Chollywood rising

[GeneChing]

Filmmaker Aims to Build Chinese Hollywood (http://english.cri.cn/3086/2008/02/20/1261@325104.htm)
2008-02-20 17:34:44 CRIENGLISH.com

Hong Kong film director Stanley Tong is more ambitious than just being a filmmaker - He is spearheading a new project that aims to eventually construct China's own Hollywood.

Tong, who is also the president of the Hong Kong-based China International Media Group Limited, on Monday inaugurated the construction of a television and film industry base in Kunming, capital of southwestern Yunnan province.

The Kunming TV, Film and New Media Industry Base will be located near the tourist hotspot of Dianchi Lake. It will be jointly invested by Tong's company and the Dianchi National Tourist Resort.

A joint venture has been set up and has set aside three billion yuan (US$418 million) for the plant's first phase, which when completed will stretch over three square kilometers, Web site Sohu.com reported.

Tong, whose popular works include "The Myth" and "Police Story 3," is confident to develop the Chinese Hollywood.

"Everything relating to the film industry will be seen there," Tong said about the site's scale.

To distinguish itself from shooting bases such as the Hengdian World Studios in eastern Zhejiang province, which is already the major shooting site for Chinese films, the Kunming base will be an all-in-one complex integrating film and television shooting, advanced production and tourism facilities.

The base will also contribute significantly to the country's digital entertainment industry, Tong adds. Digital entertainment refers to interactive entertainment, such as video games, that are computer-made and Internet-based.

"In short, the base will push the entertainment industry to an unprecedented level." Tong said.

Tong's latest film The Volunteers is just premiering now (not even on IMDB yet). His film before that was Jackie Chan's the Myth (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41332).



"The Volunteers" Premieres in Beijing (http://english.cri.cn/3086/2008/03/06/902@330579.htm)
2008-03-06 11:01:42 CRIENGLISH.com

"The Volunteers," a movie produced by Hong Kong action director Stanley Tong and starring rising stars Tong Dawei and Yang Ruoxi, premiered in Beijing on Wednesday.

The Beijing Morning Post reported that all major cast members attended the premiere.

The movie tells the stories of a group of young graduates dedicated to teaching in rural areas of southwestern China's Yunan Province.

"Being a volunteer is a glad thing in itself. You feel the happiness of giving when you are helping others," Stanley Tong, the director behind international superstars such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Michelle Yeoh, says of "The Volunteers."

Playing opposite children is a great challenge, said leading actor Tong Dawei, who is also the volunteer's ambassador for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

However, Yang Ruoxi, who plays Tong's girlfriend in the movie, enjoyed working with her young costars.

"I am very close to the children. We play games together, share snacks and have secret talks," the actress said.

[GeneChing]

Time to start a thread specifically on the rise of China's film industry.


China's booming boxoffice buoys HK biz (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3ie30e47167303d76ad5bc595deacc92f9)
May 12, 2010, 05:00 AM ET

BEIJING -- Hong Kong's film industry had a good year in 2009, despite competing with big blue Avatars and world-ending Mayan calendars. The Special Administrative Region's filmmakers can thank their northern neighbors for that.

Hong Kong entertainment of all kinds, particularly film and music, has been popular in the rest of China since the late 1980s. However, it wasn't until more recently that more than just the biggest names -- think Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau and Jackie Chan -- could cash in more readily. They just have to speak Mandarin rather than their native Cantonese.

While the Hong Kong film industry hit the doldrums as it entered the 21st century, it is Hong Kong's 1997 political reunion with China that has helped show it the way out.

Two main factors have helped the industry: a trade agreement between Hong Kong and the rest of the People's Republic of China, and China's rapidly expanding boxoffice.

Hollywood studios still chafe against a quota that restricts the number of revenue-sharing films imported into China to just 20 a year. However, Hong Kong co-productions face no such hurdle.

Thanks to the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, co-productions that meet certain requirements, such as meeting minimum standards for investment from a China-based producer and the use of Chinese film crews, the resulting film can be released throughout China as a local production.

Although an economic boon, the CEPA, signed in June 2003, is a double-edged sword for filmmakers. It means bigger potential boxoffice, but to gain access to the lucrative China market, films must also pass censorship. This has eliminated several favorite Hong Kong themes, including the supernatural and stylized violence, from potential script choices. Even the industry's top names have run afoul of the censors: producers of Jackie Chan's "The Shinjuku Incident" didn't even bother applying for distribution approval, fearing the required cuts on the violent film would be too extensive.

However, it is bigger boxoffice that has attracted a new corps of producers and directors. China's total boxoffice could reach almost $1.5 billion this year, following a record 2009 that grew 44% compared with the previous year, with "Avatar" becoming the nation's all-time No. 1 film earlier this year. China still has about one-tenth the number of screens as the U.S., despite regular cinema construction during the past several years.

Growing boxoffice numbers have led to new ventures targeting this rising market. The new crop of investments already is bearing fruit: "Bodyguards and Assassins," directed by Teddy Chen and produced by Cinema Popular, a joint venture between Hong Kong's Peter Chan Ho-sun and China's Huang Jianxin, took in almost $44 million on a budget of $23 million. It is just one of 15 films the company plans to produce in its first three years.

-- Steven Schwankert

[GeneChing]

Lifted by 'Avatar,' Chinese box office take surges 86 percent in first half of the year (http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=11213180)
The Associated Press
By MIN LEE Associated Press Writer
HONG KONG July 21, 2010 (AP)

The Chinese box office surged 86 percent to $714 million in the first half of the year, the country's top film official said, lifted by the phenomenal success of the Hollywood 3-D sci-fi epic "Avatar" and other popular American imports.

The final year-end box office take is expected to hit $1.5 billion, Film Bureau Director Tong Gang said on the sidelines of a film festival in the northwestern city Yinchuan on Tuesday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Tong said China has made 288 movies in the first half of 2010 and is projected to complete 500 this year — a number that will make it the third most prolific industry in the world after those in India and the U.S.

Hollywood productions dominated their Chinese competition in the first six months. The top five movies in the period were "Avatar" ($204 million), "Ip Man 2" ($34 million), "Alice in Wonderland" ($33 million), "Iron Man 2" ($26 million) and "Clash of the Titans" ($25.8 million), according to figures posted on the website of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. "Ip Man 2," a biopic of Bruce Lee's kung fu master starring Donnie Yen, is the only Chinese-language release on the list.

"Avatar" was a huge global hit, earning $2.7 billion worldwide, according to the box office tracking website Box Office Mojo, in part helped by higher ticket prices for 3-D movies. The James Cameron production replaced "Titanic" — also directed by the Canadian-born filmmaker — as the global box office champion of all time.

The booming southern province of Guangdong sold the most movie tickets ($121 million), followed by the capital Beijing ($79 million), Shanghai ($67 million), eastern Jiangsu province ($51 million) and southwestern Sichuan province ($50 million).

The results come as Beijing ponders how to further open up its entertainment markets in line with World Trade Organization requirements. In a ruling in December, the WTO urged China to let foreign film studios distribute their own movies in the country. The state-owned China Film Group is the current gatekeeper. Beijing has agreed to comply with the ruling by March 2011.

But the December ruling does not address China's quota for foreign films. China Film Group only splits profits with foreign studios on 20 of their exports a year — a restriction that effectively limits the country to 20 foreign blockbusters a year. The state-owned company also buys other foreign productions at flat fees.

I got some soft results on Karate Kid (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48261) in China, but no hard numbers yet.

[GeneChing]

I just launched a new column in our Sep Oct 2010 (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57973) issue called Chollywood Rising.

Movies provide poor returns for overeager investors (http://opinion.globaltimes.cn/commentary/2010-08/558805.html)
* Source: Global Times
* [00:24 August 03 2010]
By He Mingzi

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) recently revealed the total box office of movies in Chinese cities for the first half of this year. Up to the end of June, the total revenue had reached a historical high of 4.8 billion yuan ($708 million), suggesting the great potential of the Chinese movie market.

However, Chinese movies are not looking so promising, apart from a few big hits.

For example, among the over 20 Chinese movies that were screened in June, only two of them made a profit. Despite the superficial prosperity in the cinemas, as many as 70 percent of Chinese movies fail to break even.

The Chinese movie industry has been growing at an astonishing speed of 30 percent a year, and now it has turned into a market of nearly 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion). Investors have rushed to put their money into movies. But the problem is, with so much hot money rushing into "Chollywood," will the hasty investment receive any payoff?

Currently, the biggest hit in Chinese cinema is Aftershock, a tragic family story made by veteran director Feng Xiaogang who is known for his successful comedies such as Be There or Be Square and World without Thieves. Since the movie's first public showing on July 22, all theaters have been packed with tearful moviegoers.

Feng set a goal of 500 million yuan ($74 million) in box office after he finished making the movie, but the positive feedbacks and high enthusiasm of the audiences have made the goal a mere conservative estimate. It is believed that Aftershock will break the box office record for Chinese domestic movies in the next few weeks.

But a single success doesn't cover the overall losing business of Chinese movies. The crazy hyping of the entertainment business in China has made the movie business a tempting piece of cake that everyone wants to have a bite of.

For example, from May 11 to June 10, over 180 movie projects have been approved by SARFT.

But in the last two years, there have been about 400 movies a year, which means that one month has seen almost half the number of movies in an average year already made.

And there are more than 200 companies and organizations that are investing in the movie business in the current market, making the film indus-try even more like the property market.

Since the global financial crisis hit China in 2009, investors in China have been anxious to find places to put their money. Since the harsh policies on controlling the housing market and regulating the stock market left little room for speculation or any irregular behaviors, the new rising market of the movie business has naturally become an easy way out for the hot money.

The reasons for the enthusiasm can be traced back to the national policy to promote the development of the cultural industry. With money flowing into the movie-making market from all directions, the actual emphasis and efforts put on raising the quality of Chinese movies have actually decreased.

However, after a year's frantic pursuit of the new gold in the movie business, investors are starting to see the downturn. Apart from a few minor-ity successes, the majority of movies have produced little return for investors. The fast food culture might work for a short while for the movie industry and the benefits brought by the quick cash may seem tempting, but in the long term, in a business that should be about creativity and profession, utilitarianism is bound to fail.

Undeniably, not every movie in the world is a winning business, and definitely not in a still immature Chinese market. It'd be more sensible to cut down on the quantity and raise the quality of Chinese movies, while investors would be better off looking at putting money into purchasing and upgrading cinemas, which is what the public really wants.

[GeneChing]

Stumbled upon this while reading up on Monkey King - IMAX-3D featuring Donnie Yen. (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1031375)

IMAX further expands in China (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2010-08/03/content_11084880.htm)
By Wu Chong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-03 09:12

NEW YORK - Canadian movie format company IMAX Corp has recently signed another agreement to team up with Chinese partners to open more theaters in China.

On July 21, IMAX signed an agreement with Guangzhou Jinyi Film & Television Group to open eight IMAX theaters in China. The agreement adds to the four IMAX theaters already contracted to Jinyi.

The 12 IMAX theaters are scheduled to be completed by December 2010.

IMAX is expediting its growth in China through its ambitious plan to bring China's total number of IMAX theaters to at least 65 by 2014.

IMAX further expands in China

Rechard Gelfond, cheif executive of IMAX Corp
"China, Russia and Japan are right now our biggest growing points," said Rechard Gelfond, cheif executive of IMAX Corp. "It is interesting that China has many new multi-use complex infrastructures, and it's easy to integrate IMAX theaters (into them)."

In addition, the exploding number of new theaters and rapid growth of the middle-class population in China in recent years has also given IMAX new impetus to grow in this market, Gelfond said.

Several weeks ago the Canadian company inked a deal with Lumiere Pavilions, a private movie exhibition company to install 3D IMAX theater systems. The first system will be open in Chongqing at the end of 2010, and the second in downtown Guangzhou in August 2011. The installation of the third one will be completed by 2012.

Earlier this year IMAX hooked up with Wanda Cinema Line Corp to add another three theaters in Guangzhou, Wuhan and Dalian, which will bring Wanda 14 IMAX screens total by the end of 2012. In June, it also announced a partnership with Huayi Bros Media Corp to produce three IMAX-formatted movies.

"Our overall strategy in China is to continue the growth of the IMAX theater network through partnerships with the country's leading exhibitors, media companies and commercial real estate developers," Gelfond said.

"Our Chinese network is scheduled to at least double in size over the next couple of years, and the high number of signings we've had year-to-date worldwide is positioning us for significant network growth in 2010, 2011 and beyond."

According to the CEO, the company's strategy is to penetrate the first-tier cities by setting up more theaters and to introduce "portable IMAX" theaters into second-tier cities, which have no equivalent infrastructure available yet.

"Portable theaters," as Gelfond described them, are like the bubble over a tennis complex, which can be blown up temporarily and then taken down easily. With this technology, IMAX will be able to overcome the shortage of facilities in less developed cities and expand its presence further.

According to IMAX, the company has sold 103 theatre systems globally this year to date, compared to only 35 systems in 2009. And it's estimated that the company has built more than 350 IMAX theatres in 42 countries, with about 60 per cent in North America.

China is IMAX's fastest-growing market with 23 IMAX cinemas opened to date.

Besides plugging in more IMAX screens in China, the Canadian company is also "exploring the business of digitally re-mastering mainstream Chinese films into IMAX format," the CEO said. "China is the first place we produced local films."

Aftershock, the company's first product with Huayi Bros, was just released across China with a version that has been digitally re-mastered for IMAX presentation. Gelfond said the early results of the movie were very promising, and the two partners will soon announce their next plan.

But he added that in addition to their relationship with Huayi, IMAX is also "in discussion" with other studios to explore the business of "releasing local films in the format". Additional deals of this kind may be announced during the year, Gelfond added.

The company recently announced a rise in its second quarter earnings, with revenue jumping 38 percent from $40.4 million last year to $55.6 million. Besides its strong growth in China, the company also sees a promising future in the Russian market, which it signed a deal for up to 14 theatres this week.

[doug maverick]

its still way way way below the US. even in a recession we are mighty. but in fourteen years who knows.



China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy
nytimes

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On Monday August 16, 2010, 12:20 am EDT

SHANGHAI — After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday.

The milestone, though anticipated for some time, is the most striking evidence yet that China’s ascendance is for real and that the rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower.

The recognition came early Monday, when Tokyo said that Japan’s economy was valued at about $1.28 trillion in the second quarter, slightly below China’s $1.33 trillion. Japan’s economy grew 0.4 percent in the quarter, Tokyo said, substantially less than forecast. That weakness suggests that China’s economy will race past Japan’s for the full year.

Experts say unseating Japan — and in recent years passing Germany, France and Great Britain — underscores China’s growing clout and bolsters forecasts that China will pass the United States as the world’s biggest economy as early as 2030. America’s gross domestic product was about $14 trillion in 2009.

“This has enormous significance,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “It reconfirms what’s been happening for the better part of a decade: China has been eclipsing Japan economically. For everyone in China’s region, they’re now the biggest trading partner rather than the U.S. or Japan.”

For Japan, whose economy has been stagnating for more than a decade, the figures reflect a decline in economic and political power. Japan has had the world’s second-largest economy for much of the last four decades, according to the World Bank. And during the 1980s, there was even talk about Japan’s economy some day overtaking that of the United States.

But while Japan’s economy is mature and its population quickly aging, China is in the throes of urbanization and is far from developed, analysts say, meaning it has a much lower standard of living, as well as a lot more room to grow. Just five years ago, China’s gross domestic product was about $2.3 trillion, about half of Japan’s.

This country has roughly the same land mass as the United States, but it is burdened with a fifth of the world’s population and insufficient resources.

Its per capita income is more on a par with those of impoverished nations like Algeria, El Salvador and Albania — which, along with China, are close to $3,600 — than that of the United States, where it is about $46,000.

Yet there is little disputing that under the direction of the Communist Party, China has begun to reshape the way the global economy functions by virtue of its growing dominance of trade, its huge hoard of foreign exchange reserves and United States government debt and its voracious appetite for oil, coal, iron ore and other natural resources.

China is already a major driver of global growth. The country’s leaders have grown more confident on the international stage and have begun to assert greater influence in Asia, Africa and Latin America, with things like special trade agreements and multibillion dollar resource deals.

“They’re exerting a lot of influence on the global economy and becoming dominant in Asia,” said Eswar S. Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell and former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division. “A lot of other economies in the region are essentially riding on China’s coat tails, and this is remarkable for an economy with a low per capita income.”

In Japan, the mood was one of resignation. Though increasingly eclipsed by Beijing on the world stage, Japan has benefited from a booming China, initially by businesses moving production there to take advantage of lower wages and, as local incomes have risen, by tapping a large and increasingly lucrative market for Japanese goods.

Beijing is also beginning to shape global dialogues on a range of issues, analysts said; for instance, last year it asserted that the dollar must be phased out as the world’s primary reserve currency.

And while the United States and the European Union are struggling to grow in the wake of the worst economic crisis in decades, China has continued to climb up the economic league tables by investing heavily in infrastructure and backing a $586 billion stimulus plan.

This year, although growth has begun to moderate a bit, China’s economy is forecast to expand about 10 percent — continuing a remarkable three-decade streak of double-digit growth.

“This is just the beginning,” said Wang Tao, an economist at UBS in Beijing. “China is still a developing country. So it has a lot of room to grow. And China has the biggest impact on commodity prices — in Russia, India, Australia and Latin America.”

There are huge challenges ahead, though. Economists say that China’s economy is too heavily dependent on exports and investment and that it needs to encourage greater domestic consumption — something China has struggled to do.

The country’s largely state-run banks have recently been criticized for lending far too aggressively in the last year while shifting some loans off their balance sheet to disguise lending and evade rules meant to curtail lending growth.

China is also locked in a fierce debate over its currency policy, with the United States, European Union and others accusing Beijing of keeping the Chinese currency, the renminbi, artificially low to bolster exports — leading to huge trade surpluses for China but major bilateral trade deficits for the United States and the European Union. China says that its currency is not substantially undervalued and that it is moving ahead with currency reform.

Regardless, China’s rapid growth suggests that it will continue to compete fiercely with the United States and Europe for natural resources but also offer big opportunities for companies eager to tap its market.

Although its economy is still only one-third the size of the American economy, China passed the United States last year to become the world’s largest market for passenger vehicles. China also passed Germany last year to become the world’s biggest exporter.

Global companies like Caterpillar, General Electric, General Motors and Siemens — as well as scores of others — are making a more aggressive push into China, in some cases moving research and development centers here.

Some analysts, though, say that while China is eager to assert itself as a financial and economic power — and to push its state companies to “go global” — it is reluctant to play a greater role in the debate over climate change or how to slow the growth of greenhouse gases.

China passed the United States in 2006 to become the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, which scientists link to global warming. But China also has an ambitious program to cut the energy it uses for each unit of economic output by 20 percent by the end of 2010, compared to 2006.

Assessing what China’s newfound clout means, though, is complicated. While the country is still relatively poor per capita, it has an authoritarian government that is capable of taking decisive action — to stimulate the economy, build new projects and invest in specific industries.

That, Mr. Lardy at the Peterson Institute said, gives the country unusual power. “China is already the primary determiner of the price of virtually every major commodity,” he said. “And the Chinese government can be much more decisive in allocating resources in a way that other governments of this level of per capita income cannot.”

[GeneChing]

HK is still the entrepôt, even for Chollywood.

Tomson Group returns to entertainment (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/asia/news/e3i0aa95b30b2cefc02e5fd5f01eaabbb8f)
Property developer enters Greater China distribution
By Karen Chu
August 23, 2010, 04:28 AM ET

HONG KONG – Hong Kong-listed property developer Tomson Group ventures into entertainment and film distribution with the formation of the Tomson International Entertainment Distribution Ltd., under the listed group.

The company will be overseen by Yvonne Chuang, in the position of senior VP and general manager. The main direction of Tomson International Entertainment is now acquisition and distribution of American, European and Asian indies, both commercial and arthouse cinema, as well as Hong Kong-China co-productions, to release in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Tomson now aims to distribute around 10 films per year in the region, said Chuang, who will begin acquiring titles for the company at the upcoming American Film Market in the fall.

The Hong Kong-based company with a branch in Taiwan is also planning to distribute big-budget co-productions and Chinese productions. “Films like John Woo’s ‘Red Cliff’ or ‘Three Kingdoms’ (starring Andy Lau, Donnie Yen and Maggie Q) were co-produced with a Hong Kong investor and released in Hong Kong and Taiwan with the help of an outside distributor. Apart from the foreign titles, these big-budget Hong Kong-China co-productions are the films we are interested to distribute,” said Chuang, who is experienced in both sales and acquisition during her time managing the Fortune Star Chinese-language film library, then under News Corp., and also film acquisition for Celestial Pictures.

Tomson International Entertainment is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based property developer Tomson Group, which focuses on the development and construction of property in Pudong district, China’s financial hub in Shanghai. The venture marks a return to film industry of Tomson Group chairman Hsu Feng, the award-winning producer from Taiwan, who shepherded such Greater China cinema classics as director Chen Kaige’s “Farewell, My Concubine” (1993) and “Temptress Moon” (1996), along with Yim Ho’s “Red Dust” (1990) before leaving film for property development.

Besides film acquisition and distribution, the company also plays the role of events organizer for Taiwan singers in Hong Kong and vice-versa, and plans to expand into talent management. Tomson International Entertainment is aiming to develop into an integrated entertainment company, with film production as the next step in its three-to-five year plan. The company intends to utilize its background in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China to develop co-production projects in the Greater China region, Chuang said.

[GeneChing]

Imagine if Red Cliff (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46417) had been done in IMAX...

John Woo Makes IMAX Debut With 'Flying Tigers' (http://www.deadline.com/2010/08/john-woo-makes-imax-debut-with-flying-tigers/)
By MIKE FLEMING | Monday August 30, 2010 @ 11:38am EDT

IMAX Corporation announced that John Woo and his producing partner Terence Chang will have their next film, Flying Tigers, digitally remastered for The IMAX Experience. The film--a Hollywood-China joint production with China Film Group as lead Chinese financier--tells the story of the American Volunteer Group and its later incarnation as the 14th Air Force during WWII. Led by Air Force General Claire Chennault, the joint air forces consisted of American and Chinese pilots flying side by side against the Empire of Japan. Shooting begins next spring.

Said Woo: "It has always been a dream of mine to explore shooting with IMAX cameras and to work in the IMAX format and the strong visual element of this film is incredibly well-suited to the tastes of cinemagoers today. Using IMAX for Flying Tigers would create a new experience for the audience and I think it would be another breakthrough for Chinese movies."

Last week when I wrote about Mike Medavoy and The Wildest Dream director Anthony Geffen's plans for a company formed to make 3D documentaries on larger than life subjects, Geffen said that exploiting the expanding IMAX screens were an important part of that business plan. Getting in on the ground floor of Chinese produce seems a smart way for IMAX expansion in an untapped region with massive growth potential.

[GeneChing]

Some good stats in this article.

Sep 1, 2010
Now showing in China - independent films (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/LI01Cb01.html)
By Mitch Moxley

BEIJING - While Hollywood blockbusters and state-funded historical epics continue to dominate China's box office, a vibrant independent film scene is quietly growing.

Lacking distribution channels that lead to wide audiences, these films, which tend to focus on aspects of day-to-day life in China, are finding a home at the few independent cinemas that exist here and at film festivals dedicated to independent and documentary filmmaking at home and abroad.

"Although these kinds of films aren't allowed to be screened at most theatres, independent film is developing well in China," Cui Weiping, a film professor at the Beijing Film Academy, told Inter Press Service (IPS). "You can find people talking about them at university lectures, in art salons, etcetera. Independent film is an influential part of China's film industry."

China's box office take is expected to hit US$1.5 billion this year, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. Hollywood films, 20 of which are allowed to play in China per year, continue to be the biggest money makers. Avatar, James Cameron's 3-D epic, has pulled in $204 million in China so far in 2010.

China's home-grown, big-budget film industry is also growing. Aftershock, which focuses on the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, recently became the highest-grossing Chinese film in history after it earned $79 million in ticket sales as of early August, overtaking The Founding of a Republic, a 2009 film that depicts Mao Zedong's rise to power and pulled in $62 million.

Film Bureau Director Tong Gang told Xinhua that China had made 288 movies in the first half of 2010 and is projected to complete 500 this year, which will make China the third-largest film producer in the world, after India and the United States. Only a small number of Chinese films make it to theatres, and many of these are produced by the state-run China Film Group and often play on a swelling national pride to attract wide audiences.

The growing number of big-budget films playing in China's multiplexes is not necessarily a bad thing for independent cinema in the country, said Wu Jing, programming and marketing manager at Broadway Cinematheque, an independent cinema in Beijing. As the audience for big-budget films grows, an interest in independent films will emerge accordingly, Wu told IPS.

"Cinema is growing very fast in China," she said. "As the audience grows, they become eager to find other things to see."

Broadway Cinematheque was founded 14 years ago in Hong Kong by Bill Kong, producer of films including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. The Beijing branch, which opened in December 2009, hosts a number of film festivals - including, recently, a tribute to Charlie Chaplin - and helps shine the spotlight on local talent. The cinema also hosts lectures and runs a library, bookstore and cafe.

More than half of the films screened at Broadway are made by Chinese directors. Even though these films all meet Wu's definition of independent movies - they do not appear in commercial theaters - they are still subject to the country's censors, as are all films played in China.

China currently has film festivals dedicated to independent and documentary films in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Chongqing, and some of China's independent films are finding a small audience abroad. dGenerate films, a US-based distributor, carries 25 titles available for online streaming at $5 per film, and for purchase at varying prices.

Independent cinema in China emerged in the 1980s, when underground films were made outside of state funding. Some were screened at international film festivals
. In the 1990s, national control of distribution was opened up, allowing filmmakers to cooperate with private businesses to see their films distributed.

Notable films representative of this period, according to Beijing Film Academy's Cui, include Wu Wenguang's 1990 documentary Bumming in Beijing, considered one of China's first independent documentaries, and Zhang Yuan's 1993 film Beijing *******s, one of China's first independently produced films.

Broadway Cinematheque's Wu said that for independent film to truly thrive today and reach a wider audience, China's censor system will need to be overhauled - something unlikely to happen anytime soon. She also worries about the aspirations of younger directors, whose goals are to make big-budget films destined for commercial theatres.

The weakened international film market, meanwhile, gives little incentive for Chinese directors to make controversial films that skirt the censors in order to appeal to an international audience, Wu said.

For some filmmakers, however, China is the land of opportunity.

Qiao Li, 24, was born in Jinan, Shandong province, raised in Melbourne, Australia, and in 2006 moved to Beijing, where he co-wrote and co-directed a feature film called Ring Roads and has maintained a constant stream of work since then. He says the low cost of entry and the freedom he has as an independent director working outside the mainstream Chinese film industry have given him opportunities that do not exist in Australia.

"The reason I decided to work in China were the many, many opportunities available to a filmmaker here," Qiao told IPS. "China to me seemed like a land of potential and where there didn't seem to be many rules and for me, that was all I needed to know to make my mind up to be based here. The overall industry here is thriving and it's free enough to let me do my thing and still be able to pay the rent, and that's something I would have had a hard time doing back home."

[GeneChing]

Chinese film industry aims to challenge Hollywood (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/13/chinese-film-industry-rival-hollywood)
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 September 2010 17.03 BST
Investment in film-making and cinemas is part of a bid to counter western cultural dominance

China is on course to build a record number of cinemas this year in a burst of movie infrastructure development that is partly aimed at rivalling the "soft power" of Hollywood.

Following the state-backed expansion of China's TV and newspaper industries since 2009, the government is promoting a major push of film production and distribution.

The state council, China's cabinet, has issued new guidelines for the booming industry that have helped film-makers secure bank loans and reach a wider audience.

Qiang Zhongyuan, a director with Beijing Forbidden City Film Company, says the measures have helped him to double his budget this year, which means more films and higher quality work.

"In the past we normally invested 4m-5m yuan on one movie, but now we can go for big productions costing 30m or sometimes even over 100m."

Despite the widespread piracy of films – which means illegal DVDs often go on sale within days of a new cinema release – the authorities are ramping up cinema construction to draw more audiences to screenings.

"So far this year, we have already matched the number of total theatres built last year, but we still have yet to meet the increasing demand," Zhao Shi, deputy director of the state administration of radio, film and television, said at a recent press conference.

Industry analysts says the speed of growth – a reflection of a wider economic boom as much as state policy – is so fast that China could start to overtake the US in key benchmarks.

"I am forecasting the day when China will catch up with the US in box office takings. It may happen in my lifetime, faster than we expect because of the appreciation of the yuan against the dollar," wrote Raymond Zhou, the author of a book on the economics of Hollywood, in a recent Xinhua news agency article.

He notes that, since 2004, US box office earnings have increased by just 6%, while China's have surged fourfold. "Under these circumstances, it is not inconceivable that China may buy up a Hollywood studio in the not-so-distant future," he wrote.

Such talk is reminiscent of Japan's economic heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Sony snapped up Columbia studios.

Although that purchase shook many in the American film industry, it did not herald a transformation of Hollywood, nor did it prove a game-changing projection of Japanese cultural power.

China's ambitions, however, are more strategic. Last year the government reportedly injected £4bn into Xinhua, state broadcaster CCTV, and the People's Daily newspaper in a move to strengthen the country's media voice. All of these organisations have subsequently ramped up their English language content in a bid to counter what is widely seen in Beijing as a biased western media and an overly strong advocacy of western values.

Xiang Yong, deputy director of the Institute for Cultural Industries at Beijing University, sees the promotion of the domestic film industry in the same light.

"There's a saying that Hollywood is the real foreign ministry of the US, which shows the importance of the movie industry," Xiang said.

"From a cultural perspective, the promotion of the movie industry is an important way to strengthen the soft power of our country."

Been scanning the Venice Film Festival news where Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55650), Reign of Assassins (Jianyu Jianghu) (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1039313) & Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1039311) were showcased. They all open in the next few weeks.

[GeneChing]

This report is a little out of my price range

China Film Industry Report, 2009-2010 (http://www.researchinchina.com/Htmls/Report/2010/5964.html)

Published: Sep/2010
Hard Copy USD $1,400
Pages:71 Electronic(PDF) USD $1,500
Report Code: ZHR005 Enterprisewide USD $2,100
Price (Chinese Version + English Version) USD $2,000

Abstract
Currently, China’s film industry is experiencing a golden period. No matter what film production, box office, financing and cinema construction witness the explosive growth.

In 2009, Chinese mainland achieved RMB6.206 billion of film box office, with a growth rate of as high as 43%. Over the past five years, it grew at a CAGR of 30%, far higher than that of China’s GDP.

In H1 2010, the film box office in China exceeded RMB4.8 billion, rising 107% from that in the same period of 2009, and surpassing that of the year 2008, showing hug potentials of Chinese film market.

In early 2010, the State Council Secretariat Guiding Opinions Concerning Stimulating Flourishing and Development of the Film Industry was issued to firstly specify the film industry into national strategic industries.

