foreign films, little is being done to address China’s censorship rules in
consideration of other systems such as the U.S. rating system.
Instead, the Chinese government attempts to shield its local
film industry by imposing a quota on foreign movies allowed in China each year,
a number that increased from 20 to 34 last year. In addition, movie theaters
are financially rewarded for choosing to show local films. However, as we’ve
seen, merely meeting quotas is not the golden ticket to a successful industry.
Clearly, without some form of change in the year ahead, 2013 will remain a
highly contentious year in the Chinese film industry, not just for a Hollywood
knocking down China’s door, but also for domestic Chinese screenwriters,
directors and producers — whether established or up-and-coming.
Source: jingdaily.com/
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