The boom of China’s film market during 2008-2009 has spurred the flood of capital into the film industry. The film industry of China will continue to grow at a rate of over 60% both in 2010 and 2011, while the growth rate will slow down after 2012. In Japan, the film market gets increasingly saturated, and the growth rate tends to be moderate. As is presented below, China will become the world’s second largest film market by 2012, with the domestic box office revenue surpassing Japan’s.

Comparison of China's and Japan’s Box Offices and Growth Rates, 2005-2013E (Unit: USD mln)
http://www.researchinchina.com/UpLoads/Article/201009/2010091605.gif
Source: ResearchInChina

The film producers, distributors and exhibitors all have extended towards upstream or downstream in order to maximize its profit from every industrial link by the model of production+distribution+cinema. The mergers among leading companies in upstream, middle stream and downstream are driven by capital to achieve maximal margin. The state-owned companies like China Film Group Corporation (CFGC) and Shanghai Film Group Corporation are accelerating to build cinemas and cinema circuits by their advantageous positions, and they are expected to go public in 2010 to obtain more fund. Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, the leader in private film firms, was successfully listed in 2009. Poly Bona, a film distribution company, not only participates in cinema construction, but also develops towards the upstream production to make more profit.

Meanwhile, a group of new investment entities presented themselves in Chinese film production market. Especially, the box office success that Perfect World and Letv.com respectively invested Sophie's Revenge and Welcome to Shamatown achieved has attracted foreign capital to aggressively enter the film production sector.

China’s film production market characterizes still a low concentration degree. CFGC and Huayi Brothers, respectively ranking the first and the second places, only occupies 10% and 9% market shares. Meanwhile, China’s top four film producers only accounts for 26% of total film box office, still less than that of the United States’ three producers in China, 27%.

However, the film distribution market of China is comparatively monopolized, with a higher concentration degree in box office. In 2009, the top four film distributors, CFGC, Huaxia Film Distribution, Poly Bona and Xiying Huayi occupied 75.7% market shares in all, and revenue-sharing imported film could be only distributed by CFGC and Huaxia Film Distribution. CFGC continued to take a lead in distribution market by right of its rich cinema circuit resource.

China has a relatively high concentration degree in cinema circuit field, since the top four, Wanda International Cinema, China Film Stellar Theater Chain, Shanghai United Circuit and New Film Association, totally covers 46.8% of box office shares. Of which, backed by Wanda’s business, Wanda cinema circuits have seized the central business district, and increases 100 screens annually.

Along with the explosive growth of film box office, only approximately 130 films of the total 465 China-produced films were exhibited in cinemas in 2009, and the rest 2/3 were not, which was mainly caused by the inadequacy of cinemas and screens that couldn’t afford to exhibit so many films. Therefore, cinema investment will be the focus of China’s film industry development in a long run.

In spite of the strong growth of film box office revenue in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as well as still vast room for cinema investment, the fierce competition also get increasingly intensified. In comparison, the emerging second-tier and third-tier cities such as Changchun, Changsha, Dalian and Xi’an grow up and all have great market potential. Based on the analysis of comprehensive factors like consumption level of urban residents, cinema box office, regular urban population, audience number per exhibition, local housing price, cinema number and screen number, the cinema investment rating model is built to conclude the ranking of top 16 cities in China by investment value, as is shown below.

China’s Top 16 Cities by Cinema Investment Value, 2010
http://www.researchinchina.com/UpLoads/Article/201009/2010091607.gif
Source: ResearchInChina

The report makes an in-depth analysis of status quo, competition layout and major companies of production, distribution, exhibition and derivative commodities of China’s film industry chain, and forecasts cinema construction in hotspot cities, and film derivative market.

[GeneChing]

Sept. 21, 2010, 4:04 p.m. EDT · Recommend · Post:
Imax shares rally on China theater deal (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/imax-rallies-on-china-expansion-plan-2010-09-21?reflink=MW_news_stmp)
Big-screen operator reach key deal to expand in Asia region
By Shawn Langlois, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Imax Corp. shares jumped almost 7% on Tuesday after the big-screen theater operator announced a day earlier that it signed its largest deal ever in Asia.

Imax (IMAX 17.02, -0.03, -0.15%) stock closed up$1.09 at $17.05. It has risen 90% in the past year.

The Mississauga, Ontario-based company said late Monday that it reached a deal with a subsidiary of South Korea’s CJ CGV Co. to install 15 Imax systems in China.

“We have been successful with our current Imax theatres in Korea, and with Imax’s impressive film slate, which is targeted to include mainstream Chinese films, we are pleased to expand our Imax footprint,” said Kim Joo Hyung, CEO of CJ CGV.

The terms were not disclosed, but Imax explained that it would “trade a lower up-front fee than we receive in a typical sales deal” for “a larger share of the box office generated” by the theaters.

The move gives Imax “increased participation in the growing box office in China, which has more than doubled” in the past two years.

CJ CGV already operates five Imax theaters in South Korea, and under a joint venture the two companies disclosed in March, CJ CGV now has committed to opening a total of 35 Imax theaters.

Imax overall now has a total of 96 theaters scheduled to be open in China, its second-biggest market after the United States. In total, the company operates 447 theaters across 47 countries.

Shawn Langlois is a reporter for MarketWatch in San Francisco.
"expand the IMAX footprint." What an odd way to phrase it.

[GeneChing]

I'm not quite sure what this means in the big scheme of things, but it certainly makes for a good post here.

China takes first stake in Hollywood firm (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3id8b4313a40c3bc11c7e1d39f29f369f3)
Chengtian pays $25m for 3.3% of Legendary Pictures
By Jonathan Landreth
Sept 27, 2010, 07:42 AM ET

BEIJING -- It's finally happened: a Chinese entertainment company has bought a piece of Hollywood.

Though Chengtian Entertainment is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Orange Sky Golden Harvest Entertainment, the company that on Monday bought a 3.3% share of "Inception" producers Legendary Pictures of Los Angeles is Beijing-based and focused squarely on China's booming entertainment market.

After months of speculation that a cash-rich Chinese bidder, or one from Bollywood, might pick up a debt laden Hollywood property such as MGM, Chengtian CEO Chen Xiaowei, formerly president of Nasdaq-listed The9 -- one of China's largest online gaming companies -- called Chengtian's partnership with hit-factory Legendary a "match built in heaven."

"Chengtian and Legendary will produce and distribute films in China and around the world and also produce and distribute games," Chen told The Hollywood Reporter before boarding an airplane to meet Legendary founder Thomas Tull for the first time.

"I've watched 'Inception' twice and I told Thomas over the phone that this deal feels like a dream," she said, noting the deal was negotiated in under a month. "I want to meet him to make sure it's real."

The purchase of Legendary shares for HK$194 million ($25 million) comes at a time when Hollywood's box office growth is dwarfed by China's, where ticket sales jumped an astonishing 80% in the first half of this year as a newly-wealthy middle class flocked to hundreds of gleaming new cinemas nationwide.

Having a way to say a film was made with a Chinese partner could help Legendary get its products into the booming market around a Chinese government-imposed import cap that limits to 20 the number of foreign films allowed to share in their box office receipts here each year.

Founded in 2005, Chengtian invested in John Woo's pan-Asian co-production and box office hit "Red Cliff" (2008) and also made the commercially underwhelming 2009 sequel "Storm Warriors II" directed by the Hong Kong-based fraternal duo Danny and Oxide Pang.

Chengtian made a bigger name for itself when chairman Wu Kebo began in 2007 to amass a majority stake in the storied Hong Kong film company Golden Harvest, of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan fame, and when Wu partnered Chengtian with Avex of Japan, that country's largest independent record label.

In addition to film production and distribution, Chengtian runs an artist management company and has divisions in charge of television, online entertainment and advertising. Chengtian parent, Orange Sky Golden Harvest, was founded in 1970 as Golden Harvest. The OSGH Group, of which Chen is co-CEO with Kelvin Wu, also operates 29 multiplexes with 229 screens in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

In a statement released from Los Angeles late Sunday, Legendary called its new partnership with Chengtian a "strategic investment." "The transaction is part of an effort to explore broader partnership opportunities in China and beyond," the statement said.

Not only does China, now the world's No. 2 economy, have more web surfers and mobile phone users than any other nation, but over the last few years the country also rapidly has become the second largest market for theatrically screened Hollywood exports. "Avatar" alone grossed more than $200 million here.

With partner Warner Bros., Legendary's productions include "Inception," which has grossed more than $750 million worldwide, "Clash of the Titans" ($491 million worldwide), "The Dark Knight" ($1 billion worldwide), "300" ($456 million worldwide) and "The Hangover" ($467 million worldwide).

"Legendary's products have a natural game element to them," Chen said, noting that a three-way partnership with her former employer, The9, "was not discussed in negotiations with Legendary." Chen said Chengtian was "evaluating gaming opportunities."

The Chengtian-Legendary transaction could allow Legendary "to diversify its content production and distribution strategies beyond filmed entertainment to other mediums not excluding digital, television and video games," the statement from Legendary said.

Among the game universe-to-film projects Legendary currently is in the process of adapting are "Warcraft," to be directed by Sam Raimi ("Spiderman"); "Godzilla," based on Toho Company's famed giant Japanese lizard; Warren Ellis' "Gravel," and "Mass Effect," based on Electronic Arts and BioWare's hit videogame franchise.

Chen, who was appointed Chengtian's first CEO on July 2, joined the company after a stint at The9, where, beginning in May 2008, she renegotiated the company's operating contract with game designers Blizzard for the hugely successful "World of Warcraft" franchise and also helped rebuild The9's own game development team.

Before The9, the University of Pittsburgh-educated Chen worked as a consultant for Mc Kinsey & Co in New York and was a television producer for China Central Television.

[GeneChing]

Marco Mueller honored by Republic of China (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/awards/news/e3i7b035dcf5d2c2ea787131635fbf23029)
Venice head gets Friendship Award from prime minister Wen Jiabao
By Eric J. Lyman
Oct 5, 2010, 09:30 AM ET

ROME -- Venice Film Festival artistic director Marco Mueller will be presented with the Friendship Award from Wen Jiabao, the prime minister of the Republic of China, the festival announced Tuesday.

The award, which will be presented Thursday in a private ceremony in Rome, will be given to mark the opening of the Year of Chinese Culture in Italy and will be one of the official functions of Wen's official state visit to celebrate that event.

Mueller, who has lived in China and who speaks fluent Mandarin, has been a long-time proponent of Chinese film and has brought scores of Chinese productions to the Venice Festival, which concluded its 67th edition last month.

"The vitality of Chinese film no longer needs confirmation," Mueller said in a statement. "Even the casual spectator, who happened by chance to view the final rebounds of the great martial arts cinema, can clearly see why: a plastic sense that is constantly regenerated, stylistic elements that remain personal, aesthetic experimentation that never wanes."
For the record, Venice showcased Reign of Assassins (Jianyu Jianghu) (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54260), Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52870), & Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55650). 13 Assassins (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58339)was also shown, but that's not Chollywood.

[PalmStriker]

Excellent update info on the new revolution in the Entertainment Industry. Thanks Gene. :)

[GeneChing]

Chollywood Rising is the name of my new print-only column in Kung Fu Tai Chi (http://www.martialartsmart.com/19341.html). I launched it in the last issue (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57973).

I was torn between posting this on our RoA (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54260)or RC (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46417)threads but decided this needed a bump as my column is due. ;)


* October 7, 2010, 1:05 PM HKT
The Continuing Return of John Woo (http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2010/10/07/the-continuing-return-of-john-woo/)
By Dean Napolitano

The recent two-part Chinese historical epic “Red Cliff” marked a *return to Asia for legendary Hong Kong director John Woo after more than a decade in Hollywood. With his latest project*—the martial-arts film “Reign of Assassins,” starring Michelle Yeoh as a Ming Dynasty-era assassin struggling to leave her past behind—Mr. Woo is again sticking to home turf. “The film business in China is growing—and growing fast,” says Mr. Woo. “There are good opportunities for all kinds of directors.”

Mr. Woo has inspired a generation of filmmakers with his unique style of extreme action and *detailed storytelling in movies from Hong Kong (“The Killer”) to Hollywood (“Face/Off”). Last month, he was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the *Venice International Film Festival. “It’s a great honor,” he says, “but I wouldn’t say I had much *influence.”

“Reign of Assassins,” opened in China last week and hits screens around the region this month. It was written and directed by Taiwan’s Su Chao-pin. Mr. Woo serving as co-director and co-producer.

Q. What do you like about working in mainland China?

A. There are so many talented young people in China. They have great passion, and they love to learn. That is one of the reasons why I came back to make “Red Cliff.

Q. How does working in China compare with the U.S.?

A. There are so many meetings in Hollywood. You have to make compromises. I feel free working in China. We have one meeting to talk about the budget and we go ahead and do it. But we still need to learn so much from Hollywood.

Q. What’s your role?

A. I see myself as a bridge. I *always try to bring in the good things from both sides. We can learn from each other.

Q. What’s the future for the Hong Kong and mainland China film industries?

A. I think they are merging into one. Hong Kong filmmakers need a bigger market. Hong Kong and mainland China people have *different lifestyles and cultural backgrounds, but it’s nice to see them work together to create something new.

Q. What’s next for you?

A. I go where the work is interesting—for the moment that’s China and America. I have three projects developing in Beijing and three in Hollywood. I love work. I don’t want to stop.

On a side note, look at what happened to China's remake of High School Musical (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1045264#post1045264).

[GeneChing]

Woo vs. Cruise? Interesting...very Chollywood vs. Hollywood...


Tom Cruise vs John Woo For 'Flying Tigers' (http://www.deadline.com/2010/10/new-regency-and-tom-cruise-reengaging-in-wwii-dogfight-with-rival-john-woo-pic/)
By MIKE FLEMING | Thursday October 7, 2010 @ 7:01pm EDT

EXCLUSIVE: John Woo and Terence Chang might well be getting off the tarmac first with their WWII saga Flying Tigers. But New Regency, 20th Century Fox, and Tom Cruise are still fighting the good fight on a rival project that carries the identical title. They've hired Kirk Ellis to rewrite a draft of Flying Tigers that was done by Cruise's Valkyrie scribe Christopher McQuarrie and Mason Alley. Both films are based on the story of the volunteered fighter squadron formed by General Claire Chennault to help the Chinese fight against the Empire of Japan before the United States entered WWII. The aging Chinese planes were no match for the superior Japanese forces, until the volunteers arrived in American-made P-40 War Hawks. The two squadrons flew side by side, in fighter planes emblazoned with the gaping tiger's teeth logo. After Pearl Harbor, the Flying Tigers became an effective squadron in the U.S. Air Force. Jeff Greene is producing.

Cruise has long wanted to play a pilot in a period war movie, and has been attached to several WWII aviator pictures. He's always got multiple offers, and I'm told reliably that despite reports, he is not attached to the Warner Bros script El Presidente. He's obviously not taking part in the Flying Tigers movie directed by his Mission: Impossible 2 helmer Woo, who with Chang have mounted a Hollywood-China joint production with China Film Group as the lead Chinese financier. They expect to shoot next spring, and signed a deal for the footage to be remastered for the IMAX Experience. My experience on these races is that whether it was The Last Samurai (a race Cruise won) or Alexander the Great, once a picture makes it into production, the other one gets shelved.

Ellis won two Emmy Awards for the HBO miniseries John Adams, writing 7 episodes of the mini.

[GeneChing]

China National Day box office hits $42 mil (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3if7958560d10cc4f3986c73b849728ada)
Week-long holiday a winner for "Detective Dee"
By Jonathan Landreth
Oct 9, 2010, 10:44 PM ET
BUSAN, South Korea -- China’s movie ticket sales during the recent National Day holiday rose 12% over the same week-long period last year to reach 280 million yuan ($42 million), led by audiences flocking to see director Tsui Hark’s "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame."

“Dee,” from distributors Huayi Brothers, stars Hong Kong actors Andy Lau and Carina Lau and Chinese actress Li Bingbing. The film has grossed 180 million yuan ($27 million) since its bow on Sept. 29, just before the Oct. 1-7 holiday.

Also strong during the period was "Reign of Assassins," from directors Su Chao-pin and John Woo, which sold tickets worth 30 million yuan ($4.5 million), according to a report from the Xinhua News Agency, citing Liu Hui, deputy general manager of Beijing-based UME Huaxing Cinema, one of the nation’s largest theatrical circuits.

Ticket sales of 50 million yuan ($7.5 million) over the holiday pushed "Inception" up to a China gross of 400 million, making it only the fourth import ever to pass the $60 million mark.

Box office takes of this size have become possible in China only in the last 18 months as the nation’s growing middle class develops a movie-going habit at the hundreds of new multiplexes going up around the country.

Three other Hollywood blockbusters also grossed $60 million in China since early 2009, "2012," "Transformers II," "Avatar."

As with these films, it was the state-run China Film Group, the nation’s de facto monopoly importer, that distributed “Inception.”

In March 2011, China is supposed to allow greater overseas participation in the distribution of copyrighted cultural content, including movies, to be in compliance with a Dec. 2009 anti-protectionist ruling at the World Trade Organization.

More on Dee (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52870) & RoA (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54260).

[GeneChing]

This could have gone on our RoA thread (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54260), but given the buzz, RoA is now figuring to be a major factor in the rise of Chollywood.


10-11-2010 10:20 여성 음성 듣기 남성 음성 듣기
Jung looks to China beyond Hollywood (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2010/10/141_74320.html)

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/news/1010071001.jpg
Korean heartthrob Jung Woo-sung, right, and Michelle Yeoh in a scene from John Woo's "Reign of the Assassins." Su Chao-bin co-directed the film, which is showing at the ongoing Pusan (Busan) International Film Festival, before opening in theaters nationwide on Oct. 14. /Courtesy of SBS Contents Hub

By Lee Hyo-won

As Asia’s leading cinema event, the Pusan (Busan) International Film Festival (PIFF), whose 15th edition opened Thursday, most appropriately showcases the latest trends, including most notably the ever-expanding influence of Sino-cinema.

Similarly, superstar Jung Woo-sung has looked to China for his much anticipated overseas debut: He stars opposite Michelle Yeoh in the John Woo-powered epic “Reign of Assassins,” which is featured in PIFF’s non-competitive section Window on Asian Cinema.

``Hollywood is not my final destination,’’ Jung told reporters Tuesday in Seoul after the press preview. While local actors such as Jun Ji-hyun (Gianna Jun), Rain or Jang Dong-gun have knocked on Hollywood’s door, So Ji-sub made his overseas debut in China with Zhang Ziyi.

``In Hollywood, Asian actors can assume lead roles continuously only if they master martial arts, like Jet Li or Jackie Chan… But I do have small hopes of becoming a noted actor in pan-Asian regions,’’ he said.

This isn’t his first project to be fully based in China. He played the lead in Hur Jin-hon’s ``A Good Rain Knows,’’ which is set in Chengdu and co-stars Chinese actress Gao Yuan-yuan.

``Reign of Assassins,’’ co-directed by Taiwanese writer-director Su Chao-pin (``Silk’’), premiered at the Venice Film Festival last month. ``Mr. & Mrs. Smith relocate to ancient China in the dazzling martial-arts epic,’’ according to the Hollywood Reporter, and indeed Yeoh and Jung play an ordinary married couple, each unaware the other is a world-class assassin. Guns, bombs and other modern spy gadgets are replaced by elaborate wire tricks and sword-swinging, while being peppered with dashes of comedy and romance.

The 37-year-old said it was a great pleasure working with Yeoh.

``When I first heard about the casting, it’s true I felt a little pressured but I didn’t mind the age difference,’’ he said about his co-star, who is 11 years older.

``Ms. Yeoh is a respectable veteran actress and world-class star but she is extremely humble. I thought she was a beautiful actress who is aging with grace. I was the only foreigner on the set and so she paid a lot of attention and care, to make sure I wasn’t uncomfortable.’’

Working in a foreign language, however, was a challenge. ``I was worried whether I would sound awkward to native Chinese speakers, but I’m glad to hear it sounds OK,’’ he said, when a reporter complimented his pronunciation. ``The romance is central to the film, and it was really important to deliver the lines with feelings of affection. I think I mastered the Chinese lines naturally while working with Ms. Yeoh.’’

Starring in a Chinese martial arts movie, moreover, proved to be a great adventure. ``I always carried around a sword,’’ he said. ``Hong Kong cinema has adopted Hollywood-style system, and so it’s much more advanced than domestic filmmaking. We filmed for 12 hours every day and took mandatory breaks once a week.’’

During PIFF, ``Reign of Assassins’’ will show Friday at 9:30 p.m. and Oct. 10 at 9:30 a.m. at Lotte Cinema Centum City. It will open in theaters nationwide on Oct. 14. Distributed by SBS Contents Hub.

[GeneChing]

Fresh records being set at Chinese box office (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/fresh-records-being-set-at-chinese-box-office-2106642.html)
Thursday, 14 October 2010

http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/dynamic/00474/reign_of_assass_2d8_474341t.jpg
The John-Woo produced 'Reign of Assassins' has been searching for international distributions deals in Busan this week.

The Asian cinema industry has gathered for the 15th Pusan International Film Festival here this week and while there's been plenty of pomp and fanfare, one bit of news trickling in has stopped everyone in their tracks.

The Chinese presence here has been impressive, from the films screening as part of the festival program to the media pack that has come to see the likes of director Zhang Yimou and actress Tang Wei.

Organizers said going into the event that China's growing presence as a film market itself was an important consideration and with box office figures from the country just in, that's looking like a pretty smart statement.

The talk of the town has been that China's National Day holiday - a week-long celebration that ran from October 1 to 7 - collected a record 280 million yuan (30 million euros), which is a year-on-year rise of 12 percent.

Leading the way were two all-star productions which have been searching for international distributions deals in Busan this week - Tsui Hark's actioner Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame and the John Woo-produced Reign of Assassins.

Tsui's film - starring Hong Kong's Andy Lau and Carina Lau - has now taken around 140 million yuan (15 million euros) since opening on September 29, while Woo's film, featuring Michelle Yeoh, took 30 million yuan (3.2 million euros).

The Hollywood thriller Inception has now topped 400 million yuan (43 million euros) after picking up 50 million yuan (5.4 million euros) during what the Chinese know as "Golden Week."

Detective Dee also continued to rule in Hong Kong over the weekend ending October 10, picking up US$312,296 (223,822 euros) for a total now of US$1.1 million (788,000 euros), while in Japan the film about a dive rescue team, Umizaru 3, picked up US$6.5 million (4.6 million euros) and has taken in almost US$70 million (50 million euros). It's all about Dee (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52870) & RoA (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54260) now, isn't it?

[GeneChing]

Hollywood chasing China's Great Wall of cash (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/markets/news/article.cfm?c_id=62&objectid=10682408)
By Ronald Grover and Michael White
5:30 AM Saturday Oct 23, 2010

Han Sanping is a big fan of actor Will Smith. After entertaining Smith in Beijing two years ago, the chairman of China Film found a different way to keep up with Smith's film-making efforts.

State-run China Film contributed US$5 million ($6.7m) to help finance a remake of The Karate Kid, produced by Smith and starring his son, Jaden.

Han's mogul turn was a hit. The film, distributed by Sony's Columbia Pictures, grossed more than US$356 million worldwide and was a hit in China. For Hollywood, always a dream factory powered by other people's money, China offers huge potential as a funding source and a market.

On September 26, Orange Sky Golden Harvest Entertainment, a Hong Kong-based film company, paid US$25 million for a 3.3 per cent stake in Legendary Pictures, maker of The Dark Knight.

Hollywood executives are even taking meetings with Chinese toy companies eager to take their creations to the big screen.

"It's a largely untapped market," said Clark Hallren, managing partner at Los Angeles-based financial advisory firm Clear Scope Partners.

"There appears to be great promise and a tremendous amount of capital. Where those in search of capital once focused on the Middle East, the same dynamic is occurring with China."

The deal-making to date has been more a trickle than a waterfall.

Chinese investors weighed bids for Miramax and debt-plagued MGM when those studios went up for sale in the past year, without biting, said attorney Schuyler Moore, a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in Los Angeles.

Their activity may pick up, as Chinese officials become more comfortable with the ways of Hollywood.

"Chinese investors are very sophisticated and have been contemplating the kinds of investments they want to make," said Charles Paul, a longtime Hollywood executive and a senior adviser to investment bank Centerview Partners.

Paul negotiated the 1986 agreement with the Chinese government that opened the country to limited imports of foreign-made films. He travels to China every six weeks to meet potential investors.

The Chinese government hopes to gain the technical and creative know-how to build its film industry.

In the next three to four years, the number of screens in China will increase to about 13,000 from 8000 today, according to John Wilmers, chief executive officer of Ballantyne Strong, makers of digital movie equipment.

The US has about 39,000 screens. China is the largest non-US market for Imax's big-screen theatres, with 37 built and an additional 59 scheduled by 2013. In 10 years, China may be the largest exhibition market in the world, said Richard Gelfond, CEO of Mississauga, Ontario-based Imax.

"They want to be market leaders in producing films," said Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, which made The Karate Kid mostly in Beijing.

The Chinese are using their financial relationships to get teaching moments whenever they can. The Columbia crew, for instance, showed the local team how to more quickly upload film from daily shoots to be viewed online, Belgrad said.

That level of involvement sets Chinese investors apart from others who have come to Hollywood offering cash, said Clear Scope's Hallren.

"I don't think this will be the next case of intelligent people investing money in unintelligent ways," Hallren said.

What China possesses already is plenty of capital for the right project. Sheng Boyu, a 30-year-old real estate developer, put up US$50 million to help finance Double Lives, a film about a modern-day treasure hunt, starring Pierce Brosnan, being filmed in China, according to reports.

"There is money if you know how to navigate the landscape," said Dan Mintz, CEO of Beijing-based Dynamic Marketing Group, which distributes and markets American- and Chinese-made films in China. Mintz said he raised US$100 million in China, "and we could go higher" to invest in films made or distributed there.

The obstacle, he said, is that the government favours Chinese-made movies and continues to impose a limit of 20 foreign films a year that can be shown in the country.

With Chinese investors. some films can reach the market without counting as part of the 20-slot quota.

And there may be other benefits: When Mintz released The Founding of a Republic, a film his company financed with China Film Group, he said the government ordered rival films out of many mainland theaters.

China's potential has sent deal-makers descending on Beijing. Deutsche Bank AG has stepped up its efforts in China to focus more on entertainment deals as well.

Still, investing in Hollywood hasn't always turned out well for those writing the checks.

"Some will benefit from smart and knowledgeable advisers," said Amir Malin, founder of private equity firm Qualia Capital and former CEO of film studio Artisan Entertainment.

"Others will be taken on an endless merry-go- round of premieres and empty financial returns."
I was just talking with someone who has contacts inside the Smith family. They were saying how Will Smith couldn't catch a break in promoting Karate Kid (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48261). Oprah would only let them on her show if she got the whole family. Perhaps KK was being snubbed out of Hollywood's trepidation of Chollywood?

I've heard from a lot of people that our July Aug 2010 cover story (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=902) was the only major coverage they saw for the film on the newsstands. I'm rather proud of that.

[GeneChing]

You've probably heard about China pulling out of TIFF over some Taiwan dispute. THR offers a great overview of Chollywood now.

TIFF Offers Its Own Look at Booming Chinese Film Industry (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tiff-offers-its-own-look-32280)
7:52 PM 10/24/2010 by Jonathan Landreth
Chinese film officials heralding a cinema revival not seen since the 1930s.

With Chinese film officials boasting that domestic ticket sales will overtake Japan's to make China the world's second-largest movie market in the next five years, moviemakers from the Middle Kingdom are flying their flag high at the Tokyo International Film Festival and its film market here this week.

Japan's total box office gross in 2009 was 206 billion yen ($2.54 billion), according to the Motion Picture Producers' Assn. of Japan, while China's Film Bureau tallied 2009 ticket receipts at 6.2 billion yuan ($910 million), a 44% year-on-year jump.

With two Chinese dramas in TIFF competition this week – Li Yu's "Buddha Mountain" and Zhang Meng's "The Piano in a Factory" – the question of what kind of movies will score in China's new marketplace was a hot topic.

With Hollywood tentpoles like "Avatar" and a raft of locally made films and Hong Kong co-productions of increasing quality lighting up China's theaters, Chinese ticket sales soared 86% in the first half of 2010. Now, official estimates show sales hitting $6 billion by 2015. (U.S. 2009 box office gross was more than $9 billion).

Despite the fact that Chinese films accounted for 56% of the box office gross last year, the two top-grossing movies of 2009 were U.S. studio pictures -- "2012" ($67.5 million) and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" ($63 million) -- followed by state propaganda pic "The Founding of a Republic" ($61 million).

Already the world's second-largest overall economy, having overtaken Japan earlier this year, China and its middle class are in the throes of a cinema revival not seen since the 1930s, a boom that is causing a rush to build more multiplexes and attracting the world's attention. And whereas Japan's market has long been saturated with state-of-the-art multiplexes, China will build another 1,500 cinema screens this year, raising the total to 6,000, then doubling it again to 12,000 by the end of 2015, according to the China Film Producers Assn.

Each of these new Chinese theaters means more tickets sold. "Avatar" jump-started the action for China's new exhibitors in 2010, grossing $204 million in China alone and helping to push box office receipts to $726 million in the first half of the year, up 86% from a year earlier, according to Tong Gang, director of the film bureau at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

But all China's grosses are not entirely due to a swelling in the size of the audience, which analysts estimate remains steady at about 200 million filmgoers. Much of the growth comes from those filmgoers' getting richer and developing a cinema habit that's allowing exhibitors to hike the cost of tickets to offset the cost of building nearly three new screens a day, mostly in second- and third-tier cities.

A regular Chinese movie ticket averages 35 yuan ($5.26) but a 3D ticket can cost 80 yuan ($12) and an Imax film -- such as Feng Xiaogang's "Aftershock," the current all-time domestic box office champion, at over 660 million yuan ($99 million) -- can run as much as 150 yuan ($22.53) per head.

All this building suggests that Chinese movie ticket prices will only continue to climb. To fill those screens and meet the demand of China's consumers, 500 films will be made this year, up from 80 or fewer in 2002. Despite China's strong taste for the Hollywood films -- long viewed illegally on pirated DVDs and via Internet downloads -- Beijing caps the number of imported films allowed to share in a percentage of their own gross ticket sales to just 20 a year.

Officials at SARFT, which tracks the country's box office and monitors what's appropriate for Chinese audiences, say that homemade small- and medium-budget films are the answer to keeping the moviegoing going. Recently, Huaxia Film Distribution Co., a cousin of the CFG, agreed to distribute 18 homegrown films, including Zhang Yimou's "Under the Hawthorn Tree."

Beijing's calls for small films aside, Hong Kong co-productions are leading the Chinese-language charge to reach Mainland moviegoers, with films such as Huayi's "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame" by Tsui Hark grossing 180 million yuan ($27 million) during the recent National Day holiday period. Tsui is now directing Jet Li in "The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate," a $35 million, 3D remake of a martial arts classic that began shooting outside Beijing this month.

Another Hong Konger who migrated north to seek his fortune is "Bodyguards and Assassins" producer Peter Chan, now directing the martial arts mystery "Wuxia" starring Donnie Yen in Yunnan Province. Chan and We Pictures will unveil first footage of the film, co-starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tang Wei, at the American Film Market in November.

With Hong Kongers firmly established in the mainland, Hollywood studios are homing in. Where 10 years ago it was Sony Pictures and five years ago it was Warner Bros. leading Hollywood's China charge, now it's Fox and Disney working on their co-production chops.

Fox International Prods. and partner Huayi Brothers Media grossed more than $19 million off the $2 million spring hit "Hot Summer Days." Now the U.S. studio's recruited "Bourne Identity" director and producer Doug Liman to help present Beijing-based director Wuershan's debut $1.5 million feature "The Butcher, The Chef and the Swordsman," due out Nov. 25.

Huayi also helped Disney produce a Chinese version of the hit franchise "High School Musical," transported to a Shanghai college. The film was Disney's third film in China in four years. Critics said Disney's attempt to make stars of an unknown cast flopped when a misdirected marketing campaign failed to raise interest among Chinese consumers demanding star power.

It's against this competitive backdrop of meteoric growth and Hollywood jockeying that France, New Zealand and Singapore all signed film treaties with Beijing in the last six months in moves to establish toeholds, too. Russia, Britain, India and Belgium are all also negotiating with Beijing.

The Holy Grail for producers from these smaller moviemaking countries would be a piece of something like John Woo's 2008 "Red Cliff," which the Hong Kong director with a decade of Hollywood credits co-produced with money from China, Japan, the U.S., Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The third-century war epic based on a story well-known across Northeast Asia, gross $47 million in China, $53 million in Japan and $9 million in South Korea.

But not every co-production can be a "Red Cliff" and Woo, who's about to start shooting his biggest picture yet, the Sino-US WWII buddy movie "Flying Tigers," says he can make the film with money from the CFG alone if no Hollywood studio wants to pony up. (Fox is making its own picture about the Flying Tigers' founder, U.S. Army Air Corps Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault).

Like Woo, other Chinese film veterans are feeling new confidence. People such as Yu Dong, CEO of Beijing Poly Bona Film Distribution and its co-production arm, Bona International Film Group, are just as often reaching out to Asian neighbors as they are flying to L.A. In June, Yu signed a co-production agreement with Korean powerhouse CJ Entertainment, the company that in 1995 put $300 million into a revamped DreamWorks.

The first project Bona and CJ are working on together is a Chinese remake of a Hollywood picture, director Chen Daming's "What Women Want," starring Gong Li. And Bona's got its hand in another Hollywood remake, this time in English: hit maker Jan de Bont is directing Zhang Ziyi in the classic tale of Hua Mulan, made famous outside China by the 1998 Disney cartoon.

But since not every China co-production can be a "Karate Kid" -- in which Overbrook, Sony Pictures and CFG paired a big Chinese actor (Jackie Chan) with a cute American kid (Jayden Smith) against a Chinese backdrop (The Great Wall) -- the pressure is on to find stories that will appeal to China's audience. After all, "Karate Kid" was a near flop in China after censors muddled the story by cutting the Chinese bully kid characters and approving release for a weekend right before key Chinese school exams. Meanwhile, outside China, director Harald Zwart's $40 million picture has grossed $334 million worldwide, including $176 million in the U.S.

Since the U.S. market is still more competitive than China's, yet China is where the growth is, finding the right story for Chinese viewers is key, just as it is in Hollywood -- but the pressure to get that story right is even greater in China.

"The difference in China is that there's only the box office, no ancillary revenues," said Arnie Messer, president and COO of Phoenix Pictures, the U.S.-Sino co-production company he and "Shanghai" and "Shutter Island" producer Mike Medavoy founded in May with partner Jonathan Shen of Beijing-based Shinework with a view to co-producing. "This very much rewards good films," Messer said. "The explosive growth has drawn out a lot of investors who are now seeking a way to the right stories that will allow them to get a piece of this phenomenon."

[GeneChing]

I jumped on the Chollywood-term bandwagon early, titling my print column that when it launched in July August 2010 (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=902) issue, and I'm not sure it's taking. I'm always reassured when I hear someone else using it.

Hollywood, Bollywood, Chollywood? (http://shanghaiist.com/2010/10/11/hollywood_relocates_to_china.php)
Ok, so Zhang Yimou's remake of Blood Simple wasn't exactly the greatest and to say Disney failed with their Chinese take on High School Musical when reportedly, only one person showed up to their Beijing screening, is kind of an understatement. But despite such an abysmal track record, the dream is still alive for big studio execs.

Although China still trails the US in box office sales, the market is growing as the wealthy become more regular movie-goers. Ticket revenues rose more than 30 percent annually between 2004 and 2009, from $219.6 million to $909 million.

Lots of dough, and Hollywood wants it.

Since Beijing only allows the distribution of 20 foreign films a year, American production companies are trying to curry favor under these restrictions by creating more China centric movies like The Karate Kid and Shanghai.

Not only are there more movies being set here, but joint ventures with Chinese film companies is becoming the norm. Just last month Beijing based Chengtian Entertainment acquired a 3.3 percent share of Inception producers Legendary Pictures.

Television is also getting in on the action. Gossip Girl, despite its risque nature, could soon see a Chinese equivalent, sure to be retooled with a whole lot less-if any-sex, and an asian Michael Scott may also make his debut as The Office comes to China.

It's a slow migration, but Hollywood seems to be inching closer east.
user-pic
By Jessica Li in Arts/Entertainment on October 11, 2010 6:00 PM

[GeneChing]

a dated article, but notable...

Fox gets teeth into Chinese movie market (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iZpPAQ4-RYu9C9-CFnkD38szVg7Q?docId=CNG.9069423c15ce0426af7f79fa1a 9b81e0.b31)
By Romain Raynaldy (AFP) – Oct 9, 2010

LOS ANGELES — Media giant Fox is celebrating after joining fellow majors by producing its first film in Mandarin, as it battles for a slice of an exploding Chinese movie market.

The Fox International division was created in 2008 to "make local films all over the world, and to focus on markets that were growing, or that already have big established local products," said its head Sanford Panitch.

"And China being the fastest-growing market in the world, and 50 percent of the product in China being local, it was a great opportunity for us to be able to participate in making Chinese film," he told AFP.

Fox is not the first to test the Chinese movie waters -- Warner started in 2004, and has been followed by Sony and Disney, which is developing a Chinese version of its teen megahit "High School Musical."

The Fox division is already active in 10 countries: China, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Spain.

But it only produced its first Mandarin-language film, "Hot Summer Days," this year.

The movie, which opened in China in February and tells the stories of a series of young Chinese couples in three towns during one hot summer, made 20 million dollars in China,

"For our first Chinese movie it was an extraordinary success," said Panitch.

Stanley Rosen, a professor at the University of Southern California's East Asian Studies Center, said the highest-earning films of all time in China have all come out in the last two years.

They are led by James Cameron's global blockbuster "Avatar," which took nearly 200 million dollars in China, followed by Chinese film "Aftershock" and American movies "2012" and "Transformers 2".

"The main thing the studios are interested in, I would say, is the market inside China, with American movies," he added, noting that the number of movie theaters in China is exploding, with 1,000 new ones opening this year alone.

But a major problem is that China only allows 20 foreign films to be distributed in China per year.

This has led to the production of Chinese-language movies by the US majors -- or bilingual English-Chinese productions which are geared to both western and Chinese audiences.

While films like "High School Musical" and "Hot Summer Days" were never going to run into trouble with Chinese censors, that cannot always be taken for granted.

World War II movie "Shanghai" had problems this year with its portrayal of Japanese characters "because they were too sympathetic, which is something the (Chinese) government didn't like," said Rosen.

"So they had to make a number of changes," he added.

Fox International has already made its second Chinese-language movie: "The butcher, the chef and the swordsman," which is due out in China in November. A third is due to begin filming at the start of 2011.

"It's a competitive market because there are a lot of Chinese producers and local Chinese studios making Chinese films," said Rosen.

"So it's very active, but the good news is that China is so large that it has the ability to be able to accomodate everyone," he added.

For Panitch, China also offers another kind of opportunity.

"The exciting thing for us in China is working with new talents. We are making a point working with up and coming directors," he said.

"Part of the opportunity for us is finding the next Ang Lee or the next Stephen Chow or the next great filmmaker that we may meet making a Chinese language film, but then we could ultimately have him make a Hollywood film."

[GeneChing]

Hong Kong Production Funding Emerging from Unlikely Places (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hong-kong-production-funding-emerging-35910)
10:32 PM 11/4/2010 by Karen Chu

The pipeline is bursting with them – the potential blockbuster co-productions with their eyes on the Chinese box office that is nowadays counted in hundreds of millions of yuan.

Emperor Motion Picture's 200 million yuan-costing December 2010 release Shaolin, starring Andy Lau and Jackie Chan, Media Asia's biopic Bruce Lee My Brother, due for end of this month, Peter Chan's US$20 million directorial outing Wu Xia, featuring Donnie Yen and Takeshi Kaneshiro in the leads (for late 2011), or the 400-million-yuan 3D fantasy The Monkey King and the remake of A Chinese Odyssey, Filmko and Stephen Chow's different takes on the Chinese literary classic Journey to the West, These are among some of the eyeball-drawing upcoming titles that serves as examples of what is now called "Greater China films."

However, in Hong Kong, new investors are surfacing and trying to capitalize on the atmosphere of diversity in the local marketplace, bringing with them new opportunities from unlikely places. For instance, the local charitable organization, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, has pooled its resources to create Merry-go-round, a drama co-directed by indie helmer Mak Yan-yan (Butterfly) and Clement Cheng, in celebration of the organization's 140th anniversary. All the more surprising is the venture into the film industry by the Hong Kong restaurant chain, Tsui Wah Group, which in collaboration with the production company T-Films, is producing two stereoscopic 3D animation features and a live action film.

T-Films has secured a distribution deal with The Weinstein Company for the North American release of the company's debut US$8 million 3D animated feature Little Gobi, slated for release in December in Hong Kong, and China through China Film Group. The second 3D animated feature, Flying Hero, a US$11 million tale about a firefighting airplane inspired by the Mongkok building fire tragedy in August 2008, which took the lives of two firefighters and four civilians, is set for late 2011 release. Tsui Wah holds the rights thus the merchandising potential inherent in its animated output, with dolls and other merchandise distributed through its chain of restaurants. The company is also co-financing, alongside producers Charlie Wong and Peggy Lee, with HK$2.8 million government investment from the FDF, the US$1.5 million beach volleyball action comedy Beach Spike.

To venture into animation with a backer outside of the film industry, producer Charlie Wong and T-Films founder Tony Tang took their lesson from the collapse of Hong Kong animation studio, Imagi. Established by animator Tony Tang, one of the co-founders of Imagi and director of Little Gobi, Flying Hero and Beach Spike, T-Films intends to tap into the market possibilities of truly economically-produced Hong Kong animation. That's what Imagi promised but failed to deliver after its US$60 million flop last year, Astro Boy, led to its demise.

"Animation doesn't have to be so expensive," says Charlie Wong, who produces the upcoming T-Films slate. "If we can control the budget, the quality of the products can fare as well as those made elsewhere." Animation also travels well, Wong says. "There's little age and race limit with animation, so it can be sold across the globe. The market for it would be bigger than the mid-range dramas and romantic comedies that local filmmakers are focusing on." That said, the producer-director team is also behind Beach Spike, described by Wong as "Charlie's Angels with beach volleyball", that was made "to explore the middle ground for survival in today's local and international market."

We're discussing all these films on their own independent threads:
Shaolin, starring Andy Lau and Jackie Chan (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54940)

Media Asia's biopic Bruce Lee My Brother (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42430)

Peter Chan's US$20 million directorial outing Wu Xia, featuring Donnie Yen and Takeshi Kaneshiro in the leads (for late 2011) (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58073)

the 400-million-yuan 3D fantasy The Monkey King (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58025)

[GeneChing]

A lot of those classics are really dated now. I know I've been waiting for Tower of Death on Blu-Ray...:rolleyes:

Posted: Fri., Nov. 5, 2010, 6:06am PT
Twin nabs Fortune Star pics (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118026996?refCatId=19)
Catalog includes Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan pix
By Mark Schilling

TOKYO -- Tokyo-based distrib Twin has acquired 300-plus titles from the Chinese pic library of Fortune Star, the company announced on Thursday.

Its first releases will be the five Bruce Lee classics "The Big Boss," "The Way of the Dragon," "Fist of Fury," "Game of Death" and "Tower of Death."

Paramount Home Ent. Japan will bow the titles on Blu-ray on Nov. 26 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Lee's birth.

Another major upcoming release is 24 Jackie Chan titles, also on Blu-ray, in December. This will be followed by VOD releases of more Fortune Star pics.

The world's largest Chinese film library, Fortune Star offers more than Chinese 700 pics including those by helmers John Woo, Yuen Woo Ping and Ronny Yu, and films starring Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh.

Launched in 1988, Twin has "The White Ribbon," "Confucius" and "True Legend" on its upcoming theatrical slate.

[GeneChing]

click the link.

Hollywood woos China (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16599419)
By John Boudreau
jboudreau@mercurynews.com
Posted: 11/12/2010 07:33:49 PM PST
Updated: 11/13/2010 05:46:05 AM PST

BEIJING -- Silicon Valley arrived here first, bearing technology and business plans. Now, Hollywood is swooning over this rising economic empire in the East.

At a recent art gallery event of film industry glitterati, producer David Lee worked the crowd with Hollywood flair -- greeting friends and strangers with hugs, posing for photos, mingling with the champagne-sipping guests.

"I want to be the Jerry Bruckheimer of China," said Lee, a former executive at the American film company Weinstein Co., referring to the prolific action blockbuster film and TV producer. As managing director of Beijing-based Xinhua Media, he has just completed a dark comedy, "Inseparable," that stars American actor Kevin Spacey but was financed by a local Chinese backer and shot in China. It will be released in China and the United States early next year.

Many Western film executives once dismissed China and its tightly regulated film industry with a Hollywood brushoff -- "Don't call me, I'll call you." But now the mood is, "Let's do lunch." Lee and other film industry executives, actors and production crews have descended on China in search of the latest outsize opportunity.

"Hollywood has become a really good friend of ours," said Jiang Defu, an executive with the powerful China Film Group, one of only two entities authorized to distribute foreign films theatrically in China. "I get 40 e-mails a day," said Jiang, who keeps a photo of himself posing with comedian Jimmy Fallon on the shelf of his office. "But I don't have time to reply to everyone."

China is building state-of-the-art movie theaters at a breathtaking pace -- at least two screens a day. Within five years, it is expected to surpass Japan as the second-largest movie market in the world after the United States. China is also the new ATM for those looking for film financing at a time funding is hard to find in the United States, said Larry Gerbrandt, principal of Media Valuation Partners, a Los Angeles firm that studies the economics of the entertainment industry.

"Hollywood is always chasing the money," said Lee, whose movie "Inseparable" will be released in China and the United States early next year.

China will have 6,000 cinema screens by the end of the year, and 12,000 within five years, according to the China Film Producers association. During the first half of 2010, China's box office revenue soared by more than 80 percent to $726 million, according to government statistics. In the United States, which has nearly 40,000 theater screens, box-office receipts topped $10 billion last year.

In China, "they have multiplexes that are as nice as anything you'd see in San Jose, if not better," said Jonathan Landreth, China-based correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter. "They just spring up overnight."

But just as valley companies and other foreign businesses have discovered, the reach-for-the-moon opportunities in this nation of 1.3 billion people come with only-in-China problems. China may now be the world's second-largest economy, but the Communist government's rigid censorship policies create a minefield for filmmakers. And producing movies that speak to audiences in China and the United States -- two vastly different cultures -- is not easy, experts say.

It will require filmmakers to pay attention to details -- films in the past have made such blunders as casting a Vietnamese actor in the role of a Chinese character, said Beijing-based director Chen Daming, who worked in San Francisco during the 1990s.

"The world is smaller," he said. "You can't do stupid things anymore."

But China's film industry isn't yet ready for prime time, according to former Bay Area filmmaker Ruby Yang, who relocated to Beijing six years ago.

China is "the happening place right now in terms of commercial films, but not movies of substance," said Yang, who won an Oscar in 2006 for "The Blood of Yingzhou District," a documentary about children in the province of Anhui who lost their parents to AIDS.

The industry, nonetheless, is dynamic and growing.

"I've done more here in a year than five years in Los Angeles," said actor Russell Wong, who relocated to Beijing more than a year ago and is studying Mandarin.

Not long ago, recalls director Chen, he received rude responses from Hollywood -- and one industry executive in particular -- to his plot pitches centered on Asian characters.

"Now, this guy is in China trying to raise money and he's super nice to me," said Chen, sitting in front of two flat-panel monitors while putting the final touches on his latest movie, "Thief of Hearts," a remake of the Mel Gibson romantic comedy, "What Women Want," starring Gong Li and Any Lau, two of China's biggest stars.

Chen is asked out to dinner by the likes of Keanu Reeves. He has drinks with representatives from the William Morris Agency. He has to bat away offers coming his way from across the Pacific.

—‰'High School Musical' came to me (to make a Chinese version of Disney's teen musical series)," he said. "I said, 'I don't do movies like that.' "

By coproducing movies with Chinese companies, Hollywood is looking to get around government restrictions that allow only 20 foreign films a year to share in box office receipts -- a policy ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization, though it's unclear if anything will change. Chinese filmmakers, meanwhile, would like greater access to the global market.

"Hollywood provides the best access and distribution to the rest of the world," said former Fremont resident Rong Chen, now running the film and entertainment arm of game developer Perfect World, producer of the comedy "Sophie's Revenge," starring Zhang Ziyi.

"We want to learn more about Hollywood," said China Film Group's Jiang. "But we also want Hollywood to know more about Chinese culture."

Co-productions do not mean Hollywood can sidestep the government's censorship, which extends beyond political issues. Censors flag anything from smoking -- they don't want outsiders to think Chinese are smokers -- to issues of prostitution, filmmakers say.

"They want you to paint a very positive picture of China," said Hollywood producer Terence Chang, who just completed three films in China. "Nothing negative is allowed. That's why people are making period films. Pre-communism is safe."

[GeneChing]

We had one, but it was deleted. So this can go here:

http://mms.businesswire.com/bwapps/mediaserver/ViewMedia?mgid=236485&vid=2
TAI SENG Poised to Launch New Media and Broadcasting Channels to Meet Demand for Multicultural Content in 2011! (http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20101118005550/en/TAI-SENG-Poised-Launch-Media-Broadcasting-Channels)
November 18, 2010 07:03 AM Eastern Time

SAN FRANCISCO--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Tai Seng Entertainment, the leading distributor of Asian films and TV series in the USA, today announced its upcoming plans to launch several major new channels to meet the demand by broadcasters and new media platforms for quality multicultural programming.

According to television executives speaking at the 24th Annual NAMIC conference in New York recently, “With the continued growth of the multicultural population in the U.S., the television industry should be producing more quality, diversity-themed television programming that reflects the views and culture of multicultural audiences.” (Multichannel News, 9/15/10)

With over 20 years as a leader in Asian film distribution in the U.S. and a library of nearly 100,000 hours of premium content including motion picture and TV dramas, Tai Seng is both well positioned and uniquely qualified to meet the ever increasing demands for culturally relevant programming by the national and regional broadcasters.

Tai Seng has a history of helping to popularize Asian stars such as action heroes Jackie Chan and Jet Li, matinee idol Chow Yun Fat, and Bond girl Michelle Yeoh by circulating their movies in America well before each became household names.

“Tai Seng’s vision is to bring the best in Asian entertainment to all ethnicities in the USA, not just our loyal audiences of Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.,” said Tai Seng President Bernard Soo. “Our long term goal is to market Asian films to the general mainstream U.S. market, by providing a broader access to what some of the top Hollywood directors and producers have known for years – Asia’s directors, from Hong Kong to Japan to Korea and all points in between, are creating some of the most exciting and captivating cinema in the world.”

With nearly 16 million Asian Americans in the U.S. alone, the company is confident that its market will not only continue to grow vertically, but horizontally as well with the continued popularity of its content among the General Market, Latino and Urban audiences.

“Tai Seng stands ready to lead the way again in content aggregation from Asia to U.S. audiences by consistently providing our content distribution partners with the best premium content available and the highest subscriber growth opportunities,” said Mr. Soo.

For more information about Tai Seng visit www.taiseng.com.

[GeneChing]

Digicon Special: "China is building 3 cinemas per day!" - Alex Law (http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/features/2010/11/19/6842/)
By Money Sharma, November 19, 2010 - 15:10 IST

Alex Law Excerpts from the keynote address by famed Hong Kong filmmaker, Alex Law, whose recent release, Echoes of the Rainbow has received critical acclaim worldwide. Alex was speaking at 12th Digicon Pre-Conference "Asia Contents Forum", running at the sidelines of Inter BEE conference in Tokyo.:

Echoes of the Rainbow is about my childhood. In fact, 90 per cent of what you will see in the film is all about what happened to me in my childhood. I have made sure that I shot the film in actual locations where particular incidents in my life had happened. While choosing locations, I was very particular that they were most suitable for the story. It all depends on the story and not the market.

Authentic Locations
The reason why I chose the '60s as the background of the film was because that's actually the time when it happened. Somehow, the '60s are a very nostalgic age, the golden age for some who stayed in Hong Kong at that time. All the people born after the war will cherish the film. The love that the people shared in those times was unprecedented. The entire neighborhood would dine together. My mum would only cook one dish because all the rest was taken care of by our neighbors. Even when I returned from school to find my home locked, I could easily walk into my neighbors house and stay as long as I wanted.

Asian Film Market
The film has not been released outside of Hong Kong yet but we are in talks with a Japanese distributor. I look forward to the day when there will be a pan-Asian market for films from not only Japan, but other Asian countries too. In Asia, we have our drawbacks. But we also have our advantages. With the spread of the internet, the popularity of small filmmakers is increasing, and not only in their parent countries but the neighboring countries as well. Moreover, we have seen, in the recent years, a number of co-productions among countries. So, the market of such films is not limited to the producing countries but goes beyond that. When I showed Echoes of the Rainbow in the Berlin Film Festival, to my pleasant surprise, I was approached by an Israeli company for a co-production!

Chinese Potential
A film commission in Hong Kong sponsors 35-40 per cent of films that cost up to USD 2 million. All regions in China have government subsidies meant for films. But there is a lot of latent potential in the Chinese film market because filmmaking is ultimately an investment. Sooner or later the film industry should be able to stand on its own feet. But the government has to jumpstart the process. The mainland Chinese market is huge and undiscovered. In China there are 2,500 screens whereas in the U.S. there are over 15,000, with only one-tenth the population of China. In many provinces of China there are no cinemas at all. Right now the number of cinemas being built per day in China is three. Hence, there is a huge potential.

American Dominance
American movies have dominated the world film market over the past 20-30 years. But I can see a future where Asian movies will dominate the Eastern hemisphere. The development of the Chinese market is almost there. I am just hoping that it is here to stay. Americans are very good storytellers, whereas Asians are on the other end of the spectrum: they like to listen to stories. But we need to make improvements in the distribution, technical know-how and the studio system, not so much in the stories. Each country should produce its own stories. Movies should be made if they touch the filmmaker. One always wants to come up with a story that has never been told. But all the existing stories have already been told.
So let's do the math: 15,000 - 2,500 = 12,500. 12,500/3 = 4166.66. 4166/365 = 11.41 years. Given that equation, Chollywood overtakes Hollywood sometime in 2021.

[doug maverick]

highly doubt it. hollywood movies have global apeal, mainly because they star people of multiple races, onlytime you see a non chinese in a chinese film is as a villian. unless that changes i highly doubt china will ever generate the amount of money hollywood generates. ever. hollywood including tv and movies generate over 100 billion dollars a year. is china even at 1 billion yet?

[GeneChing]

Maybe Hollywood can deduct that 100 billion from the 846.7 billion (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1059957&postcount=7) America has borrowed from China. I can see the Chinese collectors now. "Ni hao. We'll just take Hollywood. Xie xie ni." ;)

[doug maverick]

true true...alot can happen...but i just dont see chinese films eclipsing hollywood, many have tried all have failed. like i said its all about global appeal.once chinese cinema stops treating non asians as foreign devils in the movies, they might have more appeal, to the non-asian film lover like yours truly.

[doug maverick]

actually gene we owe china about 350 billion. and we didnt borrow it, china just bought american bonds, actually japan owns the most american debt with 644billion. foreign countries buy american bonds because american is(or was) known to always pay its debt on time. lol i just got a funny vision of obama getting calls from debt collectors and he pretends to be george bush.

[Jimbo]

A lot of those classics are really dated now. I know I've been waiting for Tower of Death on Blu-Ray...:rolleyes:

Well, I'm hoping they finally release films like Wheels on Meals on DVD. Also, there are a lot of good non-Jackie Golden Harvest/Fortune Star movies that I'd like to own, such as The Himalayan, etc. The only thing I don't like about Fortune Star's treatment of the GH movies is, in a lot of cases, they tampered w/the sound effects, totally redid the English dubs (badly), and sometimes changed the soundtrack music. So with Fortune Star releases, it's always better to watch them in original language w/subs.

As far as Chinese films ever dominating the global market, I seriously doubt it'll ever happen. IMO, the top U.S. mega-hits will always dominate, even in China. Plus, Chinese films almost always portray non-Chinese, including other Asians, as bad or inherently worse than they are. Yes, U.S. films can and have done similar things, esp. in the past.

But that aside, another problem with Chinese cinema is, if they have a hit, then they'll oversaturate the market with a bunch of the same type of film, like all the wuxias following Crouching Tiger, or all the different Ip Man movies at once. Until people get sick of them and stop watching entirely. Plus, at least in the U.S., it seems that the general (not arthouse or cult viewers) audiences don't like subtitled movies. Most may watch a few, then when the novelty has worn off, they'll tune out of other subbed movies and opt back to the familiar.

Sure, U.S. films also follow hit films with similar type films, like all the computer-animated family films, or the popularity of comic book superhero movies. But the key is that there's more variety in the types of stories in these films, as opposed to the narrow scope of the Chinese films that tend to follow in the wake of a hit movie.

Of course, Chinese films have come a long way since the '70s in terms of general acceptance internationally.

[GeneChing]

WSJ is. It gets back to that old sleeping dragon market concept - if I could sell a can of soda to every Chinese citizen, I'd be rich. As the global economy shifts, the Chinese film market is booming. It's still small compared to Hollywood, but given the growth arc, everyone is scrambling to get in on the ground floor.

What's more, Chollywood is not just about Chinese-made films. It's the whole industry, so films made in China, like Karate Kid (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48261) count too.

* NOVEMBER 17, 2010, 5:04 P.M. ET
China's Bona Film Files To Sell Up To $80 Mln In ADS In IPO (http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101117-713575.html)

Chinese film distributor Bona Film Group Ltd. plans to sell up to an estimated $80 million of American depositary shares in a U.S. initial public offering.

The company, which is the largest privately owned film distributor in China, has applied for its ADSs to be traded on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol BONA.

Bona Film distributes movies on all of the theater circuits in China. It has joint-distribution arrangements with state-owned China Film Group Corp., among other companies, and has distributed 17 Chinese movies internationally since 2008.

The company plans to use proceeds from the IPO for possible acquisitions, which may include movie theaters, and to acquire film distribution rights and invest in film productions.

For the first three quarters of the year, Bona Film reported a loss of $7.5 million, compared with a year-earlier profit of $1.2 million. Revenue more than doubled to $35 million.

The U.S. IPO market has improved in recent weeks and Chinese companies in particular have seen successful launches.

[GeneChing]

China, Australia Form New Co-Prod Organization (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-australia-form-prod-organization-52969)
9:10 AM 11/30/2010 by Pip Bulbeck

Two Countries Signed Co-Production Treaty Three Years Ago

SYDNEY – Australian filmmakers aiming to capitalize on a three-year-old co-production treaty with China have formed the Australian China Screen Alliance as a subsidiary of the Screen Producers Association of Australia to speed and smooth interaction with the fastest-growing film market in the world.

In a country where most of the biggest imports still come from Hollywood, the SPAA wants the Australia-based alliance to partner with China-based filmmakers’ groups to work together to take advantage of a box office that will soon shatter its 2009 record of $909 million in ticket sales.

Already, the Xi'an Qujiang Film and TV Investment Group in central China has taken a step in this direction, recently signing an agreement to establish their own chapter of the Australian China Screen Alliance.

At first, the Alliance will act in an advisory capacity and play matchmaker between Australian producers looking for partners based in China, people who can co-produce, provide resources, direct consultations and facilitate dialogue between the two filmmaking communities.

SPAA executive director Geoff Brown said that the Chinese appetite for international co-production is growing rapidly along with the economy.

As Chinese expendable income goes up, so has the box office. Thanks in large part to Avatar and 2012, both from Hollywood, China’s Jan.-Jun. 2010 box office jumped 86% compared with the same period a year ago.

"This year's box office gross may close at $1.6 billion, and is expected to get to $4.5 billion in the next five years,” said Brown, adding that in Australia, “We are one of the first countries to be making such a serious effort on co-productions with China, which means we have a head start.”

Three years ago, Aussie director Roger Spotiswoode made what most people in the industry consider the first de facto Sino-Aussie co-production, the WWII drama called The Children of Huangshi, even though it went into production before the treaty had come fully into effect.

Most co-productions in China now come from Hong Kong, whose filmmakers enjoy favorable import terms and have the advantage of a shared culture. Sino-Aussie co-production imports would, like co-prods from Hong Kong, avoid Beijing’s annual 20-film import cap on foreign titles allowed to give a share of their gross back to the copyright holders.

Australia’s not the only country to set its sites on China’s huge movie market, with France, Singapore and New Zealand all signing treaties of their own with Beijing in the last eight months. Still, the SPAA’s Brown is confident about Australia’s jump in China: “I believe we have about a three-year window before it becomes a massively competitive field with other countries.”

Mario Andreacchio is chairman of the new Australian China Screen Alliance. His children’s film The Dragon Pearl, now in post-production, will be the first official Sino-Australian co-production made under the treaty, first signed in August 2007.

Andreacchio and his partners the Hengdian World Film Studios outside Shanghai are already learning to compromise to get the film done: the film’s working title, The Last Dragon, had to be changed to accommodate the Chinese view that the beast core to the country’s mythical culture would never cease to exist.

Looking past their differences, Andreacchio said he’s excited by the sheer scale of the filmmaking going on in China, even far from the traditional filmmaking centers of Beijing and Shanghai: “In Xi'an alone they have over 300 film production companies, many of which are wanting to do co-production with Australia now. This is typical of the potential in the filmmaking industry that exists in provinces and regions around China.”

Andreacchio, Brown and Ausfilm chair Alaric McAusland, will be touting the benefits of the Australian China Screen Alliance and the Sino-Australian co-production treaty at the upcoming Australia-China Film Industry Forum set to take place in Beijing Dec. 8-12.

The forum is an initiative of the Australian embassy there as part of Imagine Australia, the Year of Australian Culture in China.

The embassy is working with Screen Australia and the China Film Bureau as the official government partners, with the China Film Co-Production Corp. -- led by Madame Zhang Xun -- as the forum co-host and the Beijing Film Academy as the academic program partner.

A third Sino-Australian co-production called Mei Mei, meaning "little sister," also is in the works.

-- Jonathan Landreth in Beijing contributed to this report.
300 film production companies in Xian?

[PalmStriker]

Would like to buy some of their stock. Thanks for the info, Gene. Will be watching for the listing. http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/bona-files-for-stock-market-listing

[GeneChing]

This follows up on what I was saying in my Karate Kid cover story: Is The Karate Kid a Kung Fu Dream? (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=908) (2010 July/August (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=902))

China's investment in silver screen (http://www.mysinchew.com/node/49066)
2010-12-06 16:44

http://www.mysinchew.com/files/preview/292x300..MOVIES2_copy1.jpg
Actors Jaden Smith (left) and Jackie Chan perform in a scene from the movie The Karate Kid. Mostly made in Beijing and produced by China Films and Sony's Columbia Pictures, the movie took box office receipts of more than US$356 million worldwide.

=====================================

By BAO CHANG
China Daily
Beijing, Monday 6 December 2010

The movie tells a story about 13 women living alongside Qinhuai river in Nanjing who extricated their fellow countrymen from Japanese troops during World War II.

But The 13 Women of Nanjing, Chinese arts guru Zhang Yimou's new work, is not a purely Chinese creation. The dialogue is in English, the star is a Hollywood celebrity and the technical know-how with which it is made comes from the US film industry.

Zhang, China's most famous movie director, will name the movie's starring actor sometime in December. It is hoped the move will guarantee its entry into the US film market.

Bringing in Hollywood actors is not the only way forward for Chinese film companies that want to explore oversea markets. Chinese firms are now speeding up their internationalisation and strengthening ties with their peers across the Pacific through direct investment in Hollywood, as the dream factory has seen financing from its home market drying up in recent years.

New Pictures Film Co Ltd, the film-producing and distributing company, specialises in investing in the production of Zhang's movies, including The 13 Women of Nanjing. It has been reported by Chinese media that it may now buy stakes in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc (MGM) after the Hollywood film studio giant filed for bankruptcy in early November 2010 because of its inability to repay its US$4 billion debt.

State-owned China Films Group Corporation contributed US$5 million early this year to help finance the remaking of The Karate Kid, starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, Hollywood movie star Will Smith's son.

Mostly made in Beijing and produced by China Films and Sony's Columbia Pictures Industries Inc, the movie took receipts of more than US$356 million worldwide and China Films was given distribution rights for the movie in China and some other Asian countries in return for its investment.

"A good combination between Chinese and Western modes can be an incentive to the development of the Chinese movie industry and will also give Chinese movies an international status," China Films said.

On 26 September 2010, Orange Sky Golden Harvest Entertainment, a Hong Kong-based film company, paid US$25 million for a 3.3% stake in Legendary Pictures, one of the largest film studios in the US.

Shanghai Film Group Corporation (SFGC) also plans to acquire some cinemas in the east of the US, going abroad and choosing the biggest film market in the world as its first overseas development.

"I have begun to negotiate with some companies in the east of the US about the acquisition of their cinemas," Ren Zhonglun told 21st Century Business Herald, adding that acquiring cinemas in the international market provides business opportunities for Chinese film companies who plan to develop abroad.

China is now offering huge potential as a funding source for Hollywood, always a dream factory for movie fans across the world and powered by US moguls.

"Chinese investors are very sophisticated and have been contemplating the kinds of investments they want to make," Bloomberg cited Charles Paul, a longtime Hollywood executive and an adviser to investment bank Centerview Partners, as saying.

"Their activity may pick up as Chinese officials become more comfortable with the ways of Hollywood and the Chinese government hopes to gain the technical and creative know-how to build its film industry through investment," Paul said.

The Poly Bona Film Group, China's biggest private movie distributor-turned-movie studio, has filed for a Nasdaq initial public offering seeking to raise US$80 million through the sale of its shares to US investors, papers filed in New York show.

"We will witness better development if we strengthen the cooperation with foreign film studios at a time when the Chinese film industry is growing at a staggering rate," said Yu Dong, president of Poly Bona.

Chinese investors in the film industry are expecting a good return from their partnership with foreign film studios because China will further open its entertainment market next year, according to World Trade Organisation regulations.

In March 2011, the rule that limits the number of foreign films that can be shown in the domestic market every year to just 20 will be lifted.

Zhao Rui, vice-president of Jackie Chan Cinema, jointly owned by the film star and Beijing Sparkle Roll International Cinemas Management Co, said: "If the Chinese film market can be more open, we will definitely take advantage of Jackie's network in Hollywood to expand our business in foreign markets."

However, industry experts believe Chinese film companies should develop themselves more before offering huge capital just for a Hollywood ticket.

"At present, most Chinese companies are not strong enough to meet market demand from Hollywood, where US film studios have their own operating rules, including capital operation, profit models, the film production and industry chain, all of which are different from those in the Chinese market," said Gao Jun, vice-general manager of New Film Association, one of China's largest film distributors.

After news about the MGM bankruptcy emerged, not only New Pictures Company, but also the state-owned China Films and Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, were said to have bought a stake in the film studio as part of their efforts to enter the international film market.

China Films is the largest film enterprise with a complete industry chain in the country and Huayi is the first listed film company in China.

"None of these film companies is capable of acquiring all of MGM, because even the gross output value of China's film industry is not enough to pay the Hollywood studio's total debt," said Gao, of New Film Association.

According to the China Film Producers Association (CFPA), takings hit 8 billion yuan for the first n9 months of this year and are set to reach more than 10 billion yuan for the whole year, a 60% increase compared with 2009.

However, the MGM debt is $4 billion, nearly three times the expected box-office receipts of the emerging film market for the whole year.

In the next three to four years the number of screens in China will increase to 13,000 from 8,000. The US has about 39,000 screens. China is also IMAX's fastest-growing market with 23 of the high-tech cinemas opened to date. Giant-screen movie technology company IMAX Corp has plans for more than 50 IMAX theaters by 2012 in China.

In mid-June 2010, IMAX and Wanda Cinema Line Corporation, one of the fastest growing cinema chains in China, announced plans to add three additional IMAX systems, in the cities of Quanzhou, Wuhan and Dalian.

Wanda Movie Theatre also plans to build more than 70 cinemas by the end of this year and make the total more than 120 by 2012, aiming to generate revenue of 3 billion yuan.

"Apart from industry insiders, investors without industry background and professional knowledge have also streamed into film investment, creating haphazard competition within the industry," said Liu Debin, general manager of Poly Film Investment Co Ltd, the cinema branch of Poly Bona.

According to Liu, investors from the coal industry in China are increasingly rushing to the film industry, in both domestic and foreign markets, in an attempt to get a cut of the profits brought by the fast growth of the industry.

CFPA predicted that Chinese receipts will reach 40 billion yuan by 2015, making the country second only to the US.

Foreign blockbusters are believed to be a catalyst for China's fast-growing box office receipts. James Cameron's Avatar accounted for 18% of China's total box office revenue for the first 9 months of this year, according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

"To be powerful in the international market, Chinese people should also make more of an investment in creating a storyline tailored to the tastes of global audiences instead of just the Chinese," said Zhang Jiarui, director of Distant Thunder, one of the most popular films at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Asia News Network

[GeneChing]

This could be a complete game changer for us.

China film policy through new eyes (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/china-film-policy-through-new-eyes)
By Patrick Frater
Tue, 07 December 2010, 08:02 AM (HKT)
Industry Rumour

Is a change in Chinese film policy on the cards?

One of the many strange and interesting stories to emerge from the recent Wikileaks revelations is the movie preferences of one of China's top leaders, Xi Jinping (習近平).

Xi is widely tipped as one of the strongest candidates to take over as President of the country after Hu Jintao moves on in 2012 or 2013. Xi, Zhejiang Province Communist Party Secretary and now a Vice President, was quoted at length by US diplomats after a dinner in 2007. Conversation ranged from financial policy through to his film preferences.

According to the confidential memo Xi said that he likes Hollywood war movies as he judged them more truthful than China's own film output and make clearer distinction between good and bad.

Xi singled out film-making icon Zhang Yimou (張藝謀) and his Curse of the Golden Flower (滿城盡帶黃金甲) for individual criticism and expressed disapproval of the kung fu action genre in general.

Instead Xi appeared to praise Jia Zhangke (賈樟柯), a film-maker who had previously worked outside China's system of censorship but who has in recent years partnered with government studios, courted mainstream media and is now developing his own big-budget historical epic with martial arts.

Two complete paragraphs from the March 2007 report follow (Chinese characters added by Film Business Asia):

"The (US) Ambassador also asked Secretary Xi about his recent movie viewing, recalling that Xi had told him in their meeting one year ago that he had recently seen and tremendously enjoyed Saving Private Ryan. Had Secretary Xi seen other recent American movies that he had enjoyed? Xi replied that he already owns the Flags of Our Fathers� DVD, but hopes to view it during the Lunar New Year holidays had gone unfulfilled. He had seen and enjoyed The Departed.� Xi said he particularly likes Hollywood movies about World War II and hopes Hollywood will continue to make them. Hollywood makes those movies well, and such Hollywood movies are grand and truthful. Americans have a clear outlook on values and clearly demarcate between good and evil. In American movies, good usually prevails. In contrast, Curse of the Golden Flower,� a recently popular Chinese movie directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li (鞏俐, she of Miami Vice� movie stardom) had been confusing to Xi. Some Chinese moviemakers neglect values they should promote.

.A23. (C) America is a powerful nation in terms of culture because Americans say what they should say, Xi elaborated. Too many Chinese moviemakers cater to foreigners interests or preconceptions, sometimes vulgarly so. He criticized Zhang Yimou by name as well as the kungfu action movie genre. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍)� and Wu Jia and imperial palace intrigues — all are the same, talking about bad things in imperial palaces. Most are not nominated for Oscars or other awards, so to some extent it can be said that such movies are not worth very much. The Ambassador noted that a Chinese film about HIV/AIDS orphans had just garnered the Oscar for best short documentary. Xi expressed awareness of the movie, noting that the director is a female overseas Chinese (but Xi never said whether he had seen that documentary). Xi recalled that a low cost, very good Chinese movie by the director Jia Zhangke (賈樟柯) had recently won a Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. Returning to Flags of Our Fathers,� Xi said he had come to understand that the flag raising on Iwo Jima did not mark the end of the battle. The Japanese were still in holes and caves and the battle continued. He expressed particular admiration for WWII movies set in the Pacific theater of operations and expressed a strong desire to visit Guadalcanal."

[doug maverick]

doubtful considering kung fu action films, have a larger foreign audience and sale potential over chinese dramas and comedies. which really dont translate well to the western markets. so idk if itll be a game changer, maybe but $$ talks. as we all know.

[Jimbo]

I wonder what Xi will think of the upcoming Red Dawn remake?

[GeneChing]

I guess we'll have to start a thread on Z's new project

Banking on blockbusters (http://business.globaltimes.cn/comment/2010-12/601517.html)
* Source: Global Times
* [09:06 December 14 2010]
By Chen Yang

http://www.globaltimes.cn/attachment/101214/0eed262329.jpg

When Hollywood films are seeing increasing box office revenues in China, Americans seem largely unaware of China's film industry except for a few famous names such as Zhang Ziyi and Jackie Chan.

Bona Film Group, a Chinese film distributor, made its debut on the Nasdaq Thursday. However, the company's stock price slumped 22.35 percent to $6.6 from its $8.5 IPO price on the first trading day.

As China's first film company to go public in the US, Bona's experience was in contrast to its competitor Huayi Brothers Media Corp, whose shares increased by nearly 150 percent to 63.66 yuan ($9.56) the day it debuted on China's Nasdaq-style growth enterprise board market last October.

Looking longterm

"It might take more time for US investors to understand our business better, as there are some differences between film industries in China and the US," said Xu Liang, Bona's chief financial officer, in a telephone interview Thursday. "We look for a long-term return on investment for our shareholders."

Xu said Bona plans to expand overseas distribution channels for Chinese-made films, as well as cooperate with foreign studios to produce films. Its latest movie, co-produced with a Canadian company, is a 3D English film Legend of Mulan, with Dutch director Jan de Bont and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi as Mulan.

"Co-production will enable the film to have significant box office appeal for the US audiences, and help us gain distribution rights in China," he said, adding that in China only State-owned film companies have distribution rights for imported films, while co-produced films can be treated as domestic ones.

Xu is optimistic about Bona's growth prospects based on China's booming film market. "Cinema visits per year per person is only 0.3 in China, while this figure is 4.3 in the US," he said. "If every Chinese goes to cinema one time every year, China will become the world's second largest film market with annual ticket sales of 30 billion yuan ($4.5 billion)."

Box office sales up

China's box office revenues totaled 8.7 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) as of November 30 this year, according to EntGroup, an entertainment consultant in Beijing. Several films shown in December, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Sacrifice, are still boosting ticket sales.

EntGroup earlier estimated domestic box office revenues will hit 10.3 billion yuan ($1.55 billion) this year, a 65 percent year-on-year growth, mainly boosted by imported blockbusters Avatar and Inception, as well as the Chinese-made film Aftershock.

"If the growth rate can keep around 40-50 percent, China will likely to jump from the sixth to the No.2 spot in the world by box office revenues next year," said Gao Shouzhi, EntGroup's vice president.

But the number of viewers has not grown as fast as box office revenues. Mao Yu, an official within the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, said earlier that the number of moviegoers visiting theaters was around 200 million as of October, the same level as all of last year.

As the inflation continues to rise, analysts doubt consumers will pay to watch films due to high ticket prices. The average ticket price is around 36 yuan ($5.40) in China, accounting for 2.5 percent of urban residents' disposal income every month, while the percentage is only 0.5 in developed countries, said a report released by Deloitte Consulting earlier this year.

Investors interested

However, the film industry's high growth rate has attracted investors. Coalmine owners, property developers, Wenzhou merchants and private equity funds managers are reportedly ready to step into the film sector.

"Investment mainly goes into film production and theatre building sectors, as their entry barriers are relatively lower than that of the distribution sector," said Gao from EntGroup.

In China, normally theaters take half of the box office revenues, film producers take 40 percent and film distributors the remaining 10 percent.

But the film industry might not be as profitable as outsiders think. "Producing films is high risk ... while building theatres is an investment that will take 4-5 years to recover costs," he said.

China produced 456 films last year, and about 300 films were shown on the big screen. Some films apparently get rejected by movie theater owners for poor quality, while others lack big name actors or directors.

"If the average investment on a film is 5 million yuan ($751,000), then producers lost about 1 billion yuan ($150.2 million) in total," said Xue Shengwen, an entertainment industry analyst from Shenzhen Zhongzhe Investment Consulting. "With an increasing number of modern theaters emerging around the country, more domestic films will have the chance to be shown," Gao said.

Spin-off products lacking

Industry watchers say Chinese film companies rely too much on box office revenues. "Earnings from box office make up more than 70-80 percent of a film's total revenues in China," Gao said. "While ticket sales only account for less than 30 percent in Hollywood film productions, the others mainly come from selling derivative products."

Xu from Bona said revenues from television royalties, new media and home video products only account for 7-10 percent of their total revenues.

"China lags so far behind the US, especially in developing film derivative products," said Wu Jun, president of Shanghai Movie Shine Entertainment Merchandising, who has launched a retail chain selling film memorabilia since 2002.

But the business has not run as well as Wu expected. "We opened more than 20 stores in movie theatres around 2005, but most didn't make money," he said, adding that he only keeps two stores running in Shanghai now.

Wu said local film producers have not focused much on exploring film spin-off products.

"We mainly sell imported film memorabilia ... but high prices prevent audiences from buying and some would rather buy unlicensed ones," he said.

Gao said China's film industry chain has not fully matured compared with the Hollywood model.

"Lack of talents and rampant piracy hinder the development of film derivative products," he said.

Wu is now turning to the online game sector, but he still waits for the opportunity.

"China's film derivative product market will grow up one day, when film producers become familiar with marketing and audiences become accustomed to paying for more than a film ticket," he said.

[GeneChing]

There are pics with each film but I'm too lazy to cut & paste them here. Follow the link if you want to see.

Movies for keeps (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010-12/28/content_11762716.htm)
By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-28 08:04

The year has seen Chinese cinema mature with films that have not just performed well but pushed the boundaries in terms of plot and execution. Raymond Zhou picks the top 10.

Chinese cinema is expected to pass a milestone in 2010. Its gross box-office revenue is likely to be more than 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) for the first time (counting just the mainland). That's roughly the same as the US box office in dollar terms. If you factor in the currency disparity, per-capita, consumption and the ancillary market such as television and DVD rights, it is still minuscule, but hints at the vast potential that has been tapped into seriously only in the past five years.In terms of the quality of offerings, Chinese cinema has always been the target of public ridicule. Simply put, it is an industry people love to hate and yet cannot stop talking about. This year, diversity has taken reign and big-budget period dramas with their all-too-familiar sequences of kungfu fighting have given way to a rich crop of genres, some hard to categorize. Whatever your taste, you will find something to your fancy. The following are 10 feature films our editors consider worth recommending.

Let the Bullets Fly

This is a year when China's triumvirate of top filmmakers (Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang) all had new releases, but were upstaged by someone who calls himself "an amateur".

Jiang Wen is an actor-turned-director and has made only four full-length features since 1994. But the scarcity of his output correlates with high quality.

His new movie (pictured above), set in the early 20th century, is a fast-paced heist movie. Well, "heist" could be a misnomer because the coveted object is the position of a county magistrate and all the loot it comes with. It also has the feel of a western when scenes move outside the county town.

Jiang has a sense of humor that's not just black, but pitch dark. Many of the lines have layers of meaning, which may yield contradictory interpretations. His subtle use of anachronism and the symbolic meaning of many scenes and props have become an object of cinephile obsession. All actors are perfectly cast.

Movies for keeps

Monga

Gangster movies have been done to death in Hong Kong. So, when Taiwan's Doze Niu tried his hand at this hoary genre, nobody expected him to breathe new life into it. The story is predictable, but the way he tells it, with a refreshingly good-looking young cast, has turned heads and created a box-office bonanza.

Though not shown officially in the mainland, the movie has strong word-of-mouth and was avidly downloaded and watched. Essentially this is a coming-of-age story framed in a gangster narrative. The chase and fight sequences exude a vim and vigor that's more musical than a crime spree. The theme of bonding has a sincerity reminiscent of a good love story.

Movies for keeps

Echoes of the Rainbow

This intimate story of a Hong Kong family struggling through the 1960s and 70s is a microcosm of the British colony and its Chinese inhabitants on the verge of an economic miracle.

Based on the family history of writer-director Alex Law, it is full of bittersweet details. Simon Yam and Sandra Ng deliver top-notch performances of restraint and refinement.

Movies for keeps

Deep in the Clouds

This small movie has not had a wide release yet, though it won several accolades at the Shanghai Film Festival. It is about a mountain village caught between the need to protect the eco-system with its black bears and the yearning for a better life.

Using locals who had barely seen a movie and an ethnic language not even understood by the director, the movie has an authenticity and also a lyrical beauty rarely seen in a message film.

Movies for keeps

Aftershock

Book-ended by two major earthquakes, beginning with the Tangshan earthquake of 1976 and ending with the one in Sichuan in 2008, this is supposed to be a disaster film, but Feng Xiaogang mustered the courage to turn it into a family drama of love and generational misunderstanding.

Perhaps it is easier to approach the movie as a Chinese equivalent of Sophie's Choice. There are details in the movie about survivors hardly known to outsiders, such as the annual ritual of burning paper in the early morning of the anniversary of the loved one's death. Xu Fan's performance packs a punch in portraying a survivor's guilt and the love of a mother under life-and-death circumstances.

Movies for keeps

Lost on Journey

This little comedy could have been inspired by Planes, Trains and Automobiles, a Steve Martin laugh fest about the trials and tribulations of a journey back home. The Chinese version consists of uniquely Chinese situations, with the duo of comedians representing two halves of society.

The movie is perfectly paced, with plenty of comic chops to keep one laughing. It also has a heart that goes to those less fortunate. While all ends well, the journey is symbolic on a certain level of what the country is going through on the whole.

Movies for keeps

Vegetate

This is social realism at its most critical, the kind of movie enshrined in Chinese textbooks yet rarely seen on the big screen. This sharp criticism of China's pharmaceuticals industry, which churns out so many products you'd wonder if there is any testing or inspection, is built on a series of twists and turns that's melodramatic on the surface yet hint at inner truth.

A worthy follower of Julia Roberts' Erin Brokovich or Russell Crowe's The Insider, Vegetate falls short on casting and the absence of star power hinders its box-office performance.

Movies for keeps

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

This lavishly produced whodunit shows China during its most extravagant period, the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906), with the sole female ruler in its history, Empress Wu Zetian, on the throne. The intricate plot keeps the audience on edge and the starry cast is matched by the mammoth but ingeniously conceived set.

It is a Chinese response to the new Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey Jr., but Detective Dee, though a historical figure, was mostly created by a European sinologist. So, cross-cultural influences go to the very root of this action suspense thriller.

Movies for keeps

The War of Internet Addiction

This is not a theatrical release, but an online feature made by maneuvering visual elements in games, but with an original storyline and dialogue dubbed by people all over the Net.

But the movie is more than a technical feat. It gives voice to a huge swath of the online population whose frustrations at being cut off from their favorite online game has come to exemplify an age of angst and anger. The climax scene is so heartfelt it has the effect of a bolt of thunder.

Movies for keeps

Love in a Puff

Pang Ho-Cheung captures the urban vibe in this quietly observant study of modern dating.

The free-flowing plot is a reflection of a new generation with its laissez-faire attitude and hard-to-define notions about love.

Movies for keeps

Honorable mention:

Avatar and Inception (pictured above) are not Chinese fare, yet their impact has gone beyond the film industry in China.

The former has set a new box-office record that may take years to be surpassed and along with it, a new standard for technical excellence and imagination.

The latter has kindled a public interest in dream interpretation, something Sigmund Freud never achieved on such a scale among the Chinese populace.

(China Daily 12/28/2010 page18)

[GeneChing]

It just had to be posted here.

China's Rise: The Kung Fu Film Version (http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/7654/chinas-rise-the-kung-fu-film-version)
Judah Grunstein | Bio | 25 Jan 2011

As a fundamental part of what I consider to be my parental duties, I've been broadening my son's already healthy exposure to kung fu movies over the past few months. And I'm repeatedly struck by how many insights they offer into the formative folklore that animates modern-day China. Like Westerns for America, they are heavy in caricatures and historic inaccuracies. But they also reflect, at times crudely and at others quite elegantly, Chinese culture's self-image and its view of the "other."

So as much as I found last week's bilateral summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao dramatically overblown -- both are coming off lousy years, and neither exercises as much influence over policy outcomes as the media coverage suggests -- I thought the calm after the storm would be a good time to offer up what I think of as the Kung Fu Film Version of China's Rise.

First up is the Bruce Lee classic, "Fists of Fury," which, for anyone unfamiliar with China's colonial past, gives a good idea of the degree to which the humiliations of the foreign concession period remain present in the modern collective imagination. In the film, the Japanese function as the hated occupier/oppressor in concession-period Shanghai. But the nature of the concession arrangement was such that it left plenty of resentment to go around. Unlike other countries, which experienced the oppression and humiliation of colonial occupation at the hands of one Western colonial power, China was partially partitioned among them all. What's more, its history of being occupied predates Western colonialism, with classics like "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" already dealing with the Manchu occupation. Many Americans don't realize that China's insistence on sovereignty and the ability to defend it -- i.e., its current military modernization program -- is driven not just by a desire to avoid accountability on its human rights record, but also by a centuries-long chip on its shoulder.

Similar themes are treated in Jet Li's "Once Upon a Time in China," with the bad guy in this case represented by an American entrepreneur engaged in what amounts to human-trafficking of Chinese laborers for the construction of the railroads. The movie obliquely references the Chinese contribution to and underlying resentment of America's own rise. But its major theme is the country's introduction to modernism, and the complicated relationship that results. Jet Li's character is both a kung fu master and a practitioner of classical Chinese medicine, and the film protrays the sophistication of both. Nevertheless, the disdain with which Li initially greets such modern artefacts as the camera and the pants suit, brought back to China by Westernized Chinese, soon gives way to curiosity. By film's end, though Li emerges victorious, he is confronted with the tragic conclusion that the virtuosity of Chinese culture is no match for the brute force of Western guns. The solution -- as reflected by the contemporary Chinese approach to modernization but especially to military modernization -- is the famous "Chinese characteristics": the power of modern technology grafted onto the principles of classical Chinese strategic thinking. So area denial instead of forward positioning, and minimal nuclear deterrence instead of massive arsenals.

The third film that struck me as being very relevant these days is "Hero," also with Jet Li. Besides a gripping story structure and fight scenes that integrate the fantastic without indulging in the cartoonish (the flaw that most purists will find with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), the film also illustrates Chinese conceptions of the trade-off between freedom and stability, and the delicate balance between concentrated power and tyranny. I won't go into any more detail, because it really is a film where the first viewing should be without spoilers, but suffice it to say that it reinforces a theme that Thomas P.M. Barnett frequently references -- namely, that China will democratize on China's schedule, not on America's.

Finally, there's John Woo's recent magnum opus,"Red Cliff," whose French title is the more-accurate, "The Three Kingdoms." I wrote about it when I first saw it in the theater almost two years ago, in the context of American hubris in Iraq. It's essentially the story of how asymmetric tactics and classical strategies defeat a massively superior force equipped with more advanced firepower. At the time, I argued that it was a juxtaposition of America, post-Iraq, to America, pre-Iraq: the urge to empire against the defense of liberty. But my thinking today is that it reflects an unexplored alternative narrative to China's rise. The dominant narrative is that China's rise represents the emergence of a rival to the U.S. for global hegemony in the post-Cold War world order as conceived of by American strategists. By this thinking, the goal is to integrate China into the global governance system so that it becomes a "good citizen," ready to take up the security and stability responsibilities incumbent upon a hegemon. But "Red Cliff" suggests an alternative reading, whereby China is not interested in being a hegemon, but rather simply wants to pursue its national interests free from American and Western tutelage.

That's actually reassuring, in the sense that it removes the kind of head-to-head rivalry that increasingly frames most American coverage of China's rise. But it's actually a bit more worrisome if you believe that America is in decline, and that the increasingly multipolar world order depends on the multilateral global governance system -- backed up by a global hegemon willing to enforce its rule sets -- to keep from falling into utter chaos.

[GeneChing]

Check out my January February 2011 (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=936) Chollywood Rising column and compare.

As Its Box Office Booms, Chinese Cinema Makes a 3-D Push (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2044888,00.html)
By Hillary Brenhouse Monday, Jan. 31, 2011

In the thick of a classical revival, when China's literati returned fawningly to ancient prose, the folk epic Journey to the West was published in the vernacular of the country's streets and market stalls. It was the 16th century, and so uneasy was the novel's author at having written it, as one modern scholar put it, "in the vulgar tongue" that he chose anonymity. In the few hundred years since, the Chinese masterwork has been adapted for theater, television and the big screen, including a particularly grandiose, costly new film to be released in 2012. The movie will appear in the contemporary language of the people: 3-D.

China is in the throes of a cinematic growth spurt. Last year, box-office takings in the Middle Kingdom swelled 64% to reach an all-time high of $1.5 billion. At the source of the surge was James Cameron's sci-fi spectacular Avatar, which raked up over $205 million in China, or just under 10% of its global gross — a record for the country. The enormous success of the import has spurred on a burgeoning domestic industry. China rolled out 526 pictures last year — up 15% from 2009 — rendering it the third largest maker of movies after Bollywood and Hollywood. The standard for Chinese blockbusters has also shot up; this month Let the Bullets Fly became, with a haul of over $100 million, the most profitable homegrown film in the nation's history.

The elements have aligned such that the development of China's 3-D movie market is rushing alongside its box-office boom. It's a fortunate confluence: as multiplexes are springing up in a dizzying infrastructure expansion, new cinematic technology and investor wealth are streaming in. It takes less than $60,000 to make 3-D-capable digital-projection systems of the kind China is now building. "Show one Avatar and you've made that sum back," says Hong Kong film producer and distributor Nansun Shi. In places with far longer cinematic traditions, retrofitting old theaters has been that much more pricey and time-consuming. China's Film Bureau reported in January that the country erected 313 theaters and 1,533 screens in 2010 for a total of over 6,200 screens. About 80% of those are digital and so far 1,100 of them 3-D-enabled, a number second only to the 6,000 or so 3-D screens in the U.S. Steeply priced 3-D tickets have, naturally, helped widen sales. But wider film sales — or rather the profusion of movie-house shrines being built to them — have also fueled the rise of 3-D.

It is a cultural moment — and a commercial opportunity — not to be misspent. As Yu Dong, chief executive of leading Chinese production company Bona Film Group, lamented at June's Shanghai International Film Festival, "China has created a superhighway for 3-D films, but has so far left the lanes open only to Hollywood studios." One of the most highly attended seminars at that gathering considered how local filmmakers might respond to Avatar's overwhelming achievement. Not so long ago, audiences in China had to be briefed on how to wear their 3-D glasses. Now moviemakers are scrambling to deliver three-dimensional images to a nation delighting in its own modernity.

But China's Avatar, should a domestic effort match that movie's success, will not look like Cameron's. As Shi says, "We don't do science fiction." Even when the packaging is of the cutting edge, Chinese pictures heave with history. Right now filming in a wintry Beijing, the $50 million 3-D feature Monkey King, by Hong Kong director Soi Cheang and featuring Chow Yun-fat, is based on an episode from that 16th century fable Journey to the West. The story is of a Chinese Buddhist monk sent, with a supernatural primate and other companions, to India in quest of religious scriptures. In a separate effort, Shi and her husband, the Hong Kong director Tsui Hark, are now shooting Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, a 3-D film starring Jet Li that is a remake of a martial-arts movie set in the Ming Dynasty. A new 3-D animation for release in July will pit an ancient rabbit in tai chi slippers against — what else? — a kung fu panda.

Still, for all their nationalist vigor, these vast-budget ventures are reliant on foreign help. Local production teams are as yet unprepared to go it alone and, by Tsinghua University cinema scholar Yin Hong's estimate, will not arrive at America's current technological standards for another 10 years. "The 3-D generation is here," he says. "China is not ready, but we have to cope." Monkey King has imported the whole of Hollywood's tech force: for 3-D and IMAX effects, it will employ Avatar's production crew, and for special effects, the same Weta Workshop that enlivened the Lord of the Rings trilogy. "Not enough people in China are trained in 3-D and we don't have the experience to make a movie of Hollywood quality," says director Cheang. "For us, this is just the beginning. But in this market, you have to move fast."

Local filmmakers are hoping to learn from the hired help to imbue their movies with that immersive, Avatar-esque quality that is so well suited to China's majestic period pieces. Now is as crucial a time as any: in mid-March, by a World Trade Organization ruling, China will further open its film market to foreign flicks and a wave of fresh competition. "It's not about the money," Shi says of the country's cinematic belatedness. "It's about a knowledge base that cannot be built up overnight. In America, the role of film has been completely different than it has been here." In other words, now that China speaks the language, it has quite a lot of reading to do.
Actually, the 3D push is pretty obvious for anyone watching Chollywood now, so I'm not accusing Brenhouse of plagiary at all. If anything, I'm just boasting about being ahead of TIME on this one. It's not often I can say that. Actually, it's never happened before. Subscribe now (http://www.martialartsmart.com/19341.html) and get a jump on TIME. I'm just sayin.... ;)

[GeneChing]

I was wondering how I missed this and then I saw the publication date.


On The Cover/Top Stories
A New Studio System (http://www.forbes.com/global/2011/0214/companies-mayer-warner-qin-hong-movie-boss.html)
Gady Epstein, 02.03.11, 06:00 PM EST
Forbes Asia Magazine dated February 14, 2011
Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner had the right idea in prewar Hollywood, thinks Qin Hong of Beijing.

In 2006 the young and not-yet-renowned director Lu Chuan took his idea for an ambitious epic about the Japanese massacre at Nanjing, already rejected by a major Chinese studio, to a young, unknown film producer who, as one of the producer's own friends chided him, "didn't know anything about movies." Qin Hong, then 35, had taken the helm of Stellar Megamedia Group, a moneylosing company whose listed Hong Kong arm was on the verge of liquidation, selling off assets to stay afloat.

It didn't seem like a good time to take a big gamble on a movie--especially one that could run afoul of history-sensitive censors, that would be shot in black-and-white and that would ultimately require a budget of $10 million. All in an immature movie market with a shortage of quality cinemas, where $10 million in total box office qualified as a certifiable hit, far short of what Qin would need to make his money back on Lu's film.

Did Qin want to take that big a risk? He couldn't get his money in fast enough. "He called me, he said he finished the whole script in one night and he decided to make this movie," Lu says. "He gave me the money without a contract. That really touched me. Without a contract, without anything, he gives me the money."

City of Life and Death went on to become one of China's top-grossing films of 2009, with $26 million in receipts, making Lu a star director and catapulting lead-investor Qin into his next role, Hollywood-style movie mogul, at just the right moment. For the last 18 months Qin has been buying up movie theaters, signing stars and directors to his in-house agency, and making movies with his contracted talent to show in his theaters. He is in a costly race with private rivals and with the government's vaunted China Film Group to integrate vertically like Hollywood in the 1930s. The valuable prize at stake is China's suddenly lucrative box office in the 2010s.

The nation known internationally for movie piracy is entering its own golden age of cinema-going: Box office receipts in China grew an astounding 64% in 2010 to $1.5 billion, on top of more than 40% growth the year before. That is still far behind the $11 billion collected in the U.S. and Canada last year, but China could surpass the number two and three markets, Japan ($2.7 billion in 2010) and India (estimated $2.2 billion), by 2012. In January the Chinese Western Let the Bullets Fly became the top-grossing domestic film ever, with more than $100 million in ticket sales. The country has more than 6,000 movie screens and is on its way to 20,000, adding new screens at the rate of 4 per day, mostly digital and many of them 3-D-capable, in modern multiplexes that hardly could be found in China a decade ago. Industry predictions of 40% annual growth for the next five years would have China potentially rivaling the U.S. for box office supremacy by the end of the decade.

"Nobody could have guessed where we are today five years ago," says Peter Chan, a star Hong Kong director who is working with Stellar to market his films in China, including the big-budget martial arts film Swordsmen, due out later this year. How big can the market get? "Anything is possible. I think it's beyond anybody's imagination, because we're actually talking about the tip of the iceberg right now."

Rising up to profit from this is a Beijing version of Hollywood's infamous studio system, when the Big Five studios owned not only their movies, but also the talent that made them and the theaters that showed them, before a 1948 Supreme Court decision broke up their oligopoly. Sixty years later Qin and his competitors believe a sharp-elbowed campaign of vertical integration will be necessary to survive in what Qin calls China's "competitive monopoly" system. (Japan also developed integrated studios, in Toho and Shochiku.)

"Lots of people have seen the future potential of the film market, but the competition is fierce," Qin says. His personality seems made for the task. Stocky in build, open-faced with semi-rimless glasses, Qin compensates for his unassuming appearance and lack of a film background with a serious demeanor, a steady diet of Marlboro cigarettes and a Hollywood-size ego.

From his office in downtown Beijing, Qin coolly runs down the weaknesses of his formidable competitors: Blockbuster-making studio and talent agency Huayi Brothers, whose film Aftershock took in an estimated $100 million last year, is making a very late and modest entry into the cinema-operating business; the leading non-state-owned distributor Bona Film Group, which had a lackluster U.S. IPO in December, has quickly accelerated its production of movies but must play catch-up to sign talent and add theaters; and real estate giant Dalian Wanda Group, though positioned to remain the dominant owner-operator of cinemas, is starting from close to zero in production and talent.
continued next post

[GeneChing]

Page 2 of 3 (http://www.forbes.com/global/2011/0214/companies-mayer-warner-qin-hong-movie-boss_2.html)

"Stellar is the one that's involved in all parts of the business," Qin says, and he plans to take on each competitor in its area of strength, with increased recruitment of talent to build an agency to challenge Huayi Brothers' much larger roster, and a planned $135 million invested in 18 to 30 films over the next three years.

The costly, risky but potentially most lucrative cornerstone of Qin's strategy is the expansion of movie theaters, which keep half of the box office (minus a chunk for their landlords), providing the crucial cash flow needed to build Beijing's studio system, as movie productions still often end up in the red. Theaters also take half the gate on foreign movies like Avatar, which smashed all domestic competitors with more than $200 million in ticket sales in China. Stellar, which had only 3 theaters as of July 2009, now operates 22 cinemas with 135 screens, making Qin's the seventh-largest movie theater company in China, according to Shanghai cinema consultancy Artisan Gateway. Industry leader Wanda, led by billionaire Wang Jianlin, has 71 cinemas and a big advantage for expansion with its own mall developments in China, but Qin plans to have more than 70 theaters by year's end, 120 in 2012 and 200 cinemas with 1,500 screens by the end of 2013, Qin says, which he hopes will put Stellar second behind Wanda.

To pay for all this, Stellar's Hong Kong-listed affiliate SMI Corp. has raised $100 million through several rounds of sales of shares and convertible notes, and will seek an additional $65 million to $130 million in a third round this year, Qin says, before raising more cash with a planned U.S. listing by next year. Qin's older brother, Qin Hui, owns 66% of SMI--a stake worth $208 million that Qin Hong says the brothers share, along with real estate and other assets that he declines to put a price tag on but says are roughly as valuable as their SMI stake. In earlier days in Beijing, where the brothers were raised, Qin Hong took on more low-key work in the brothers' telecommunications business, while Qin Hui built some of the brothers' early fortune on a Beijing nightclub that has since been shut down by authorities. The elder Qin has receded into the background in recent years after cooperating with investigators in two high-profile corruption cases, but his stamp on the company remains. Some of Qin Hui's unlisted assets are, according to SMI's securities filings, the very movie theaters that the listed SMI has been buying, as the Qins established a cinema-acquisition pipeline.

"In the next three to five years we plan to build even more theaters, to invest in even more films, to make Stellar one of the largest movie companies in China." Qin breaks into a rare, almost imperceptible smile as he modifies his bluster, "The largest private movie business."

The big question mark in the growth of not just media but also any industry in China is the government and its state-owned champions, whose efforts to encroach on, acquire, squeeze out or simply shut down private players come under an intimidating banner: guo jin min tui, "the state advances, the private sector retreats." The biggest state-owned presence in movies, China Film Group, has its own plans for vertical integration, including the addition of dozens of cinemas and an eventual IPO, and has government muscle to make life difficult for competitors.

Stellar has a partnership with China Film in the nation's second-largest theatrical circuit, China Film Stellar, which delivers movies to more than 100 theaters for a small cut of the substantial box office, but it is unclear if the two will cooperate or part ways as their ambitions collide in the years ahead.

The government also aids domestic private players by keeping foreign competitors effectively leashed with strict regulations on film production, importation, distribution and exhibition. Some of these rules are supposed to loosen up as soon as this year under a hard-fought WTO case, but Beijing can be expected to do its best to limit Hollywood's incursions.

In 2002 Warner Brothers began opening multiplex cinemas with some success until the government changed the rules on foreign ownership, leading to Warner's exiting the market in 2006. Along the way, the Time Warner unit helped develop a market that lacked multiplexes. Audience interest and especially content had been lacking in the previous two decades, when the government not only tightly capped film imports but also channeled its entertainment and propaganda investments into television broadcasting, which could reach all homes regardless of income, without a massive venue build-out. Now both state-owned and private companies are building out theaters, bidding up leases in a manner that could threaten the overleveraged.

Ultimately the fuel for Stellar's long-term expansion must come from the box office receipts at its own theaters. China's box office gross could reach $7 billion by 2015, and Qin's goal is to take in 10% of that from Stellar-operated theaters--compared with the 2.6%, or $40 million, Qin says his theaters collected in 2010. continued next post

[GeneChing]

from previous two posts - this is the kicker as it names the moguls.


Page 3 of 3 (http://www.forbes.com/global/2011/0214/companies-mayer-warner-qin-hong-movie-boss_3.html)

Last year Stellar had the 10th- and 16th-highest-grossing theaters in China, according to Artisan Gateway figures, with combined box office receipts of nearly $17 million, and Qin's newest theaters are moving quickly up the rankings. One of them in Beijing was number one nationally in December, says consultancy EntGroup. SMI added four more theaters in January. "We know if we rest, we may be swallowed by others," Qin says. Five years after City of Life and Death he is still rushing to put his money into the movies.

The Moguls

Huayi Brothers

Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei have a talent agency and the services of blockbuster director Feng Xiaogang, whose earthquake drama Aftershock took in $100 million at the box office in 2010, the record-holder for a domestic film until Let the Bullets Fly passed it in January. Huayi Brothers, which went public in 2009, is valued at more than $1 billion.

Bona Film Group

Yu Dong runs the leading non-state-owned film distributor and has good relations with his former employer, state-owned China Film Group. He owns a small number of theaters but has accelerated his movie production line. Bona's big-budget martial arts epic The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, starring Jet Li, is due out at the end of this year.

Stellar

Qin Hong, 39-year-old chairman of Stellar Megamedia Group and its Hong Kong-listed affiliate SMI Corp., has more theaters than any of the other hitmaking studios. He works with famed director Chen Kaige and up-and-coming star director Lu Chuan, whose City of Life and Death earned $26 million in 2009.

China Film Group

Han Sanping is the government's godfather of Chinese movies. China Film Group does not have a track record of producing hits, but the other moguls seek out producing partnerships with the biggest state-owned player. Huayi's Aftershock, Bona's The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and Stellar's City of Life and Death all share a co-producer in China Film Group.

Dalian Wanda Group

Wang Jianlin, billionaire chairman of China's commercial-property colossus, has the most movie screens in China. His company has a cinema division that is expected to maintain the lead in theaters and box office receipts as the national box office grows to $7 billion in 2015, but the company has a long way to go to catch up in producing movies.

[GeneChing]

There's a lot of talk of China, but no Oscar contenders.

Live Academy Awards Broadcast Unseen by One of Hollywood's Biggest Markets: China (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/live-academy-awards-broadcast-unseen-162366)
9:56 AM 2/28/2011 by Jonathan Landreth

BEIJING – Chinese director Zhang Yimou probably smiled at Christian Bale’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar win.

While the prize could brighten the Chinese director’s decision to cast the English actor in his next picture -- a Nanjing Massacre drama the two were shooting together just days ago in China -- Bale’s win for The Fighter, which went unreleased here, was virtually unnoticed across the nation.

So, too, were the Oscars as a whole, since watching the 83rd Academy Awards half a world away from Hollywood proved a challenge even for cinephiles dedicated enough to try to glimpse a bit of the Oscar glamour via pirated TV or illegal website.

Star Movies Hong Kong’s licensed live coverage, replete with commentators speaking from what appeared to be a fancy brunch, reached luxury hotels in China, but average Chinese tuning in from home 16 hours ahead of L.A. could see only the red carpet festivities and no more, on Web portals and video sharing sites.

To see the awards ceremony, hosted by actors James Franco and Anne Hathaway -- both relative unknowns here – most Chinese viewers had to wait until 10:30pm for state-run China Central Television’s planned 90-minute edit, or turn to often unstable live Internet streams of U.S network ABC’s official all-English broadcast, pirated from all over as one Ohio storm warning during an illegal webcast revealed.

Although Hollywood movies on average grossed more per title in China in 2010 than their homegrown competitors, only two of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture screened here last year, due partly to government limits on film imports. Toy Story 3 was China’s 26th most successful film of the year and Inception rose to the No. 4 spot, selling tickets totaling $68.2 million.

No matter how much the business of Hollywood and China are intertwined these days – Avatar grossed $204 million here, more than anywhere else outside the U.S.– the lack of a widely available live Oscar broadcast here reflects the distance that remains between the two film cultures, one veteran and one upstart.

Chinese film critic Raymond Zhou told CCTV that the Academy is a decidedly U.S.-oriented institution that falls down in its international film selection process.

“The Oscars are not the Olympics of the film industry,” said Zhou, who allowed that just as the Academy’s mission seems too narrow, neither does China’s Film Bureau grasp the subtleties of the criteria for a Best Foreign Language Film nomination.

Only two citizens of the People's Republic of China have ever won Academy Awards, both composers. Su Cong shared with Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Byrne for Best Original Score of The Last Emperor in 1987. Tan Dun won for the score of the 2000 Hong Kong-China co-production Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

“We’re either sending movies that are too commercial or too ideology-driven,” Zhou said. China’s 2010 submission, Aftershock, Feng Xiaogang’s blockbuster, was disliked by some American critics for appearing to try to pack too much message into a film about the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. “The secret is to submit films that can be loved by the target audience, the Oscar voters,” Zhou said.

Meanwhile, many Chinese, like many Americans, seem more interested in the culture of celebrity surrounding the Oscars than they do in the filmmaking the awards are supposed to celebrate.

Chinese web portal Tencent partnered with L.A.-based Metan Entertainment to feature two segments of two to five minutes each day for a week in the run up to the Oscars, focusing on subjects such as Rodeo Drive shopping for Oscar Night fashions, and what celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck would cook for Academy guests.

Metan CEO Larry Namer, founder of E! Television, says that gauging who in Hollywood is famous in China proved an initial challenge for the producers of the weekly entertainment industry show called Hello Hollywood Metan now syndicates to 54 mostly second-tier cities across China.

“The people who get ignored in Hollywood on Oscar night, the TV people like Wentworth Miller, have huge value in China,” said Namer, referring to the star of Fox TV’s Prison Break, a widely pirated and wildly popular show here over the last several years.

Miller’s famous enough in China to have driven a delayed Chinese theatrical release of Resident Evil: Afterlife to gross a respectable $21.9 million, more than the $17.8 million grossed by Toy Story 3’s own delayed release.

The one 2010 Oscar-nominated film made in China about a Chinese subject didn’t win. The Warriors of Qiugang was a short subject documentary by Ruby Yang, a Hong Kong-born Chinese, and American Thomas Lennon. The film about Chinese crusaders against environmental degradation apparently didn’t live up to the pair’s earlier China AIDS documentary, which won the Oscar in 2007.

That film, The Children of Yingzhou District, never screened widely in China, where censors are careful not to approve films deemed threatening to the stability of the one-party government. But Zhou said the Ministry of Health embraced Yang even if many media authorities did not. It remains to be seen if her latest work, three years in the making, will ever surface in theaters here.

Zhou said CCTV had abandoned efforts at live coverage of the Academy Awards ceremony last year with the nomination of China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province, a short documentary about the 2008 earthquake.

Official Chinese news reports on the 2010 Oscars omitted mention of it and the two filmmakers, Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill, told The New York Times China refused to give them visas to return.


The Chinese Film Industry is Set to Surpass North America’s (http://www.investmentu.com/2011/March/chinese-film-industry.html)
by Tony D’Altorio, Investment U Research
Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Forget the Oscars… Movie lovers and investors alike should take note of the Chinese film industry instead.

Back in January, China’s cinematic market produced the largest grossing domestic film ever – Let the Bullets Fly – a western, that raked in over $100 million in ticket sales.

Despite the rise of piracy over the last few years, the cinematic culture in China is finally looking up.

For years, it has suffered from poor films, poor movie theaters and a thereby natural lack of consumer interest. But film companies now expect good things ahead, thanks in part to China’s rapidly growing middle class.

And heavy investments into new cinemas certainly don’t hurt either…

The Silver Screen Finds Gold in China

It’s not Hollywood yet, but China’s overall box-office receipts grew 40% in 2009. They rose the same last year as well, rising to $1.5 billion.

China now has over 6,200 movie screens, after adding 1,500 in a single year. That number keeps on growing, with about 3 screens added per day, a faster pace than anywhere else.

Within five years, the country should have 20,000 screens, more than triple its current total. And unlike in the U.S., most of the new screens are digital and 3-D capable.

Box-office revenues should surpass Japan and India, the second and third largest markets, by the end of 2012. And they could grow to $7 billion by 2015.

That can’t yet compare to North America’s 2010 total of $11 billion. But if it continues to grow 40% annually, China’s cinematic market will surpass all of that by the end of the decade.

Tony Adamson, marketing head of DLP – the digital cinema technology arm of Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) puts its sheer size into perspective. He says, “China could have as many as 100,000 screens and it would not be over-screened.”

That projection looks good to Chinese movie studios and theater chains. And North American-based cinema equipment and technology firms like it too.

Investing in China’s Film Industry Boom

China’s movie-going boom opens up several noteworthy investment opportunities…

* For one, investors can buy into equipment makers that sell their wares there. That group includes RealD (NYSE: RLD), the force behind 3D technology’s growing popularity.
* There’s also small-cap Ballantyne Strong (AMEX: BTN), which resells digital cinema projectors and manufactures movie screens and other equipment. Its biggest customer is state-owned China Film Group’s cinema-building arm, China Film China Investment.
* Imax (NYSE: IMAX), the large-format motion pictures and systems specialist, presents another opportunity. It plans to build 96 cinemas in China this year, up from an original 15. Most of that growth will be in smaller Chinese cities, some of which don’t have cinemas yet. Most industry insiders expect cinema construction to spread like wildfire in those areas.

And the rate of urbanization and availability of digital projection seem to agree.

Chinese Film Industry Restrictions Still Allow Profits

The Chinese government only allows 20 foreign films to show per year. And only two state-owned companies control that quota.

That means the best way to play the situation is through Chinese film company Bona Film Group ADR (Nasdaq: BONA).

Bona started out in film distribution, then branched into film production. Today, it is one of China’s largest non-state film companies, along with Enlight Pictures and Huayi Brothers Media Corporation.

Bona often teams with non-mainland partners, often from Hong Kong, in its productions. That’s certainly true of The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, which stars Jet Li and will release at the end of the year.

And expect China’s film industry to fly high as time moves on. This investment looks like it’s going to be a blockbuster.

[GeneChing]

* February 28, 2011, 9:51 PM HKT
China Vies for its Own Hollywood (http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/02/28/china-vies-for-its-own-hollywood/)
By Jason Chow

The Chinese government recently announced an ambitious plan to more than double the size of its entertainment and other cultural industries in the next five years — see the story here by the WSJ’s Laurie Burkitt – adding more weight to the fight between Hollywood and China for the country’s entertainment dollars.

The plan focuses on the development of film and television production in China, a strategy designed to stimulate the domestic industry as well as increase China’s cultural sway throughout the world. Already, Chinese film studios produced 15% more films in 2010 compared with the year before, according to media research firm EntGroup Inc. Those domestic films reaped $532 million overseas in box office receipts last year, according to the government.

Hollywood is undoubtedly watching closely. China allows only 20 foreign movies to be screened in the country’s theaters each year — a system that rankles U.S. studios who want a bigger chunk of this budding moviegoing market. The issue has gone all the way to the World Trade Organization, which has demanded that China open up its film market to a higher number of foreign films. China will address the WTO on the issue this month, and some observers say the country will acquiesce and allow more foreign access.

What makes Hollywood salivate is the vast growth of the Chinese market. Last week, the Motion Picture Association of America said global revenue hit a record $31.8 billion in 2010, up 8% from the year before. The biggest driver? Ticket receipts in China: 2010 box office sales totaled more than $1.5 billion, a sixfold increase in five years. “Avatar” was the biggest box-office winner, earning $204 million in 2010. Meanwhile in the U.S., ticket sales were flat for the year.

Of course, as we reported in late October, the uptick in ticket sales in China was due less to more moviegoers than to ticket prices: “The number of filmgoers remains steady at 200 million, almost the same year-over-year,” according to the story. “Tickets are just getting more expensive, says Mao Yu, vice director of the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, which tracks the country’s box office. In China, an Imax ticket costs as much as 150 yuan (roughly $22.50). The price of a regular ticket usually falls between 30 and 40 yuan. And as Imax expands in China, it looks like prices will continue to climb.”

Last week, Imax announced plans to have more than 300 theaters in Greater China in five years, up from about 100 as of last month. Already, China is the company’s second-largest market.

Ultimately, the Chinese government hopes that by becoming a major player in the entertainment industry, it can sell a softer image of the country overseas. How this goal will play out against the country’s censorship rules remains to be seen. So far, China’s central government hasn’t revealed any intentions to relax its grip over its control on content. And of course, little was said about the piracy issue that plagues the country’s entertainment industry.
I gotta figure a way to invest in this beyond just writing a column for the mag on it. :rolleyes:

[Shaolinlueb]

I'm gonna add my 2 cents. i like the HK films from the 80's and 90's better then i liked the ones from the 2000's. I thought Hong Kong was already the Hollywood of China?

[GeneChing]

@Shaolinlueb, I feel ya, but there's this new movement with Chinese film that's emerging from China's growing middle class. Read over some of the articles posted on this thread and you'll see why it's more relevant now than ever.


China through the Lense: National Film Museum (http://english.cri.cn/6566/2011/03/04/902s624174.htm)
2011-03-04 18:04:19 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Duan Xuelian
Chinese films are more than just kungfu and period dramas, and before Jackie Chan, Andy Lau and Ge You, there were scores of other stars that brought memorable stories alive on screen.

http://english.cri.cn/mmsource/images/2011/03/04/bf67a6039aaa43e6aeb45ecf08543242.jpg
There are about 4,300 photos on display in the China National Film Museum's exhibition halls, illustrating Chinese film and its history. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]
http://english.cri.cn/mmsource/images/2011/03/04/997b9c1e88704d84966d067aa4dc4009.jpg
One exhibition hall features life-size recreations of iconic Chinese film characters. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]

By Angela Pruszenski

Chinese films are more than just kungfu and period dramas, and before Jackie Chan, Andy Lau and Ge You, there were scores of other stars that brought memorable stories alive on screen.

The 38,000 square meter China National Film Museum pays tribute to China's long and colorful movie-making history and reveals some secrets of film production.

The world's love affair with films began in 1895 when the Brothers Lumiere debuted their 50 second motion picture showing a busy French train station at the Grand Cafe in Paris. Audiences around the world were enthralled with the new form of entertainment, and the industry exploded. China first experimented with movie-making in 1905 with the production of a 3 minute Peking Opera short, "Ding Jun Shan," or "Conquering Jun Mountain."

Half of the museum's 20 exhibition halls are dedicated to illustrating the history of Chinese film, with a special hall dedicated to the film industries of Macao, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Much of the story is illustrated using old pictures of movie stars and film scenes, with about 4,300 stills in the entire museum.

Other displays include life-sized figures of actors or scenes, including a re-enactment of the first film screening and China's first movie production. One of the more unique items is director and Chinese cinema pioneer Zheng Zhengqiu's old desk, which may remind visitors of the desks for very early Hollywood writers. "The exhibition about Chinese film history is very popular, especially among seniors because they grew up watching old Chinese films. Currently, only our museum has information of these old films," Gu Liang, an interpreter and tour guide at the museum explained.

The other half of the exhibition halls delve into the behind-the-scenes tricks of film production. And entire set created to look like the Chinese countryside is on display, and production equipment visually creates different times of day, along with rain and snow. Visitors can watch all these changes take place from a balcony. Other models show various early cinema camera tricks, such as reverse-action shots and using graphics on a piece of glass to simulate difficult to build sets.



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A visitor examines movie photos in the first floor of the China National Film Museum. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]
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The China Nation Film Museum's IMAX theatre has a screen 27 meters wide and 21 meters high. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]

Visitors can get in on the fun here; aside from simply looking at displays about film-making, there are two blue-screen scenarios to try. One scene involves visitors sitting on a motorbike surrounded by a blue set, while the screen shows them furiously trying to outrun a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The other allows visitors to sit on a magic carpet that moves and turns, while the screen replaces the blue set with aerial views of China's best scenery.

No film museum would be complete without a theater, and the China National Film Museum has plenty of those — three 35mm theatres, a digital projection hall, and a massive, 27 meter wide and 21 meter high IMAX theatre. "IMAX films use 70mm, offers a much higher resolution," according to Maggie Song, assistant director of the film museum's administration office.

Films are screened Tuesday-Sunday, and tend to attract large audiences. When the film Avatar debuted in IMAX, the theater managed to serve about 10,000 people in back-to-back showings.

The museum was founded in 2005 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Chinese film, and is the largest professional film museum in the world. ""When the museum was founded, a group of film experts and artists researched and collected these films and photos from China and all over the world." Maggie Song said of the museum's collections. The entrance to the museum features autographs of famous film stars and directors from all over the world, who attended the museum's opening.

Getting to the museum is a bit of a hike, with its location near the Airport Expressway in Beijing's northeastern part. However, visitors with enough time for the long commute will find the China National Film Museum, the world's largest professional film museum, well worth the visit for its vivid look at Chinese film history and a rare look at old techniques.

Logistics:
Address: 9 Nanying Lu, Chaoyang District
Hours: Tue-Sun 9am-4.30pm (last entry 4pm)
Admission: Free (bring passport or ID card), movie ticket prices vary
Phone: 6431 9548

http://english.cri.cn/mmsource/images/2011/03/04/36de84821f1141bb8e73afe1a2917a70.jpg
The production of the first Chinese movie, "Conquering Jun Mountain," is recreated in the museum. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]
http://english.cri.cn/mmsource/images/2011/03/04/2a5ee15d27d943c99b88621d696c9234.jpg
Visitors can try to outrun a T-rex using blue-screen techniques in one of the museum's interactive exhibits. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]

[GeneChing]

China is on a cinema-building binge (http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/06/business/la-fi-china-cinema-20110306)
The growth in movie theaters is frenetic, with plenty of room for expansion, but it's not clear how much that might help Hollywood.
March 06, 2011|By David Pierson, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Shengzhou, China-- —

LIGHTS, CAMERA, CHINA!
This is the first in a series of occasional reports on China's fast-growing film industry and the opportunities -- and challenges -- it presents for Hollywood.
Not long ago when Zhang Guomiao wanted to see a film, he'd head for the village square. There, itinerant cinema operators would unfurl a canvas screen, set up some static-filled speakers and show a grainy movie in the open air.

"We had to bring our own stools if we wanted to sit," said Zhang, 47, who remembered chickens clucking by his feet and neighbors talking loudly. "You couldn't hear much of the movie."

The cinema-building binge is powered in part by ideology. The Communist government is a major investor in film production, distribution and movie houses. Film is a way to strengthen state influence at home and export Chinese culture abroad.

Movies are "part of a country's soft power," said Han Sanping, the head of state-owned China Film Group.

Still, the main drivers are practical. Unlike in the U.S., where DVD sales can account for as much as 40% of a film's revenue, rampant piracy has forced studios here to depend almost exclusively on domestic box-office receipts. Bankrolling more pictures and boosting profits requires more screens.

Then there's boredom. As Chinese workers grow richer and have more leisure time, they're itching for something to do. The typical ticket costs about $5, slightly less than what many new college graduates earn per day. Still, Chinese movie fans have shown a willingness to pay a premium for better sound, a better picture and swanky venues to hang out with friends.

"There really wasn't much to do here" before the multiplex opened in Shengzhou, said Wang Jinjin, a 24-year-old employee at a local pharmaceutical company. Wang, who earns about $400 a month, said he's visited the theater three times within a few weeks, treating his girlfriend to a ticket, popcorn and bottled water each time. He particularly liked the special effects in Sony Pictures' horror sequel "Resident Evil: Afterlife."

Hollywood movies consistently draw big crowds here and capture upward of 40% of annual ticket sales. Warner Bros.' "Avatar" is the top-grossing film of all time in China, topping $200 million at the box office.

But just how much Hollywood will benefit from China's ambitious cinema expansion remains to be seen.

The Motion Picture Assn. of America has complained for years about strict government limits on the number of foreign films that can be shown in Chinese theaters, which in turn encourages piracy. Warner Bros., a pioneer in cineplex building in China, pulled out in 2006 when Beijing banned majority ownership of cinemas by foreign firms.

The U.S. scored a victory when the World Trade Organization ruled that China must end the government's monopoly on the distribution of imported books, movies and films by March 19. But that ruling said nothing about the film import quota, which remains intact for now.

In the meantime, Chinese movie studios are ramping up cinema construction and trying to boost the quality of homegrown films to keep patrons filling all those new seats. That's a tall order for an industry that churns out a lot more flops than blockbusters. Still, three Chinese productions — "Let the Bullets Fly," a gunslinging action comedy; "Aftershock," about the devastating 1976 Tangshan earthquake; and "If You Are the One 2," a romantic comedy sequel — were smash hits at the box office last year.

And despite Warner Bros.' quick exit from China, some foreign exhibitors see opportunity there. Imax Corp. of Canada plans to triple its presence in China to 300 theaters by 2016. South Korean-owned Lotte plans to have 70 screens in China by the end of the year.

Though about half the theaters in China have some degree of government ownership, the largest cinema developer is privately held Wanda Group, which has doubled its screens to 600 since 2008. With competition growing in China's biggest cities, exhibitors are looking to seize untapped markets in the country's backwaters.

In Shengzhou, a former agricultural center turned manufacturing hub, local authorities determined that the city was ripe for a modern multiplex. Aside from evening strolls, karaoke and card games, there wasn't much for workers to do in the city known as China's necktie capital.

So in 2009, Zhejiang Film Co., which is owned by the provincial government, turned to Pan Xiaming, one of its young managers, to secure a location and oversee construction. The son of tea and sugar-cane farmers, Pan, 28, started at China's fifth-largest cinema chain as a projectionist. The Shengzhou native is so passionate about film that he once traveled 80 miles to the tourist city of Hangzhou to watch "Avatar" in 3-D.

"The whole time I was in the theater, I kept imagining how great it would be to have this in my hometown," Pan said.

Situated in a busy shopping mall, near the city's most expensive town houses, Pan's cineplex — Shengzhou Time Movie World — was an instant success. Pictures including Disney-Pixar's "Toy Story 3" and "Aftershock" played to sold-out crowds on weekends after it opened in the summer.

"It's much better than watching movies off the Internet," said Wang Jiayi, a sporting-goods store clerk who has visited the cinema six times. "You can't feel it off a computer screen."

These days he visits a new seven-screen multiplex outfitted with plush seating, 3-D screens and popcorn imported from the U.S. The rice farmer went with friends to see the best-picture Academy Award nominee "Inception," marveling at the science-fiction thriller's special effects, throbbing soundtrack — and the clean cinema floors.
FOR THE RECORD:
Chinese cinemas: A March 6 article about China's fast-growing cinema industry said the movie "Avatar" was a Warner Bros. film. The movie was released by 20th Century Fox.
"The movie was very hard to understand, but the cinema was very comfortable," Zhang said. "As a farmer, I thought it was very luxurious."

Across China, millions of people like Zhang are experiencing modern cinemas for the first time. State-of-the-art theaters are replacing dilapidated movie houses not only in wealthy urban centers like Beijing and Shanghai but in outposts like Shengzhou in central Zhejiang province, which has grown into a bustling city of about 800,000.

Over the last four years, the number of screens in China has doubled to more than 6,200, a figure that's projected to double again by 2015. Box-office receipts hit a record $1.5 billion last year, according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

That's still well behind North America, where there are more than 40,000 screens and box-office revenue was $10.6 billion in 2010.Still, China is already considered the world's No. 4 movie market, behind only North America, the European Union and Japan. And with only one screen for every 220,000 Chinese residents, exhibitors have plenty of room to grow.

"China's cinema industry is practically going from two tin cans and string to an iPhone 4 in one fell swoop," said Rance Pow, president of Artisan Gateway, an entertainment consulting firm.

Pan met one family who watched three different movies in a single day. He even persuaded his parents to come. It was the first time they had ever seen a film in a cinema. They wept through a screening of "Aftershock."

"Many people were having their first experience in a cinema," said Pan, whose sober black suits can't disguise his boyish features. "A lot of our customers were in their 50s or older and haven't seen a movie on a big screen in 10 or 20 years. They realized things have changed a lot."

At first glance, Shengzhou Time Movie World could pass for any cineplex in a U.S. suburb. The familiar aroma of buttery popcorn wafts through a carpeted lobby. Movie times are displayed on a large digital screen above ticket clerks in Pepto-Bismol-colored uniforms. Theater seats feature cup holders for jumbo-sized servings of soda.

But alongside the Dove chocolate, Lay's potato chips and Haagen-Dazs ice-cream bars at the concession counter are packs of dried prunes, squid and smelt. Ushers have to remind some patrons to stub out their cigarettes in the smoke-free facility.

At an early-evening screening of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the differences between the Chinese and American moviegoing experiences were clear.

Viewers talked through the entire film, reading subtitles and gleefully sounding out the English dialogue whenever they could.

"Ah, I get it now, they all have magic," said one woman to her companion in an excited voice, some oversharing that carried to the other 50 patrons.

Cellphones rang incessantly. One woman answered her iPhone six times. Someone in the back hocked spit. Not once did anyone complain.

"After all," Pan said, "it's still a village."
I had a squid popsicle at a movie theater near Shaolin Temple once. It was peculiar tasting...

[GeneChing]

What happened to Chollywood? ******, do I have to change the name of my print column now? :rolleyes:

Can Hollywood serve China's one billion film-goers? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/09/china-hollywood-film-industry)

China is poised to become the world's second largest film market. But does it want to watch Hollywood films, or its own?

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The Heroes of Nanking, made in China starring Christian Bale, was made with international audiences in mind, says director Zhang Yimou

Po, the Kung Fu Panda, may look like an innocuous, chubby animal, but he could turn out to be the most devastating double agent on the world stage since Mata Hari shimmied her way to infamy in the first world war. Last week, the sequel to the Chinese-themed, US-made animation broke box-office records in China, taking 125m yuan (£11m) in its opening weekend. It's great news for its creators at DreamWorks, mildly irritating news for Chinese animators and intriguing news for the rest of the cinemagoing world, coming just as a newly confident China squares up to the original moviemaking superpower.

In Hollywood, movies that borrow far-eastern exoticism to entertain western audiences are as old as Mann's Chinese Theatre – and usually as authentically Chinese. Kung fu movies have been popular in the west since the 70s, and Hong Kong cinema gained its own foothold when director John Woo exported his signature "gun fu" to Hollywood with The Killer in 1989, following in person four years later

What is new, however, is the tempting prospect of more than a billion Avatar-appreciating movie fans in mainland China. Already the world's second largest economy, China is set to overtake Japan and become the second largest cinema market after the US. According to the predictions of the China Film Producers' Association, by 2015 China will have built more than 7,000 new cinemas, and have annual box-office receipts of up to £3.7bn – which would explain Hollywood's increasingly unsubtle efforts to woo Chinese audiences. Last year's remake of The Karate Kid replaced Japanese karate with Chinese kung fu and a California setting for a Beijing location shoot. Seth Rogen's version of The Green Hornet passed over more obvious casting choices for the role of the sidekick Kato in favour of Jay Chou, who was little-known in the west, but a bankable heartthrob in the far east.

Like a suitor spurned, in 2007 the US also lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organisation over China's protectionist film distribution practices. This March's decision in the US's favour prompted speculation over whether China would relax the strict quota system for the release of foreign films. And if it did, how would that affect local film-makers? It seems the Chinese film industry has responded by remembering a favourite teaching of ancient military philosopher Sun Tzu: attack is the best form of defence.

This month, Legend of a Rabbit will open in China, the first release from a 4.5bn yuan (£420m) animation facility developed by the Chinese state as – at least in part – a response to the success of the first Kung Fu Panda film. As a challenger to the big Hollywood studios, it will join Hengdian World Studios in Zhejiang province, which since the mid-1990s has steadily grown to become the world's largest outdoor film studio. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero (2002) and the American martial arts film The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) all made use of the complex's historical sets, which include a full-scale replica of the Forbidden City. To call it "Chinawood" would seem a tad reductive.

Why is the Chinese government investing so generously in cinema? As Hollywood's international reach proves, a healthy film industry extending a nation's cultural reach can be as useful to a nascent superpower as any number of nuclear warheads. Or, from a perspective less tinged with cold war nostalgia, China's economic prosperity affords it the opportunity to present its own image to the world, unmediated by Hollywood.

Not that it will be easy. "The western perceptions of China as an ageless rural country with a repressive 'red' regime remain a difficult obstacle for Chinese filmmakers – other than by designing these fantastic tales of martial arts set in ancient China," says Yingjin Zhang, author of A Companion to Chinese Cinema. Raymond Zhou, a film critic and columnist for the China Daily newspaper, agrees that using cinema to introduce the real China to the rest of the world may present some difficulties. "Traditional Chinese values are mainly non-confrontational and do not make good movies," he says. "It'll take a genius to tell a quintessential Chinese story on screen and be successful all over the world."

Could that genius be Zhang Yimou? A member of the first generation of directors to graduate from the reopened Beijing Film Academy following the Cultural Revolution, he is the most internationally successful director to emerge from mainland China, and along with Ang Lee, from Taiwan, among the most important Chinese-language directors working today. His 2002 film Hero opened at No 1 in the US box office, making it the second-highest grossing foreign-language film in US history (after Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ) while his 2004 followup House of Flying Daggers grossed a healthy $93m (£56m) worldwide.

Yet even a director of Zhang's standing has found that foreign interest dwindles when he strays too far from the martial arts (wuxia) formula. A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, Zhang's Gansu province-set remake of the Coen Brothers' 1984 film Blood Simple, made only a miniscule proportion of Hero's $53m (£32m) box office and went straight to DVD in this country. Zhang chalks this up to cultural differences. "It's black humour and I think that has many local facets, like the language, the way they talk, the gestures and so on. So it's normal that people [in the US] don't get much of it. It didn't really bother me."

Expectations are much higher for Zhang's latest film, The Heroes of Nanking, which is scheduled to wrap this week. A big-budget historical drama about the 1937 massacre of Chinese citizens by Japanese troops, it is no wuxia spectacular, but it does benefit from the presence of a western star in Christian Bale. Fresh from his Oscar win for The Fighter, Bale plays an American priest who helps hundreds of civilians escape death. The Dark Knight is yet to open in China (Warner Bros cited "cultural sensitivities"), but Bale has a following among young Chinese thanks to the country's vigorous trade in pirate DVDs, which have long been a key way for Chinese viewers to see foreign films.

Zhang says The Heroes of Nanking was made with international audiences in mind. "First of all, the story is very international. It has a universal message about humanitarianism, about love and redemption, and also we have Christian Bale. And the other thing is almost half of it is in English." But the real strength of the film, says its Hollywood-based executive producer David Linde – who also worked on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – is that while its story is quintessentially Chinese, it has an appeal that transcends national borders. "A great signature director working with an incredibly inspiring actor? That in and of itself is thrilling. When do you get an opportunity where different cultures truly connect, in story, performance and direction? Really, very rarely."

It might seem unrealistic to expect US appetites for foreign film to broaden as fast as the Chinese appetite is growing, but Linde, who has worked with directors including Ang Lee, Pedro Almodóvar and Alfonso Cuarón, says there's hope. "There's clearly a real fascination with China. I don't know about England, but, as one small example, one of the things you're seeing a lot here is students increasingly studying Mandarin, instead of the more traditional French and Italian." And now that nervous jokes about a Mandarin-speaking future have become a mainstay of American political comedy, might curiosity about the new paymaster translate into box-office receipts? "I think that the opportunity for Chinese film-makers here is pretty significant."

What matters for Chinese film-makers, Zhang says, is not whether they will be able to reach foreign audiences, but whether they'll be able to satisfy their own. "The market is growing very fast and well-known directors don't necessarily develop at the same pace. We have an old Chinese saying: 'It takes 10 years to grow a tree, but 100 years to make a man.' Maybe this will break the limitation on internationally imported films, so we can have films from all over the world to fulfil the people's need."

That, of course, is where Hollywood steps in. When The Heroes of Nanking opens in the US, it will likely be accompanied by the rustle of both popcorn boxes and Hollywood screenwriters riffling through Chinese history books, on the hunt for suitable western characters. It can't be long before Reese Witherspoon is trading Mandarin quips with Tony Leung in her latest romantic comedy and James Cameron is directing Chow Yun Fat in a sci-fi blockbuster. When that happens, we'll know exactly which cuddly panda was responsible.

• This article was amended on 10 June 2011. In the original, Zhang Yimou was referred to throughout as Yimou. This has been corrected.

[GeneChing]

Z is one of the few Chinese on Hollywood's A list (that's right, Z is an A ;)) which makes this comment more interesting.

West isn't always best, says Zhang (http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Showbiz/Story/A1Story20110613-283714.html)
Mon, Jun 13, 2011
By Joy Fang

CHINESE actress Zhang Ziyi couldn't be less bothered about not snagging a role in Hollywood.

"America is not the only market available," said Zhang, 32, when asked about her ambitions there. After all, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) was a huge hit there, while Memoirs Of A Geisha (2005) saw her breaking into the United States with a role that had her speaking in English.

But Zhang, it seems, prefers to stay on home turf.

She noted that the movie industry in China is developing quickly, with movies like action-comedy Let the Bullets Fly (2010), which starred veterans like Chow Yun Fat, raking in more than US$100 million (S$124 million) at the domestic box office.

The Chinese market is so hot right now that major movie studios want a slice of the pie.

Last year, for instance, media giant Fox produced its first Mandarin film, Hot Summer Days. The movie raked in US$20 million in China, where 1,000 new movie theatres opened last year alone.

"Of course, people will view Hollywood as the standard," said Zhang in an interview that was part of the inaugural ScreenSingapore event.

"It's good if we can get a chance to go there and experience what filming is like there. But if there's nothing suitable, we shouldn't force ourselves to take on any role just so we can be in Hollywood."

Besides, the opportunities for Asian actors to express their voices truly are too few, she added.

One of ScreenSingapore's ambassadors, Zhang - along with a slew of other stars that included South Korea's Lee Byung Hun and Taiwan's Van Ness Wu - walked the red carpet last Saturday at Shaw Lido for the premiere of actor, director and producer Tom Hanks' latest film, Larry Crowne. The gala premiere served as the closer for the week-long fest.

Now, said Zhang, roles in blockbusters take a backseat to those she considers more "meaningful".

Her recent role in Til Death Do Us Part (also known as Love For Life) had her acting with Aaron Kwok as two Aids patients who fall in love.

"I want roles that pose a challenge. I've tried big commercial films and a variety of different genres. Now I feel I should choose those with more depth," she said.

"To me, there's no difference filming in China or in Hollywood - except in location. Ultimately I want to star in something that has value, that will be remembered and discussed long after."

Zhang has pushed away a few Hollywood scripts, even though studios offered her a lot of money, she revealed.

And what of her time in Singapore, where Zhang - who broke up with her fiance, Vivo Nevo, late last year - has spent more than a week?

"I toured the Night Safari, had hawker food," she said.

And, she added, she hit Orchard Road, where the Great Singapore Sale was on. There, she found things that were "really cheap", she enthused.

[doug maverick]

well i wouldnt call her A list. but she was hot for a bit, but she went ice cold, both here and in china for a while. and while the US is certainly not the only market. its still the biggest financially and globally. and i dont see that changing anytime soon. its been proven that hollywood films are depression/recession proof. remember in 09 when the bottom almost fell out? quantum of solace made close to 100million that same weekend.

[Jimbo]

I can understand Zhang wanting to take on more meaningful roles, as opposed to taking just any role Hollywood may have offered to her. I'll bet most of those roles she refused were as the lead's 'exotic Asian girlfriend.'

[doug maverick]

yea i agree jimbo. or probably action roles. i think ken watanabe is the asian darling in hollywood now. he is what chow yun fat should have been.

[SimonM]

I suspect part of Zhang Ziyi's issue in china was the "too much like Gong Li" effect.

Also, for reasons I've never been able to fully comprehend a lot of Chinese men I spoke to found her really ugly.

[Jimbo]

I suspect part of Zhang Ziyi's issue in china was the "too much like Gong Li" effect.

Also, for reasons I've never been able to fully comprehend a lot of Chinese men I spoke to found her really ugly.

Wow. I certainly wouldn't think of her as ugly. I wonder if it had to do with her having been so visible internationally, so quickly?

[GeneChing]

I know...this is redundant to my KFP2 post (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1114783#post1114783), but that was the Variety version.


China's box office soared by nearly 18 pct in first half of 2011 (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-07/13/c_13982994.htm)
English.news.cn 2011-07-13 19:44:00

BEIJING, July 13 (Xinhua) -- China's overall box office earnings for the first half of 2011 reached nearly 5.7 billion yuan (881 million U.S. dollars), up nearly 18 percent year-on-year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said in a report issued Wednesday.

Domestic films took in 2.93 billion yuan, an increase of 38 percent over the same period last year, while foreign films raked in 2.77 billion yuan, up 1.6 percent, according to the SARFT film bureau.

"Beginning of the Great Revival," a star-studded film marking the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), topped the domestic list, with earnings of 304.69 million yuan as of the end of June, according to the report.

Hollywood blockbuster "Kungfu Panda 2" was the highest-ranked foreign film, pulling in ticket sales worth 596.75 million yuan, followed by "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" (472.06 million yuan) and "Fast Five" (255.14 million yuan), the report said.

China's 2010 box office topped an unprecedented 10 billion yuan, according to the report.

[GeneChing]

Funny, I was just ruminating about this while watching Bodyguards & Assassins (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53158) again last night.


China's film industry
Kung fu propaganda (http://www.economist.com/node/18959042?story_id=18959042&fsrc=rss)
There’s a ton of easy money in praising the party
Jul 14th 2011 | HONG KONG | from the print edition

THERE are two ways to make a box-office smash. One is to take an exciting script, hire famous actors, shoot a rollercoaster of a film, distribute it widely and market it deftly. This is the Hollywood way, and it worked pretty well for Harry Potter.

The Beijing way shares some features with the Hollywood way, such as hiring lots of stars and distributing the film widely. But the magic ingredient behind China’s latest blockbuster was one unavailable to the mightiest Tinseltown mogul. It was the power of the party.

“The Beginning of the Great Revival”, a celebration of the founding of the Communist Party, opened at every cineplex in China on June 15th, in time for the party’s 90th birthday. Competing films with a shred of drawing power were blocked, even the awful “Transformers 3”. Many state-owned firms ordered their staff to attend. Schools organised trips so that pupils could watch and learn from the exploits of a youthful Mao Zedong. Government departments deployed waves of bureaucratic bottoms to fill seats. Online reviews alleging that the masterpiece was rather dull were censored. Success was assured.

The film was not, as you might imagine, a piece of government-produced propaganda. It was a piece of for-profit propaganda, produced by the country’s biggest film company, the China Film Group (CFG). Along with a smaller firm in which it holds a 12% stake, CFG controls more than half of all domestic film distribution in China. The two firms also distribute the 20 foreign films that China allows in each year.

CFG spins tales of love, disaster, war and kung fu, of course. But the easy money is in patriotic pap. In recent years, the firm has produced “Nanking! Nanking!” (about heroic Chinese resistance to Japan during the second world war) and “The Founding of a Republic” (about the Communist takeover in 1949).

Such films are profitable partly because their stars do not expect to be paid much, if anything. About 100 famous actors worked for nothing on “The Founding of a Republic”. An even more impressive 172 stars with Chinese ties signed on for “The Beginning of the Great Revival”, for compensation that, according to the director, amounted to less than the cost of lunch boxes for the crew.

“The Founding of a Republic” cost 30m yuan ($4.6m) to make and brought in a tidy 420m yuan. “The Beginning of the Great Revival” cost 80m yuan, but has been a bit of a disappointment at the box office, having brought in only 340m yuan so far. Still, that is a return that would thrill any investor in Hollywood.

Cinema in China is booming (see chart). In 2010 box-office revenues grew by 64% to just over 10 billion yuan. More than 520 films were made—about as many as in America. Only India produces more. China boasts the world’s largest outdoor film studio, called Hengdian World Studios, which includes a full-scale mock-up of the Forbidden City.

Tickets to Chinese cinemas are costly—about 80 yuan at weekends. The lack of copyright protection means that almost all revenue must come from the box office rather than from DVDs or television. Audiences are paying for the experience of an afternoon away from their cramped apartments, rather than simply to see the film (illegal versions of which are widely available). Cinemas are clean and airconditioned. Many have state-of-the-art screens and sound systems. The snacks are quite good, too.

Smash hits such as “Great Revival” may not travel well. Foreign bottoms are less biddable. But as Sam Goldwyn supposedly said: “Don’t pay any attention to the critics; don’t even ignore them.”

We've discussed The Beginning of the Great Revival here (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57922) and The Founding of a Republic here (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55102). We haven't discussed Nanking! Nanking!, but we did discuss Nanking (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49722). ;)

[GeneChing]

Private Equity, not Physical Education. I know you were confused. Not quite sure how private equity figures into a communist government. Not sure I really want to know, come to think of it...:rolleyes:

July 18, 2011, 2:44 PM ET
They’re Gonna Put PE In The Movies (In China) (http://blogs.wsj.com/privateequity/2011/07/18/they%E2%80%99re-gonna-put-pe-in-the-movies-in-china/)
By Jonathan Shieber

Some of China’s top funds and investors are getting into the film and culture business in China in a bigger way as the Chinese government tries to boost China’s cultural clout.

The Chinese film industry has long envied Hollywood’s international clout and the Chinese government jealously eyes the soft-power muscle of the U.S. film industry as a potent force behind the American “brand,” so it’s no wonder the government is pumping billions of yuan into investment firms to build up its own players.

Leading the charge is BOC International Holdings Ltd. (BOC International), a subsidiary of the Bank of China, which earlier in July raised the target size of its private equity fund focused on the media industry to 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) from an initial CNY10 billion target, according to analysts and reports in the state-run China Daily. So far, the fund has raised CNY4 billion ($615.8 million) from its initial backers.

The BOC International fund has some state-backed competition from rival CCB international (Holdings) Ltd., an investment bank owned by China Construction Bank Corp., which launched a CNY2 billion ($307.7 million) CCB International Cultural Industry PE Fund in Beijing in April.

Both funds invest in industries such as publishing, film and broadcasting. The BOC International fund has reportedly backed China Publication Group and Xinhuanet.com, according to China Daily, which itself cited Shanghai Securities News, a financial publication owned by Xinhua. CCB International made its first investment in the privately held Beijing Galloping Horse Film & TV Production Co.

“While they will make investments in privately held companies like Galloping Horse, most of the funds would go to state-owned media companies,” said Ran Wang, chief executive of the investment bank China eCapital, and an advisor on the Galloping Horse transaction. “That would restructure the media industry to spin off some of their operations and assets into market-driven and commercially viable new-media focused entities.”

Not to be outdone, venture capital and growth capital investors SAIF Partners and IDG Capital Partners, as well as Matrix Partners China and Sequoia Capital China have all backed companies in the media industry as well.

IDG Capital and SAIF Partners have jointly invested in the stealthy film production company Sky Land, which produces, distributes and finances China-themed films that target audiences in both the U.S. and in China.

One of the company’s first films to receive a U.S. distribution deal is ‘Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,’ which was financed and jointly produced by Sky Land and individuals including Wendi Deng Murdoch, wife of News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, and IDG Capital Partners chief Hugo Shong. News Corp. is the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and of this blog.

According to its website, Sky Land’s Los Angeles office is now accepting film submissions, but aspiring screenwriters should be sure not to send anything that might offend Chinese sensibilities.

Sky Land is still private, but other venture-backed companies in the media industry, like Bona Film Group Ltd., which was backed by Matrix Partners China and Sequoia Capital China, listed in December 2010 on Nasdaq.

U.S. investors have their own China gateway in the newly formed Legendary Pictures East, a joint venture between the privately held Legendary Pictures LLC and the Shenzhen-listed Huayi Brothers. Legendary is backed in part by Accel Partners, which is also a partner of IDG Capital.

CORRECTION: Film production company Huayi Brothers is listed in Shenzhen. A previous version of this post mistakenly said Huayi was listed in Hong Kong.

[GeneChing]

Chinese films explore ways to compete with Hollywood (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/entertainment/2011-08/30/c_131083595.htm)
English.news.cn 2011-08-30 10:37:00
by Yang Liang, Yang Aihua

BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- For Hollywood, the Chinese film market presented a splendid box-office report this summer.

And among the top five box-office hits of all time in China, three are from Hollywood: "Avatar" with 182 million U.S. dollars, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" with 145.5 million dollars and "Kung Fu Panda 2" with 91.5 million dollars.

However, "Legend of a Rabbit," a 3D animated movie produced completely by a Chinese team and aimed at competing with the best of the West, grossed only 16.2 million yuan (2.5 million dollars) in the Chinese market last month after its release on July 11.

The 18.8-million-dollar 3D production, which took more than 500 animators three years, on Sunday shared the Best Animation Award of Huabiao, China's highest government honor in the film industry, along with three other animations.

The different performances of China's "Rabbit" and the United States' "Panda" in the world's fastest growing movie market, whose box office gross increased by 64 percent last year to 1.5 billion dollars, also mirrored the wide gap between the box-office receipts of the two countries' films in each other's market.

In the last few years, China has become a key destination for big Hollywood films. "Avatar," "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," "Inception" and "2012" all grossed more ticket numbers in China than they did anywhere else outside the United States.

However, Chinese films, even the blockbusters at home such as the earthquake drama "Aftershock," could not make a success on the U.S. market.

SUCCESSES RARE FOR CHINESE FILMS IN U.S. MARKET

Chinese-made films were first launched in North America in the 1980s.

However, successes had been rare until December 2000, when "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," a kungfu drama directed by Ang Lee, hit the screen.

As the most profitable Chinese film, the movie, released by Sony Pictures Classics, grossed a total of 128 million dollars in roughly 2,000 theaters in the United States.

Almost four years later, "Hero," a smash directed by Zhang Yimou and distributed by Miramax, made another wave by garnering 53.7 million dollars in ticket sales, making it the second most profitable Chinese film in the U.S. market and a No. 1 movie at the U.S. box office for two weeks in a row.

But still, many Chinese films have met with failures in terms of box office record after brief showings in a small number of U.S. theaters.

"Aftershock," which grossed over 100 million dollars in China, earned only 60,954 dollars in 25 U.S. theaters. John Woo's 80-million-dollar "Red Cliff" netted merely 627,047 dollars in 42 U.S. theaters in 2009.

China Lion Film Distribution, a Los Angels-based company that distributes Chinese-language films via an exclusive deal with AMC, North America's No. 2 theater chain, for the U.S. and Toronto markets, has distributed several Chinese-language films in the United States over the last year, including "Aftershock," "The Warring States," "A Beautiful Life" and "If You Are the One II."

"If You Are the One II," a romantic comedy directed by Feng Xiaogang, earned 427,000 dollars, with more than 90 percent of the viewers being Chinese or Chinese Americans.

Such earnings, humble even by Chinese standards, are already much better than other Chinese films released in the United States. Most of the Chinese-language films were just screened in around 20 U.S. theaters. Over the decade, although Chinese films have increased their presence in U.S. theaters, most U.S. moviegoers still tend to patronize Chinese martial arts films rather than straight dramas or comedies.

Those Chinese films that are not kungfu movies are usually screened in "art house" cinemas in major cities -- the main location for foreign-language films from around the world.

"Chinese films in the United States are subject to market forces," Richard L. Anderson, an Oscar winner in sound effect, told Xinhua. "The U.S. distribution companies are audience-driven. They buy what they think they can sell here."

STORY-TELLING IS THE BIGGEST ISSUE

Then, what are the reasons that make the "audience-driven" U.S. distribution companies think Chinese films are not marketable?

Foreign-language films rarely find more than a niche audience in the United States. Their tastes and cultural preferences obviously are barring them from watching Chinese-language films.

"Red Cliff" ended in a fiasco with only 627,047 dollars on the U.S. market. But in Japan, the film quickly became a phenomenon when it opened in 2008 and was one of the hottest movies that year.

Besides hot actors in the movie, Japanese viewers' knowledge of the Chinese novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," which the movie was adapted in part from, served well.

It was the same case in France for "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame." The kungfu movie, directed by Tsui Hark, did fairly well when it opened in the European country in April. It ranked the ninth in the French box office back then, an excellent performance for a foreign film.

Experts say that the success of the movie was due to the French people's familiarity with the main character, Detective Dee, who had been made famous in Western countries by late Dutch diplomat and writer Robert Van Gulik.

Van Gulik translated "Dee Goong An (Stories of Detective Dee)," an 18th-century Chinese detective novel, into English and used it as the basis for his own series of detective novels about Judge Dee.

Besides the preference of the U.S. audience to local films, Chinese films have their own problems.

Technology has always been an integral part of filmmaking. But lack of professionals in filmmaking has plagued the Chinese industry for years.

Feng, director of "Aftershock," said that when he shot the earthquake drama, numerous disaster scenes had to be processed abroad.

Although there was an imported apparatus with more than 5,000 functions of audio and visual effects, the machine could not play its due role "because technicians can only use perhaps 500 of them," Feng said.

Meanwhile, although there are a small group of actors, directors and producers at the top of the movie industry who are extraordinarily successful, talent among screenwriters and directors has not been actively cultivated.

"Money is not the problem. The film industry is desperate for creative talent," said Wang Zhongjun, chairman of Huayi Brothers Media Group, China's first listed private film company.

Three years ago, when "Kung Fu Panda" broke the Chinese box office record for highest-grossing animated features with 180 million yuan (26 million dollars), many questioned why the DreamWorks film had not been made by a Chinese company, as it borrowed heavily from Chinese culture.

For years, local moviegoers have been complaining why Chinese animations could not be as funny and palatable as their Hollywood counterparts.

"Dinosaur Baby," a local animation screened in April and May, lost out to Fox's "Rio." When "Legend of a Rabbit" was released last month, many questioned the originality of the movie, saying it was just an imitation of "Kung Fu Panda" and even the posters were alike.

The U.S. audience's preference to domestically produced movies and China's lag in filmmaking technology are certainly obstacles, but insiders say that story-telling seems to be the biggest problem that fails Chinese films in both domestic and foreign markets.

Mark Osborne, one of the directors of "Kung Fu Panda," once said that if Chinese animation filmmakers want to learn something from Hollywood, they should learn "how to tell an interesting story."

Hollywood's story-telling methods are not unique to the United States but are universal ways to attract human souls, he said.

Yin Hong, a professor of film and television studies with Beijing-based Tsinghua University, said that Chinese films have not yet found a cultural and artistic strategy for telling a Chinese story with a global perspective and for expressing universal cultural values through film language.

"The American society is such a multi-racial, multi-cultural culture that they have been able to make movies for the lowest common denominator," Chris D. Nebe, an acclaimed Hollywood writer, producer and director, told Xinhua in Los Angeles. "That's why everybody understands them and likes them."

continued next post...

[GeneChing]

CO-PRODUCTION A WAY OUT (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/entertainment/2011-08/30/c_131083595_3.htm)

China has been endeavoring to let its films go global in ways including participation in various film markets and renowned international film festivals.

But among the efforts, experts say creative partnerships between Chinese and foreign companies are one of the most important and effective ways.

Co-production can help not only to grow China's own industry but also to export Chinese movies. Introducing Chinese movies to the world is part of China's cultural strategy that helps to build up its soft power.

"To increase our share in the international film market, we must spend much more efforts on film promotion and marketing," Yang Buting, board chairman of China Film Promotion International, told Xinhua.

"Hollywood's successful global distribution system will benefit Chinese films through co-production. To cooperate with foreign companies, it will be their job to distribute the film in their countries. This is much more effective than selling the film by ourselves," said Yang.

Actually, partnerships between Chinese and Hollywood moviemakers have been proliferating. Oscar-winning actor Christian Bale played the leading role in Zhang Yimou's "The 13 Women of Nanjing."

Meanwhile, Mike Medavoy, producer of "Black Swan," who was born in Shanghai, is working with Beijing-based film promoters to help Chinese films go global. Hugh Jackman starred in "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," Wendi Murdoch's first co-produced movie.

In addition, Oscar winner Branko Lustig, producer of "Schindler's List," has announced his plan to produce "The Melanie Violin," a movie about Jewish refugees in Shanghai during the Second World War.

In one of the latest big moves, Huayi Brothers Media, China's largest independent film studio, and Los Angeles-based production company Legendary Entertainment, maker of such global box-office hits as "Inception" and "The Dark Knight," formed in June a new China-U.S. venture called Legendary East.

Earlier this month, the newly-formed, Hong Kong-based and Chinese-managed entertainment company announced its first project: "The Great Wall," which is designed to be a "globally-appealing" adventure movie and will be directed by Edward Zwick, director of "The Last Samurai."

In China, the project will be distributed by Legendary East's co-production partner, Huayi Brothers. Warner Bros. is expected to handle other territories.

As China is advancing fast, especially in film financing and distribution, some have warned that what is more important is the real quality of movies.

"I know some films were done in only a month. No one talked thoroughly of the screenplay. It is not this case in Hollywood. A good screenplay needs to be worked on time and time again," Gong Li, one of the best known Chinese actresses in Hollywood, told Xinhua.

Since 2005, the Chinese government has invested heavily in infrastructure projects, including new theaters in China's major cities. There are now more than 6,000 screens across the country, and many of them are digital. In 2010, more than four screens were set up every day.

But with the high speed of hardware development, the artistry of Chinese films is yet to improve. According to Yin, the Tsinghua University professor, only about 100 of the 500-plus movies produced in China last year met acceptable art standards.

"It is easy to buy buildings, for example, and see the cash flow. It is harder to go into the software business of making films. It has to be done methodically and in a way that makes both economic and strategic sense," said Medavoy, producer of "Black Swan."

Meanwhile, Dan Mintz, CEO of DMG Entertainment, pointed out that identifying the target audience group is the key to success for co-produced works. It is either an international film with Chinese elements or a Chinese film with global faces.

For a Chinese filmmaker to win over the U.S. viewers, the most important thing is that he has to incorporate the Chinese elements with Western ones in terms of story-telling and film techniques, said Nebe.

The Hollywood writer was involved in producing with Chinese filmmakers "Mysterious China," an award-winning series of documentaries exploring China and its 5,000-year-old culture.

"Since we want 'lao wai' (foreigners) to understand China, we have to give them information in the 'lao wai' fashion," he said.

(Additional reporting by Wang Jun in Los Angeles, Jiang Zhenni and Tang Ji in Paris, Rong Jiaojiao in New York, and Wang Fengfeng in Washington)
I'm inclined to agree. Chollywood is all about co-production now.

[GeneChing]

This article sums up a lot of the discussion across several threads on this forum.

Hollywood targets Chollywood as LA studio enters $220m joint venture (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/aug/22/film-china-legendary-entertainment-joint)

Legendary Entertainment's Chinese partnership bypasses limit on number of foreign films released, and their box office takings

Dominic Rushe
guardian.co.uk, Monday 22 August 2011 16.14 BST

The Hollywood producer behind the Hangover movies and Inception has joined forces with a Chinese studio to create a $220.5m (£134m) venture aimed at China's increasingly lucrative film market.

The partnership between Legendary Entertainment and Huayi Brothers Media Corp plans to make one or two "major, event-style films" a year for worldwide audiences starting in 2013.

The two companies said they were selling a 50% stake in the venture, Legendary East, to Hong Kong construction company Paul Y Engineering.

The deal allows Legendary Entertainment to bypass Chinese import restrictions that limit the number of foreign movies released in China to about 20 a year and restrict box office takings for foreign firms.

Hollywood is increasingly targeting the Chinese market, which is adding 1,400 screens a year. Chinese box office takings rose 64% to $1.5bn (£910m) in 2010, a fraction of the US's $10.6bn receipts, but a growth rate that puts the country on course to become one of the largest film markets in the world.

Legendary Entertainment's chairman, Thomas Tull, said: "With China's rapid economic growth and rich cultural background, this is a film-making marketplace on the rise."

Kelvin Wu, chief executive of Legendary East, said: "We want to do globally appealing movies, so there will be a lot of elements involving east meets west."

Recent Huayi releases include Aftershock, a record-breaking disaster movie directed by Chinese box-office favourite Feng Xiaogang, the kung fu drama Shaolin and critically acclaimed fantasy epic Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. Its films accounted for 17% of China's box office in 2010.

"There's huge room for growth and we want to be ready to enjoy the bigger market when it's there. We don't want to come in when the market is mature," said Wu.

The joint venture is the latest in a series of Sino-US ventures as Hollywood targets "Chollywood". Walt Disney has worked on several coproductions with Chinese firms, including a reworking of its hit High School Musical, in partnership with Huayi Brothers.

Beijing-based DMG Entertainment recently agreed to finance Looper, a sci-fi movie starring Bruce Willis, after the production signed up Chinese star Xu Qing. Relativity Media, producer of Cowboys & Aliens, recently agreed to make and distribute movies in China with Beijing-based Huaxia Film Distribution Co. The remake of Karate Kid, starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, was produced by Sony's Columbia Tristar and state-owned China Film Group. News Corp's Fox Searchlight and Beijing-based IDG China Media teamed up for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Wendi Deng, wife of News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, is listed as a coproducer.

The rise of China is even redefining Hollywood villainy. MGM recently cut the Chinese baddies out of its remake of submarine drama Red Dawn and replaced them with North Koreans. Chinese flags were digitally altered and dialogue re-dubbed for fear of angering the Chinese authorities, which have a history of banning western film-makers. My only addition here is that Disney's Chinese version of HSM flopped, remember? (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55766)

[GeneChing]

Chollywood co-productions. Perhaps that should be the subject of my next Chollywood column in KFTC (http://www.martialartsmart.com/19341.html)...

September 08, 2011, 5:45 PM EDT
China and Hollywood Team Up for More Co-Productions (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/china-and-hollywood-team-up-for-more-coproductions-09082011.html)
The mainland is using partnerships with Western studios to develop its own movie business
By Frederik Balfour and Ronald Grover

Bruce Willis’s mob hit man travels to the future in next year’s movie Looper. Thanks to backing from Beijing-based DMG Entertainment, that future is in China. DMG funded the production on condition that the location was moved from France and a role was written especially for Chinese actress Xu Qing. By jumping through these hoops, the movie now qualifies as a Chinese co-production, exempting it from the nation’s 20-film-per-year import quota and allowing foreign backers to keep three times as much in box office receipts. “We are trying to be relevant to a significant market,” says DMG Chief Executive Officer Dan Mintz. “The industry is growing like a rocket ship.”

Looper is one of a wave of Sino-U.S. productions as Hollywood looks to expand in China, which is adding more than 1,400 cinema screens a year. The 2010 remake of Karate Kid, starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, was produced by Sony Pictures’ (SNE) Columbia TriStar and state-owned China Film Group. Fox Searchlight Pictures and Beijing-based IDG China Media teamed up for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. “Everyone is coming in to join the bandwagon,” says Hong Kong-based Bill Kong, who co-produced the 2000 hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. “Ten years ago, if you made $3 million in China, you would be jumping up and down. Today it’s more like one or two hundred million.”

Box office receipts in China grew 64 percent last year, to 10.2 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. While that’s a fraction of the $10.6 billion in U.S. receipts, according to Box Office Mojo, China is a huge potential growth market for Hollywood. Its cinema-building will more than double the number of screens by 2015, from 6,200 at the end of 2010, says Mintz.

James Wang, 41, and his older brother Dennis made their first movie, the comedy Party A, Party B, in the mid-1990s. It earned $4 million, “a blockbuster at the time,” he says. Last year, Wang, CEO of Huayi Brothers Media, China’s largest independent film producer, released Aftershock, a Feng Xiaogang film about the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. It made $105 million.

Beijing is using its quota system to prevent the spread of foreign culture and promote its fledgling domestic film industry. “China is keen on promoting its soft power,” says Shen Dingli, a professor at the Center for American Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University. Joint film productions serve “the political purpose to promote our culture and systems with Hollywood’s competence.”

DMG is raising $300 million for a fund to help U.S. film franchises qualify as co-productions. To gain that status, films must be licensed by China’s media regulator, which sets rules on the film’s finances, its location, and the percentage of Chinese stars in the cast. Among the benefits: A co-production gets to keep 47 percent of box office receipts, vs. as little as 13.5 percent for imported films. Kong turned The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor into a co-production with NBCUniversal’s Universal Studios and China Film Group four years ago. Filming took place in China, and Jet Li and Isabella Leong were among the Chinese actors added to the cast. “It wasn’t a great movie, but it utilized a big American franchise in China,” Kong says. “The time will come when there are more.”

Huayi’s Wang recently teamed with Thomas Tull, founder of Legendary Pictures, whose hits include The Dark Knight and The Hangover, to start a venture called Legendary East. The unit will make films in China targeting international and local audiences, financed in part through the sale of a 50 percent stake to Hong Kong-based Paul Y. Engineering Group for $220.5 million. West Hollywood-based Relativity Media, one of the financiers of Cowboys & Aliens, on Aug. 14 announced a $100 million joint venture with Huaxia Film Distribution to produce films and TV shows in China.

Getting the formula right isn’t easy. Some U.S. hits have struck gold in China, with Avatar grossing $216 million in ticket sales. By contrast, the Chinese version of High School Musical, made by Huayi with Walt Disney (DIS) in 2010, earned less than $155,000. Chinese audiences, says Wang, don’t like musicals.

The bottom line: Hollywood studios are teaming up with Chinese film companies to bypass profit-restricting quotas on foreign films on the mainland.

Balfour is Asia correspondent for Bloomberg Businessweek in Hong Kong. Grover covers the media and entertainment industry for Bloomberg Businessweek in Los Angeles.

[GeneChing]

KFP2's (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56148) impact really shows the paradigm shift.

DreamWorks 'eyes China operation' (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hRn-6Lv3g6dLMQA_BvhTbzoGpALw?docId=CNG.cecb423d72a21d9 8ec6aa5791827ee66.7b1)
(AFP) – 5 hours ago

BEIJING — The Hollywood company behind the hit "Kung Fu Panda" movies is to open a new Shanghai operation to make films specifically for China's booming market, a recruitment firm told AFP on Wednesday.

DreamWorks Animation has hired Los Angeles-based RSR Partners to recruit a president for the planned venture, making it the latest in a line of Hollywood giants to attempt to break into the potentially lucrative market.

No one at the Los Angeles-based DreamWorks could immediately be reached for comment, but a letter from RSR to prospective hires seen by AFP said the company was looking to "establish a production and development presence in China".

The "Kung Fu Panda" movies were made with a Chinese audience in mind and the second in the franchise became the highest-grossing animated feature ever screened in the country when it was released this year, taking 597 million yuan ($93 million).

Several Hollywood companies are trying to get a foothold in China, where box office sales rose 64 percent to $1.5 billion in 2010, making it the world's fastest-growing movie market.

RSR managing director Gary Matus told AFP his firm had been hired to recruit staff for DreamWorks' expansion into China, but that he did not know when the new venture would open.

"There are regulatory hurdles that remain," Matus said, adding that the search process would take at least 90 days.

Foreign media companies setting up shop in China must work with local majority partners and are subject to strict regulations about the sort of content they are allowed to produce for distribution inside the country.

China limits to 20 a year the number of imported films it allows to share box office takings, but foreign companies can skirt the import cap by co-producing films with Chinese partners.

DreamWorks chairman Lewis Coleman met with the state-run China Film Group in Beijing two weeks ago, a source who asked not to be named told AFP.

The move comes weeks after two other Hollywood production companies, Relativity and Legendary, launched ventures with Chinese partners.

In August, DreamWorks became the second Hollywood studio after Warner Brothers to enter into a distribution deal with the popular Chinese online video sharing site Youku.com.

In 2008, the company's co-founder Steven Spielberg drew China's ire by quitting as advisor on the Beijing Olympics to protest the country's failure to pressure the government of Sudan over the conflict in Darfur.

[GeneChing]

The distance between Chinese movie and Hollywood is not just a red carpet (http://asiancorrespondent.com/67430/the-distance-between-chinese-movie-and-hollywood-is-not-just-a-red-carpet/)
By Regional Representatives Oct 18, 2011 10:25AM UTC
By Anastasia Wang

Have you been impressed by the dragon dress displayed by Bingbing Fan, a famous Chinese actress, at the Cannes festival red carpet? Not only on the international red carpet, Chinese actresses also try to do their best at home.

Along with Chinese movies received some awards in some international filmfests, and China has its own film festival – the Shanghai Film Festival, Chinese female movie stars have appeared in many festivals and given various fashion shows on every red carpet.

Actually, compared to the film and awards, actresses’ dresses can often attract more attention and arouse more discussions on the internet. So, it seems that the fashion show do help those girls be famous or more famous at home. However, how does it work abroad? At the end of the day, they gave the show to hunt opportunities in foreign market, didn’t they?

Miss Fan’s dragon dress was a huge topic, so huge that when another actress copied this idea in China, she also got big attention and both of their pictures occupied the important positions in the entertainment section for many days. Other than such discussions, what we and she really expect are invitations to some Hollywood movies and the opportunity to show the world the quality of Chinese movies. But there is no hint yet.

Well, once upon a time, in the 1930s’, a Chinese well-known actress walked out and reached London. She didn’t give any show but received great treatment – she was invited and given a tour to British movie manufactory, and was asked to sign for foreign stars and take pictures with them. She is Die Hu, the movie queen in China at that time. After her, nobody else has been so concerned.

She was famous for leading in Chinese action movies. In those days, Chinese action movies and Hu’s “Kungfu” were fascinating to non-Chinese audiences. They were admired. This admiration still works when it helps Bruce Li, Jackie Chan and Jet Li become the most famous action actor in Hollywood, and helps Chinese director An Li back to the stage when he succeeded in directing the Chinese action movie Crouching tiger, hidden dragon.

But what is weird is that most of those movies are produced by Hollywood rather than Chinese film industry. From then on, many Chinese movie stars seek to have a place in Hollywood, like wearing unexpected dresses. Well, why not produce something really influential ourselves, by all means, there is a biggest market in China. Maybe it is time to have a third –wood apart from Hollywood and Bollywood.

Just an excuse to post Bingbing in her 'dragon' dress (cranes actually, but who's quibbling?)
http://www.myredcarpetdresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Fan-Bing-Bing-2011-Cannes-International-Film-Festival.jpg

[GeneChing]

Asia Society Southern California EMAsia Initiative
presents
THE US-CHINA FILM SUMMIT (http://www.uschinafilmsummit.com/en/)

US-China Film Summit is an annual gathering of thought leaders between Hollywood and China.

In 2011, the Summit is being hosted in Los Angeles and Beijing.

Join film industry leaders from Hollywood and China including top executives, government officials, producers, professionals and creatives, for an informative afternoon on the latest trends in US-China co-productions and collaborations. The US-China Film Summit highlights the growing entertainment media opportunities between established Hollywood and rapidly-emerging China.

Los Angeles Branch

November 1, 2011
2:00 - 5:30 PM reception to follow

Location: Landmark Theatres
10850 West Pico Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90064

1st Panel: Finance and Business Update
Panelists

Ryan Kavanaugh, CEO of Relativity Media

Dan Mintz, CEO of DMG

Ivy Zhong, Co-Chairman of Galloping Horse Media Group and President of Galloping Horse Film Co.,Ltd.

Moderator
Steve Saltzman, Partner at Loeb & Loeb

2nd Panel: Bridging the Creative Gap
Panelists

Tom DeSanto, Producer of "Transformers" & "X-Men” series

Dayyan Eng, Director and producer of "Inseparable” starring Kevin Spacy and Daniel Wu

David Linde, CEO of Lava Bear Films

Moderator
Bennett Pozil, Senior Managing Director - Capital Markets of East West Bank

Summit Chairman
Peter Shiao
CEO of Orb Media Group
Chairman of Entertainment and Media for Asia Society Southern California

Admission:
$95 General Admission
$75 Members
$25 Students with ID (limited availability)
The Summit Chairman, Peter Shiao was behind the Shaolin Summit (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=964) earlier this year.

[GeneChing]

Relativity's Kavanaugh a No-Show at Upbeat U.S.-China Film Summit (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/01/idUS158246735420111101)
By Fred Schruers at TheWrap
Tue Nov 1, 2011 4:27pm EDT

Just 48 hours after controversy began to swirl around his studio's much ballyhooed Chinese co-production/distribution arrangement, Ryan Kavanaugh canceled his appearance at a four-person panel at the Asia Society’s U.S.-China Film Summit Tuesday.

The panel’s moderator blamed it on a scheduling conflict.

On Sunday, TheWrap reported that human rights groups had rebuked Relativity following the studio's decision to film its upcoming co-produced comedy "21 and Over" in a Chinese city with an oppressive government.

If any of the 300 film industry types who filled a theater at the Landmark complex in West Los Angeles Tuesday for the event surmised Kavanaugh's absence had something to do with that, no one present was vocal about it.

It was left to seasoned producer and executive David Linde, who as co-head of Focus Films made Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,” a $235 million worldwide success, to be hailed as the key pioneer in a fusion between Chinese and American filmmaking that’s still moving grudgingly.

Deflecting the praise of panel moderator Bennett Pozil, who oversaw the film’s financing at East West Bank, Linde claimed he brought the movie to life with pre-sales around the world mostly because, “I was young and stupid and eager and excited.”

Just as crucially, he said, his partnership with Lee on such earlier, smaller global successes as “Eat Drink Man Woman,” meant that foreign rights buyers “knew that when we knocked on the door, it was their chance to stay in business with a guy who’d had not only artistic but real commercial success.”

Only 5 percent of the "Crouching Tiger's" worldwide gross was in China, Linde said. He added, however, "People who might have been familiar with Chinese [martial arts] genre films and the country’s art house films hadn’t previously realized there could be a real marriage between the two.”

Joining Linde on the panel, along with Janet Yang (“The Joy Luck Club” and the upcoming “Shanghai Calling”) and filmmaker Dayyan Eng (whose fully Chinese-funded production stars Kevin Spacey) was writer-producer Tom DeSanto, a creative force behind global blockbusters “Transformers” and “X-Men”.

In fact, as China grinds its way from being the world’s second most prosperous market for blockbusters (and fourth globally for all box office) and towards what most observers believe will be No. 1 stature in a few years, the mood was upbeat and apolitical.

The panelists agreed that for all the progress that seems within reach, time is still needed. And China’s 7,000 cinemas, which have been proliferating at the pace of six per day, are still inadequate to answer the demand from audiences in the country that’s now around 1.33 billion in population.

Linde's Lava Bear Films, which has a hand in Zhang Yimou’s upcoming “Heroes of Nanking” starring Christina Bale, was greeted as something of a pioneer and hero when introduced to appear on the afternoon’s second panel, “Bridging the Creative Gap”.

Echoing sentiments from producer Dan Mintz (whose "Looper” with Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a Chinese-American co-production), Linde noted that the real growth in a teamed Sino-American film industry will only come when there’s a real cultural cross-fertilization by filmmakers.

Linde said that American producers “need to find ways to interact (with the Chinese) in a progressive and proactive way … by focusing on each other’s culture. Then we can expand the potential of any movie. That’s been my great lesson.”

DeSanto self-deprecatingly said he’d adapted “Transformers” “from the original Shakespeare,” and that even he was surprised that after “every studio in town” initially passed on the franchise, the Chinese and other audiences would embrace a film in which cars turned into robots “and solved the world’s problems by punching each other out … but seeing kids in China wearing Bumble Bee tee shirts, I realized the commonality of our cultures.”

He added, however, that he skipped the chicken feet served at a celebratory banquet in Beijing. What? Too chicken for chicken feet?

[GeneChing]

This is sort of like Chollywood's Universal Studios theme parks. Sort of...


The reel world (http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/weekly/2011-10/28/content_13993490.htm)
Updated: 2011-10-28 09:28
By Yin Yin (China Daily)

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/weekly/img/attachement/jpg/site181/20111028/f04da2db112210144f5c45.jpg

A fighting scene in the TV series Romance of the Three Kingdoms is relived at Wuxi Studio, a movie set located near Taihu Lake. [Zhu Wanchang / For China Daily]

Chinese movie towns get in on the act and become tourist attractions

Chollywood, as the Chinese film industry is sometimes called, is taking a leading role in the tourism industry. A growing number of tourists are flocking to movie towns and parks to relive their favorite scenes on the silver screen.

These sites offer a blend of film and traditional Chinese culture to become enjoyable tourist attractions in their own right.

Here are three well-known spots to visit:

1. Hengdian World Studios

Known to many as China's answer to Hollywood, this movie town consists of two huge modern film studios and 12 filming sets that span various Chinese dynasties.

The studios are located in Dongyang in East China's Zhejiang province, 160 km from the provincial capital of Hangzhou.

More than 400 films have been made in Hengdian, including major works such as The Emperor and the Assassin directed by Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou's Hero and Curse of the Golden Flower.

One of the studios' largest buildings is an imperial palace built to look like the early Chinese dynasties of the Qin (221-206 BC) and Han (206 BC-AD 220) periods. The site is still frequently used to shoot movies based on these times.

The Dazhi Temple houses a 28.8-meter-high statue of Sakyamuni in its Great Buddha's Hall. The indoor statue is considered the largest of its kind in the country.

The movie site also offers entertaining rides and spectacular performances, such as man-made volcanoes that erupt and torrential floods that "sweep" through parts of the area.

Some buildings on site are also based on one of China's most prized scroll paintings, Along the River During the Qingming Festival, which dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and consists of a panoramic display of riverside city celebrating the Tomb Sweeping Festival.

2. Shanghai Film Shooting Base

What was Shanghai like in the 1930s when it captured the imagination of the world as one of the most enchanting cities of the East?

Located in the Songjiang district of southwest Shanghai, this shooting base offers a peek at what the "Paris of the East" was like and acts as a theme park reproducing Shanghai during some of the city's most colorful times.

Visitors will find many familiar scenes in the park, including Nanjing Road in the 1930s, the downtown of Old Shanghai, European-style buildings, a classical Catholic church, Suzhou Creek and landmark bridges. There is also a cross-town tram for visitors to further relive bygone eras.

Wanderers can stop by at the Town God's Temple (Chenghuangmiao), a Taoist temple for the guardian of the city and where the Eight Immortals of Taoist legend are engraved in a richly decorated archway.

Vintage shops out on the streets display the prosperity of Old Shanghai. At the watchmaker's shop, tourists can look at many kinds of clocks made in a classic style. In the clothing store, Chinese qipao dresses and Western-style clothes are displayed to help reproduce precious slices of life in Shanghai that are fast disappearing in today's world.

Canals and cars of the early 20th century dotting the base act as props for movies and backdrops for snap-happy visitors.

Iconic Chinese actors such as Zhou Xuan, Ruan Lingyu and Shangguan Yunzhu are also honored with wax figures on the site.

When audiences watch scenes of Old Shanghai in their favorite Hong Kong or Chinese mainland productions, chances are they are looking at this filming base.

3. Wuxi Studio

This movie set, located near the scenic Taihu Lake, has been home to popular TV offerings such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin.

An area set aside for the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220-280) alone occupies 35 hectares. Structures such as Emperor Wu's Palace, Ganlu Temple and the Beacon Tower in the style of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220) can be found here.

Special effects used to depict the decisive Battle of Red Cliffs serve up ancient warships berthed along the river and dazzling battle flags flown at gates to help recreate a grand and solemn moment that turned the tide of Chinese history.

A scenic spot found in the Water Margin is located next to the Three Kingdoms set and is made up of three main areas. Visitors in the County area can take in scenes depicting the life of people during the Song Dynasty.

Buildings in the Capital area are exquisite and showcase the prosperity during those times. The Liangshan Mountain area is built beside a lake in line with the main Water Margin story for visitors to share the camaraderie of Liangshan's 108 heroes.

The studio's Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) Town was constructed for a number of movie series and occupies 15 hectares. Visitors can view palaces, an imperial garden, ancient streets and an area modeled after the Huaqing Hot Spring in Shaanxi province. Tourists also get a chance to enjoy extravagant Tang palace celebrations and dances.

In European Town, located on the other side of Taihu Lake, attractions include a recreation of the Arc de Triomphe, British gardens, a Spanish bullfight arena and Florentine aristocratic square.

[GeneChing]

This is dated, but notable for this thread. I'm tempted to start a thread devoted to the Huayi Brothers. But then again, this thread should serve as that just fine.

Huayi Brothers’ “H Plan”: the 10 new films they have in production for 2011 (http://dbgdianying.com/?p=37)
Posted on February 25, 2011 by admin

February 24, Huayi held a major press conference announcing their upcoming productions and releases for 2011. Their “High Hope Plan” shows a bullish perspective on the Chinese box office with 10 films slated for release in 2011 – a record for the studio. Among them three productions helmed by big-names in the Chinese industry: Feng Xiaogang, Jackie Chan, Tsui Hark. Huayi President Wang Zhonglei announced that the “H plan” was being put into force with 10 films involving 11 directors: Xia Yongkang (夏永康), Chan Kwok-Fai (陈国辉), Lin Shuyu (林书宇), Wu Ershan (乌尔善), Stephen Fung (冯德伦), Niu Chengze (钮承泽), Pang Ho-Cheung (彭浩翔), Ronny Yu (于仁泰), Jackie Chan (成龙), Tsui Hark (徐克), Feng Xiaogang (冯小刚). Wang stated: “We define ourselves by our new mission: we promise a new responsibility to spectators and will use all our strength to bring a new hope to Chinese language film.”

Huayi Brothers 10 films in the “H project”:

Quanqiu Relian《全球热恋》- Xia Yongkang (夏永康) and Chan Kwok-Fai (陈国辉) directing; Chen Guo (陈果) producing.

Xingkong《星空》- Lin Shuyu (林书宇) directing; Chen Kuo-Fu (陈国富) producing.

Painted Skin 2《画皮2》- Wu Ershan (乌尔善) directing; Chen Kuo-Fu (陈国富) producing.

Taichi《太极》- Stephen Fung (冯德伦) directing; Jet Li (李连杰) producing.

Love《LOVE》- Niu Chengze (钮承泽) directing.

Hui Saijiao De Nvren Zuihaoming《会撒娇的女人最好命》- Pang Ho-Cheung (彭浩翔) directing.

Yangjiajiang《杨家将》- Ronny Yu (于仁泰) directing; Raymond Wong (黄百呜) producing.

Shi’er Shengxiao《十二生肖》- Jackie Chan (成龙) directing; Stanley Tong (唐季礼) producing.

Detective Dee Prequel《狄仁杰前传》- Tsui Hark (徐克) directing; Shi Nansheng (施南生) producing.

(Future unnamed project)《未定名新片》- Feng Xiaogang (冯小刚) directing.

At the conference Feng Xiaogang stated that he had been wanting to make his new film for ten years, but due to a number of different reasons it had never come together. He is planning an adaptation of the Liu Zhenyun novel “Wengu 1942 (温故1942)” about the great famine of 1942 in Henan Province, which in his own words plans to be “a stirring history of the national soul (一部震撼人心的民族心灵史).” Aftershock‘s massive box office haul in 2010 has certainly shown the financial benefits of filming China’s historical tragedies. But, the 1942 setting provides a much more comfortable time period than last year’s Tangshan earthquake epic, which occured during a power struggle in the CCP after Zhou Enlai’s death and as people prepared for the massive power vacuum after Mao’s imminent passing and led to the lackluster response to the earthquake that no doubt resulted in many more deaths. Many people criticised the film for historical “white-washing.” The 1942 setting, in this sense, is great because one can fully explore its causes and flatly lay the blame at two easy and, mostly importantly, politically-endorsed targets – Japan and Jiang Jieshi’s (Ch’iang Kai-Shek) Guomindang. The one set back would be unwanted comparisons to the famine caused by Mao’s Great Leap Forward (大跃进), which was far worse in scale, but I’m sure Feng will skillfully skirt these issues.

Out of the ten, three have budgets over RMB 100 million: Jackie Chan directed and Raymond Wong produced Shi’er Shengxiao (十二生肖), director Ronny Yu’s Yangjiajiang (杨家将) is the first slated for release and most important, and Stephen Fung’s Tai Chi (太极). Stephen Fung assures us that “this will be completely different from other films about Tai Chi. This will have lots of special effects and show the civil and military uses of Tai Chi, the hardness and the softness, and also stress how it leads to a harmonious village.” Well given that, one can hardly see how it won’t do as well as last year’s Confucius, which also suffered under the pressure of filming something that has been deemed intrinsic to the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. I particularly liked how Tai Chi would be in line with Hu Jintao’s vision of a “harmonious society (和谐社会),” SARFT *tick*.

The “H plan” (nothing to do with heroin) also involves three sequels: Quanqiu Relian (全球热恋), Detective Dee: Prequel (狄仁杰前传), Painted Skin 2 (画皮2). It is unclear, however, whether Detective Dee and Painted Skin will be returning their rather star-studded, hence expensive, lineups. But, Quanqiu Relian seems to have amassed a nice selection of younger Hong Kong stars. With girls, Rene Liu (刘若英), Gui Lunmei (桂纶镁), and Angelababy (Ms. Baby to you) starring. And boys, Aaron Kwok (郭富城), Eason Chan (陈奕迅), Jing Boran (井柏然) starring.

The other highlight would be Pang Ho-Cheung’s (彭浩翔) description of how he would direct Hui Saijiao De Nvren Zuihaoming (会撒娇的女人最好命), where he seemed to be paraphrasing the Methodman and Redman blaxploitation-stoner flick How High (“If we study high, take the test high, get high marks”). Playing on the “High Hope Plan” Pang Ho-Cheung said: “I hope we produce a ‘HIGH’ movie, I myself will shoot it ‘HIGH,’ and the audience should watch it and feel ‘HIGH.’” We can only hope as much Mr. Pang.

[GeneChing]

I think we've got a thread going on each of the films mentioned in this article on this forum. BTW, I've finally found online stats of China's box office: China Box Office Performance (http://english.entgroup.cn/views.aspx)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
NOVEMBER 25, 2011

Hollywood's New Kick (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203699404577042221902298202.html?)
From Russell Crowe to Steven Soderbergh, top actors and directors are leaping into the global market for martial-arts movies. Why everybody is kung fu fighting.

By DON STEINBERG

In "Haywire," director Steven Soderbergh's movie due in January, Gina Carano is an international black-ops agent whose handlers betray her, so she needs to beat the brains out of a series of gentlemen, using roundhouse head kicks, low leg sweeps, suffocating choke holds and limb-cracking arm bars. Ms. Carano, a star mixed-martial-arts competitor, is demure and brutal in her leading-lady debut opposite veterans including Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor and Antonio Banderas. She looks like the cute girl in your office, if the cute girl could choke out Michael Fassbender with a leg triangle.

Four Decades of Martial Arts Movies

Forty years after Bruce Lee's "Fists of Fury" hit U.S. theaters in 1971, martial-arts movies are hitting the A list. The kung fu fix that we used to mainline from Hong Kong—with a little help from Japanese samurai flicks and artless American duds—now is available from a surprising number of countries.

As the world is shrinking, it's also coming together in its appreciation of kicking, lunging and screaming. Filmmakers in countries like Thailand and Indonesia do just fine feeding their own high-powered local economies—Asia-Pacific box office was up 21% in 2010. But everyone is exporting, too, with an especially covetous eye on China, especially if import restrictions lift.

Gareth Evans is a Welshman who directed "The Raid," an Indonesian action film which features the martial art known as silat. "This genre travels well," he says "You don't need to understand a foreign language to understand a martial-arts film." Sony snapped up the U.S. rights to "The Raid," one of several new films tailored partly for Western audiences, a generation happily raised on videogame mayhem.

Hollywood also is gearing up with bigger-budget films, with better scripts, more-accomplished directors, and bigger stars than Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme. With international revenues increasingly important, studios are targeting Asia with all kinds of films: "Avatar" and "Inception" were big hits in China. But "Kung Fu Panda 2" broke the opening-weekend record there this summer.

The marquee names attached to martial-arts projects are piling up like Uma Thurman's body count in "Kill Bill." Ryan Gosling has been training in Muay Thai to star in "Only God Forgives," about an exile in Bangkok who takes on nasty gangsters, to be directed by his "Drive" director Nicolas Winding Refn. Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to a planned series of films based on the Don Winslow novel "Satori," about a martial-arts-trained assassin. Keanu Reeves has wrapped up "47 Ronin," a Japanese martial-arts epic due next November, and plans to make his directorial debut helming "Man of Tai Chi," which he says will include 18 fights and 40 minutes of kung fu action.

Russell Crowe recently finished shooting "The Man With the Iron Fists" in Shanghai with Lucy Liu. The gory kung fu extravaganza was co-scripted by Eli Roth and musician RZA, who directed it.

"It's a blend of classic kung fu moviemaking with Hollywood storytelling," says RZA, whose rap group Wu-Tang Clan got its name from his lifelong fanaticism for vintage kung fu flicks.

Filmmakers already redid "The Karate Kid"—now there's talk of a feature-film version of the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu." In December, Robert Downey Jr. will display kung fu mastery in the "Sherlock Holmes" sequel, battling Dr. Moriarty in a climactic balcony fight. Next July, Christian Bale will put his kung fu training to work again as Batman, facing a villain played by Tom Hardy, who became a star this fall playing a mixed-martial-arts fighter in "Warrior," and with Anne Hathaway, who studied martial arts prepping to be Catwoman.

It's not hard to imagine why some of Hollywood's rich and famous have embraced martial arts. It's a lifestyle double play: Eastern philosophy plus a hard-core workout.

"We're in more of a fitness-obsessed Hollywood, an extreme-fitness-obsessed Hollywood," says Colin Geddes, a martial-arts-movie expert and programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival. So Evan Rachel Wood knows tae kwon do. Taylor Lautner and Courtney Cox do karate. Naomi Watts does Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Mr. Downey has credited kung fu with helping him kick drugs. He has worked with Wing Chun kung fu trainer Eric Oram since 2003.

"I was his fight double in the first film [in 2009], but I didn't need to do much," says Mr. Oram, who also has trained Mr. Bale and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Asian pop culture began seeping into the West in the 1990s, with a stream of Japanese imports: "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," Nintendo's Pokemon, "Iron Chef" and anime cartoons, notes Adam Ware, CEO of Mnet, a new U.S. cable channel featuring only Asian content. Decades of videogames like "Mortal Kombat" and "Street Fighter" have put martial arts in front of a generation. So have the karate and tae kwon do academies that seem to be in every town in America, trying to teach our kids some discipline. And mixed martial arts, where athletes combine Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Brazilian and American fighting styles, has exploded as a professional sport. The Ultimate Fighting Championship and Fox recently signed a $90 million, eight-year TV deal. (Fox is owned by News Corp., which publishes The Wall Street Journal.)

It's no surprise all this could lead to Michael Cera and Jason Schwartzman clashing swords in the comic-book-and-videogame-inspired movie "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (2010), or Emily Browning facing a giant samurai in "Sucker Punch" (2011).

continued next post

[GeneChing]

from previous post

Once upon a time, it was Hong Kong that cranked out most of the world's kung fu and swordplay movies, notably from the prolific Shaw Brothers studio. But early films weren't especially accessible to Western audiences. Director King Hu's "Come Drink With Me" (1966), which any genre snob will tell you is a seminal masterpiece, begins like a familiar Western. Bandits kidnap the governor's son on a dirt trail, hoping to trade him for their leader, who is in jail. The governor sends a killer called Golden Swallow—his daughter. The gang confronts her in a bar. She wins a sword fight and pays the proprietor for two horses. Then it quickly gets un-Western: the bandits shoot a boy in the eye with a poison dart. Then there's a musical number.

Bruce Lee was able to bridge cultures. Born in San Francisco to globe-trotting parents, he became a child actor in Hong Kong, where he learned kung fu and became a dance champion. He returned to the U.S. at age 19, invented the awesome "1-inch punch" (an extended-arm shoulder shrug), and trained celebrities in "the way of the intercepting fist." His role as Kato in the 1966 TV series "The Green Hornet" led to American success for his Hong Kong-made fight films, beginning with "Fists of Fury." With his ****y smile, come-fight-me hand gestures, and graceful but deadly moves, the chiseled Mr. Lee became an international sex symbol.

"There was physical appeal to him you didn't generally get in traditional representations of Asian men," says Minh-Ha Pham, an assistant professor of Asian studies at Cornell University. "His popularity among African-American and Latino audiences is interesting, too, as a racial underdog during the civil-rights era."

After Mr. Lee died in 1973, Hollywood's attempts to put Western (white) actors in his place fell flat. Messrs. Norris, Seagal and Van Damme were accomplished athletes, but they just seemed ****y out there. Anyway, why is a Chicago cop using Japanese aikido against armed drug dealers, like Mr. Seagal did in "Above the Law"?

"People are like, 'Why is he running around kicking people and no one's shot him yet?' " says Marrese Crump, an American martial artist who is starring in a new film being made in Thailand.

Hollywood auteurs like Mr. Soderbergh are trying to class things up. Of his "Haywire" he says: "I think there's maybe an assumption that if you take someone like Gina [Carano] and put them in a movie, it's going to have the patina of a B-movie. We wanted it to look like a piece of cinema."

In the 1980s, acrobatic Jackie Chan restored the fun by adding slapstick and hit-the-rewind-button stunts, performed without a double. He leaped from a cliff onto a hot-air balloon ("Armour of God") and slid down the outside of a skyscraper ("Who Am I?"). Mr. Chan co-starred with Chris Tucker in the blockbuster "Rush Hour" in 1998, the same year Jet Li made his Hollywood debut in "Lethal Weapon 4."

Other kung fu talent streamed to America in the wake of Hong Kong's 1997 turnover from the British to China. To make "The Matrix" (1999) and its sequels, the Wachowski brothers hired legendary Hong Kong action director Yuen Woo-Ping as a fight choreographer—so Michelle Yeoh's scorpion kick from Mr. Yuen's "Tai-Chi Master" (1993) became Carrie-Anne Moss's scorpion kick in "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003). It reportedly took Ms. Moss six months to learn the move, in which you bring a leg looping up from behind your head, like a scorpion's tail, to bonk someone on the noggin.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" smashed more barriers in 2000. Director Ang Lee, like Bruce Lee, was multicultural. Born in Taiwan, he'd directed "The Ice Storm" and other American films before "Crouching Tiger" and set out to make a picture that would please both sides of the Pacific. Wire-guided fighters alighting on treetops were wondrous to American audiences, but that was old hat for Mr. Lee, more like an homage. On the DVD commentary for the movie, Mr. Lee and producer/writer James Schamus joke about how they played to Western tastes by starting the movie with scene-setting dialogue instead of fights.

"I kind of feel sorry for the Chinese audience," Mr Lee says. "They have to wait 15 minutes before the action takes off."

Since then China's film business has boomed. Despite restrictions, Chinese box office rose 64% in 2010, to $1.5 billion, and is on track to hit $2 billion this year, already one-fifth of U.S.-Canada revenues, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. The aggressive expansion is attracting U.S. filmmakers who want to tap the fast-growing market with China-friendly themes that make government censors happy. It's no coincidence the 2010 "Karate Kid" remake, with Mr. Chan and Jaden Smith, replaces the Japanese karate of the original with Chinese kung fu (Mr. Chan's "Rush Hour 3" had been banned in China, presumably for depicting a Chinese crime family). Films made as co-productions with Chinese companies aren't considered foreign there, so they can skirt the state quota of 20 imports per year. Mr. Reeves's "Man of Tai Chi" is being funded by Australia-based Village Roadshow along with the state-backed China Film Group and Wanda Group, China's largest movie-theater operator.

The Chinese market is large enough that films made there don't need Western appeal to make big money. "The question is, will their industry evolve the way Hong Kong's did, with a focus on exports, or more like India, where the country is so large and the tastes so specific that it's a completely in-country industry?" says Jonathan Wolf, managing director of the American Film Market.

One 2011 Chinese martial-arts film with Western sensibilities is "Wu Xia," from director Peter Chan, which Weinstein Co. signed for U.S. distribution at Cannes (so far there's just a Blu-ray with English subtitles available). Hong Kong superstar Donnie Yen portrays a modest papermaker raising a family in a quiet village—but he may be a vicious killer in hiding! When he displays a bit too much expertise dusting off a pair of thieves, a detective (Takeshi Kaneshiro) starts poking around. The story focuses on character and plot more than many Chinese epics do, and its presentation is modern, using slow-mo fight replays and computer-animated anatomy sequences to illustrate the forensic detective work.

"The Raid" from Indonesia combines SWAT-team-versus-gangster slaughter with a discipline of martial arts called silat. Mr. Evans, the director, who discovered lead actor Iko Uwais while filming a documentary about silat in West Sumatra, explains the technique: "All of the strikes are done with an open palm. You strike with base of your hand, and your fingers are kind of in a claw, so you can immediately grab and pull the person back in, for an extra hit." Sony Pictures bought the American rights to "The Raid" based on 10 minutes of raw footage shown in a Cannes hotel room this spring.

"The Raid" wraps its brutal fighting around an ingenious premise. A crime lord based on the top floor of a building has leased lower floors to various criminals, and the SWAT team must defeat opponents one level at a time before reaching the boss. It's a videogame. Still, Mr. Evans says it took creativity to feature so much martial arts in a movie where everybody is packing heavy artillery.

"We had to find ways we could get weapons to run out of bullets, to break, people to lose helmets," he says. "The first 20 minutes is very gunplay-heavy. We gradually get rid of those guns and move towards nightsticks and knives. Once we lose those, we can go into hand-to-hand combat. We didn't want it to start martial-arts-heavy, because it just wouldn't make sense. I'm hoping that plays well in the U.S."

[GeneChing]

Well played by Zhang Yimou. I guess I have to see this now...

Box Office Report: Christian Bale's 'Flowers of War' Already Top-Grossing Chinese Film of 2011 (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/christian-bale-flowers-of-war-dark-knight-china-box-office-277004)
3:55 PM PST 12/30/2011 by Pamela McClintock
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2011/12/baleflower_a.jpg
"The Flowers of War"
The historical epic, directed by Zhang Yimou, has earned nearly $70 million in China since opening two weeks ago.

Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War, with Christian Bale headlining, is doing big business in its home country, where it's already become the top grossing Chinese film of 2011.

Through Dec. 29, the movie has grossed $66 million (400 million yuan) at the Chinese box office, where it's competing with Jet Li action pic Flying Swords of Dragon Gate. Flowers of War, about the Japanese invasion of Nanjing, opened Dec. 16.

Until Flowers of War, the No. 1 Chinese film of the year was Beginning of the Great Revival, which grossed $62 million.

Hollywood tentpoles are the top two earners overall -- Paramount's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen grossed a massive $145.5 million in China, followed by DreamWorks Animation and Paramount's Kung Fu Panda 2 with $92.2 million. Both films had the advantage of higher 3D ticket prices.

Among other Hollywood movies, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides eared $71.8 million China, while Warner Bros.' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 grossed $63.6 million.

Flowers of War will pass Pirates this weekend, and has a shot at overtaking Kung Fu Panda 2.

Costing $100 million to produce, Flowers of War is the most expensive Chinese production in history and was fully financed by Zhang Weiping's New Pictures Film Co. It's one of the first times that a Western actor has played the lead role in a Chinese production of this size.

Bale's recent dust up with Chinese security guards when trying to visit blind activist Chen Guangcheng haven't hurt the movie. Bale attempted to met with Chen days after attending the premiere of Flowers of War in Beijing.

Flowers of War is China's official submission for the Oscar for best foreign language film, and is being distributed in the U.S. by Chris Ball's Wrekin Hill Entertainment.

[GeneChing]

Isn't that phrase on every director's text quick notes?


Acting's school of hard knocks (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-01/27/content_14494472.htm)
Updated: 2012-01-27 07:29
By Liu Wei (China Daily)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/attachement/jpg/site1/20120127/f04da2db1122108c2d3020.jpg
Extras clad in Qing Dynasty costumes take a break on a palace set in China's biggest film base in Hengdian, Zhejiang province. Photos provided to China Daily

Young would-be actress finds that getting into the glamorous world of film is not an easy act. Liu Wei reports.

"Come to my room tonight for the audition," was the only message she got - nothing more, just a simple text message.

And it had Zhang Wenli thinking that maybe it was time to give up her dreams of being a film star.

The year was 2006, and Zhang had worked for her third year as an extra in Hengdian, a small town in Zhejiang province, and China's largest film center. It has every kind of set imaginable - palaces, residences, old streets, different dynastic settings, and so on.

Every day, producers and directors are at work on dozens of films or TV dramas with everyone, from the big shots, such as Jet Li and Jackie Chan, down to thousands of bit-part actors and part-timers, such as Zhang.

She first went to Hengdian in 2004, as an 18-year-old dance student at a community college. At her school in Shandong province, 1,100 km from Hengdian, she'd heard endless stories about the town, from seniors who had worked there.

She had long dreamed of being a film star since back when she was a girl, and now she found that she just couldn't wait any more. She pleaded with her parents and teachers, explaining that acting in a real film would teach her a lot more than reading books in school.

Finally, she boarded a train to Hengdian with two classmates. The three girls didn't even know the journey would take 15 hours, but, with all the excitement, they didn't sleep a wink on the train.

The joy and excitement didn't last long. The only lodging they could find was a 20-square-meter room, which they had to share. They walked around the town leaving their address with the actors' guild, and in the first week found nothing at all.

Acting's school of hard knocks

Then, just as they were about to run out of money, they found a notice stuck to their door asking them to come join a TV drama at 6:00 the next morning. The three girls laughed with surprise and hugged each other. But that first job turned out to be nothing more than just standing around with hundreds of the "emperor's maids".

Then Zhang got a bit luckier and was picked out by the assistant director, who asked her to just say one sentence. She made four attempts at the 10 words and couldn't pronounce them correctly. The director gave up and asked her to count from one to 10. Then he said he'd have someone dub the part in later.

Zhang was irritated and bravely pushed the director to give her a fifth chance. This time it was a success and she ended up with 40 yuan ($6) for the day, twice the amount her friends had made. And she thought she was now starting out on the path to becoming the next Zhang Ziyi or Gong Li.

For the next two years, she got nothing but small roles with just a few lines.

She tried to improve her acting skills, watching one film after another at the Internet cafes in town. She didn't have enough money to buy a computer.

Looking back, she says, "Watching how an actor steals the show was the most important part of my self-study." If she got any role in a TV drama, she would use what she'd learned.

At one point, she was playing a concubine who was standing by a table as the man and his wife were having dinner. The next take had the wife flying into a rage and slamming her bowl down on the table. The script had no description of Zhang's response, but she shivered dramatically when the bowl hit the table. The director liked it and kept the cut in the final version.

By her third year in Hengdian, Zhang could earn about 4,000 yuan ($634) a month, but she didn't find her dream getting any closer.

There were literally thousands of extras working in Hengdian, very few of them from the top list. Most had never even studied acting in school. At the same time, there were hundreds of film or drama school graduates flooding into the town and the industry every year.

Once, while she was a stand-in for the supporting role in The Forbidden Kingdom, which starred Jackie Chan, Zhang met the star himself. Chan gave the bit-part actors some of his own brand of clothing, but the most useful thing he gave Zhang was a bit of advice: Being an actor isn't easy.

"I began to regret quitting school so early," she says. "I'd hoped to learn more about acting and become a qualified actress."

Soon, as she got a peek at the darker side of the industry, she found she might need more than just acting skills: She might need a hard heart.

One director said he appreciated her talent and wanted her to star in his next work. Zhang was overjoyed and eagerly did what he asked her to do in his text message: go to his room at midnight for an audition. She ended up humiliated and outraged, but managed to escape.

The third time this happened, Zhang sadly decided to give up her dream.

"I'm not saying all actresses need to go through this experience to be famous, but things like this do happen and I'm just not tough enough to handle them," she explains.

And, "I was an extra, without a diploma, and no outstanding skills or powerful friends in the industry. I felt helpless."

She thought that working behind the scenes might at least give her something more "down-to-earth". So she made friends with some of the crew members, make-up artists, cinematographers and prop makers, and learned a lot.

Then in late 2006 she found out that some college students were making a movie in Yunnan province and were looking for an assistant to the producer. She sent them an e-mail.

The film was a bold attempt by a group of students who were a bit younger than she was and they soon became friends. The students liked her and didn't really care whether she was a veteran or not. The filming was more like an adventure that allowed young people to come together.

Zhang made full use of this unusually precious chance and scouted around for actors and locations, negotiated with locals over room rents or the use of cattle, and coordinated the actors' and producers' schedules.

"I was like a lunatic," she recalls with a laugh. "On the bus, on the streets, literally everywhere, I'd grab complete strangers I thought might be good in our film. Some got angry and some thought I was a bit crazy."

For help, she turned to some friends she'd made during her Hengdian years. Some sent her samples of call sheets, others taught her over the phone or Internet about communicating with actors, producers and directors.

For one week, her first meal of the day came after midnight and scripts covered her walls, her bed, and floor. Call sheets and scripts littered the place. After the filming finished, she got a second chance to work for a TV drama.

And, she still watches a lot of films - on her laptop. Her focus has shifted to film budgets, flaws in production and design, and figuring out how the producer juggles the schedules of two lead actors.

Her dream of becoming a big star may have ground to a halt, but Zhang's good at comforting herself.

"I've seen Jackie Chan. Every step, every move he makes, he's surrounded by a dozen or more people. That's not an easy life to lead," she concludes.

[GeneChing]

Flowers of War probably deserves its own thread. It's not MA-oriented but obviously a significant Chinese film.

January 31, 2012, 2:26 PM HKT
Flaying ‘Flowers’: An Example of Western Media’s Bias Against China (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/01/31/flaying-flowers-an-example-of-western-media%E2%80%99s-bias-against-china/)
By Yiyi Lu

There has been a long and on-going debate between some Chinese and westerners on whether the western media are biased in their China coverage or not. As defenders of western media rightly point out, negative news and critical commentaries may displease the Chinese, but they do not necessarily amount to biased coverage. Besides, there are plenty of positive stories about China in the western media too.

But the accusation of bias does not seem entirely unfounded. A case in point: Western media’s treatment of Zhang Yimou’s Nanjing massacre film “The Flowers of War.”

When news came out that “Flowers” had failed to win a Golden Globe award and was not even shortlisted for an Oscar nomination in the best foreign-language film category, some Chinese said the result was just what they had expected given that the film had been described as an anti-Japanese propaganda in biased western media reports.

On the issue of China’s dispute with Japan over the presentation of World War II history, there is a clear tendency for many western media reports to employ double standards, underplay the sufferings of the Chinese people during Japanese occupation and turn the coverage of the history dispute into attacks on the Chinese government.

In a post entitled “The Flowers of War Brings out the Worst of Western Media,” Cfensi, a general news blog on Chinese entertainment, comments on some examples of tendentious western media reports about the film:

Jonathan Landreth at the AFP skillfully uses the title “Christian Bale denies his Chinese film is propaganda” followed by the statement that the film is one of “a string of films and TV series from China promoting national unity against an evil Japan.” …he’s excellent at making falsehoods true – first make an arbitrary accusation, then make the accusation’s denial the headline, and finally affirm the accusation as fact without any evidence whatsoever.

Laurie Burkitt and Tom Orlik at the WSJ…complain that “nuanced treatment of the Chinese characters is in stark contrast with portrayal of the Japanese as monochrome monsters.” Do these people not realize the immorality that comes from humanizing (aka: finding excuses) for rapists and mass murderers? Maybe, just maybe, there’s a reason why we don’t expect films with good Japanese soldiers during the Nanking massacres, just like how we don’t expect there to be good Nazis in a Holocaust movie.

While the Cfensi post may be too harsh, the comparison of “Flowers” with Holocaust movies is telling. Numerous Holocaust movies have been made that portray Nazis as evil incarnate, but one does not see western media describing them as anti-German propaganda that “lacks subtlety.” Yet, when Chinese films on the Japanese occupation during World War II come out, western media reports are often quick to deplore their portrayal of Japanese soldiers as “one-dimensional savages” and their “demonization of the Japanese army,” despite acknowledging that the Japanese army had committed many atrocities, including during the Nanjing Massacre.

According to Cfensi, a number of western media outlets, including Variety, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian and CNN, also erroneously claimed that the Flowers of War was partially funded by the Chinese state, implying that the film was state-backed nationalistic propaganda. In fact, it only received a loan from a private Chinese bank.

Accusing “Flowers” of being anti-Japanese propaganda or “one-dimensional” is but the latest manifestation of mainstream western media’s propensity to criticize China when covering the history of China’s fraught relations with Japan. Often, reports on Chinese protests over perceived Japanese attempts to whitewash its militaristic past are turned into warnings about rising Chinese nationalism deliberately fostered and manipulated by the Chinese government. Stories about new Japanese history textbooks that gloss over Japan’s wartime aggression become discussions of problems with China’s own history textbooks.

For example, in April 2005, after protests broke out in China following the approval of new Japanese textbooks that whitewashed Japan’s wartime atrocities, AFP’s coverage contained the following:

While learning materials in [Chinese] mainland high schools take special pains to outline Japanese aggression beginning with the 1874 invasion of Taiwan, China’s involvement in the 1950-53 Korean war is dismissed in one sentence.

The Los Angeles Times said:

China has criticized Japan in recent weeks for whitewashing its militarist history, focusing in particular on a junior high school textbook recently approved by Tokyo.

“Yes, what Japan did in World War II is horrible,” said Sam Crane, Asian studies professor at Williams College in Massachusetts. “But the embarrassing fact for the Communist Party, and one that is not taught in Chinese schools, is that the party itself is responsible for many more deaths of Chinese people than those caused by Japanese militarism.”

And the Financial Times offered its readers the following:

For those seeking graphic if not necessarily balanced accounts of Japanese infamy, there is no better place to look than China…

But China’s schoolbooks, carefully edited to ensure they do not contradict the official historical verdicts of the ruling Communist party, have their own conspicuous absences. Texts for middle and upper school students give great detail about the party’s resistance against Japanese oppression, but gloss over or ignore most of its less glorious moments. The brutal 1989 suppression of pro-democracy protests centred on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square is ignored.

It is not that Chinese history textbooks do not have their own problems, or that western media do not have the right to discuss those problems. But there is an appropriate time and place for such discussions. To attack Chinese schoolbooks in the middle of reports about Japanese attempts to whitewash its history of invasion and occupation of other countries is morally dubious to say the least.

Suppose, when discussing Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews, western media reports were to say: “Yes, the Jewish people suffered a great deal during World War II, but Israel has also occupied Palestinian territories and killed innocent Palestinian civilians.” They would cause public outrage and may even be accused of trying to make excuses for the Holocaust. Yet, it has been perfectly acceptable for western media to effectively say “Yes, Japan did horrible things to the Chinese, but the Chinese government did horrible things to its own people too.”

Do we take this to mean Japan’s wartime atrocities in China are insignificant? Do the Chinese have no right to criticize Japanese textbooks?

It is one thing for western media to be critical of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party. It’s quite another to let their views of the CCP color their reports on the history row between China and Japan. Using criticisms of the CCP to divert attention away from the suffering of the Chinese people at the hands of Japanese militarists during World War II — and the refusal of some Japanese to fully acknowledge the past — and to do so consistently, this is what I would call biased media coverage.

Yiyi Lu, an expert on Chinese civil society, is currently working on a project to promote open government information in China. She is the author of “Non-Governmental Organisations in China: The Rise of Dependent Autonomy” (Routledge 2008).

[GeneChing]

I've been thinking the category II & III is China but that's actually an HK thing.

Thu, 02 February 2012 03:52 AM (HKT)
Bona to introduce movie ratings to China (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/bona-to-introduce-movie-ratings-to-china)
By Stephen Cremin

Tue, 31 January 2012, 16:15 PM (HKT)
Exhibition News

Chinese cinema exhibitor Beijing Bona Starlight Cineplex Management 北京博納星光影院管理有限公司, a subsidiary of Bona Film Group Ltd 博納影業集團有限公司, announced yesterday that it will introduce its own movie ratings system.

China does not currently have a nationwide film classification system and widespread industry calls to introduce one have not been supported by government agencies. Many ratings systems operating internationally are themselves industry-run.

The announcement was made on Weibo, China's Twitter-like micro-blogging service. While the initial posts have since been deleted, Starlight's general manager Huang Wei (黃巍) has since clarified the chain's position in local media interviews.

Huang stresses that the motivation is to help audience members make decisions about films that have already been approved for cinema exhibition by the State Administration of Radio, Film & Television (SARFT) 國家廣播電影電視總局.

He specifically emphasised the need to support children and elderly cinema patrons and stated that the system, whose details are still under discussion, will be modelled on the three-category Hong Kong system due to its innate simplicity.

Jin Bo (金波), marketing director of Bona Cineplex (博納國際影院), stated that the in-house system — which could launch in late February — will only give guidance and will not enforce any age restrictions.

There are signs that Chinese censorship has become more leniant in the past eighteen months, in what has proven to be a cyclical process over the past decade with SARFT reacting to films that have been perceived to cross a line.

With no hard-and-fast rules, the degree of censorship is somewhat dictated by the willingness of producers and distributors to negotiate over requested cuts. Several key figures in SARFT are former film-makers who can be sympathetic to applicants.

Examples of recent Chinese films with adult themes that might be age restricted in Europe and North America include JIANG Wen 姜文's Let the Bullets Fly 讓子彈飛 (2010) and LU Chuan 陸川's City of Life and Death 南京！南京！ (2008).

Film-makers that have come out in support of a classification system in the past include ZHANG Yimou 張藝謀, whose The Flowers of War 金陵十三釵 and Shanghai Triad 搖呀搖！搖到外婆橋 (1995) are both R-rated in North America.

There are persistent claims that the introduction of a classification system in China would boost box office as it would broaden the range of films produced and exhibited, and help target the marketing of individual films to specific groups.

For example, relaxed censorship has helped give birth to a local horror genre with Chinese cinemas currently screening bloody slasher Harpoon 驚魂遊戲 (pictured) starring Monica MOK 莫小棋 and South Korea's PARK No-shik 박노식.

At a Beijing Screenings 北京放映 forum in Sep 2010, USC professor Stanley Rosen stated that surveys indicate that 90% of the Chinese population support the introduction of a local classification system.

[GeneChing]

Chinese films struggle in world market (http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2012-02/14/content_24629865.htm)
CRI, February 14, 2012

Chinese martial arts is globally known, and Chinese Kung Fu films have become the face of most Chinese cinema. But the country has also produced many other successful genres of films, most of which remain unknown to the world. What is the reason behind it?

Bruce Lee, the late famous Kung Fu actor, sparked a major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. His films elevated traditional Kung Fu movies to a new level of popularity and acclaim.

According to the Box Office Mojo website, four Chinese Kung Fu movies including "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Hero", "Jet Li's Fearless" and "Kung Fu Hustle" are in the top 10 of all foreign language movies from 1980 to present. Kung Fu movies are always the bestsellers of Chinese films in the West.

But not all chinese movies are as successful. "Aftershocks", a film based on the Tangshan earthquake, was one of the highest grossing films in the Chinese market in 2010, but it only received about 63 thousand US dollars in America.

Li Huailiang, dean of Comm. Univ. of China, said, "We should use western people's ways to tell Chinese stories. But in fact, we're not doing well on this point."

The same year, another Chinese martial arts film "The Karate Kid", co-produced by China and the US, entered the international film market. The box office of this low budge film reached about 20 million US dollars abroad. In the film, a 12-year-old boy from Detroit moves to Beijing, and learns Kung Fu from a Chinese master for self-defense. This kind of story seems to overcome the barrier between different nationalities and warm people's heart.

Zhou Tiedong, gen. manager of China Film Promotion Int'l, said, "Our movies should tell the stories about Chinese people, as human beings, which can arouse echoes among people all over the world."

In 2012, the Chinese blockbuster "Flowers of War", directed by Zhang Yimou, was selected as the Chinese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film in 84th Academy Awards, but didn't make the final shortlist. The country is getting closer, but to make an international mark, Chinese film makers still have a long way to go.I saw Aftershock. I'll have to see Flowers of War eventually.

[GeneChing]

There's a vid if you follow the link

FEBRUARY 16, 2012
DreamWorks to Unveil China Deal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204059804577225614035354578.html)
By LAURIE BURKITT and ETHAN SMITH

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. is expected to disclose details this week about a planned production studio in Shanghai, a joint venture involving two Chinese government-backed media entities, according to people familiar with the matter.

An announcement of the venture is planned for during a visit to Los Angeles by China's presumptive next leader, Vice President Xi Jinping, as part of this week's high-profile U.S. tour. Mr. Xi may attend a ceremony marking the studio deal, a person familiar with the matter said. The announcement could take place even if Mr. Xi doesn't attend, this person said, adding that the announcement could still be canceled for other reasons.

DreamWorks Animation, based in Glendale, Calif., declined to comment.

The potential partnership, and Mr. Xi's visit, comes as U.S. trade officials are seeking to resolve a dispute over movies that has essentially been at a stalemate since 2009, when the World Trade Organization sided with the U.S. in ruling that China should open its market to foreign films.

The ruling sought to lift a requirement that foreign movies be sold through a government-run monopoly, which allows only around 20 foreign movies a year to be distributed in China, with box-office revenue split between a state-owned distributor and the producer. Additional films may be exhibited under financial terms less favorable to foreign producers.

The U.S. has argued that controls discriminate against foreign films, limit revenues for the foreign film industry and fuel piracy. U.S. studio representatives have pushed China to increase the number of foreign films it lets in the country.

"Kung Fu Panda 2" was the No. 2 grossing movie in China in 2011.

China missed a deadline to comply with World Trade Organization rules in March 2011. Few industry insiders expect China to directly address WTO violations by allowing foreign studios to distribute directly through cinemas.

Films that foreign studios develop with local partners aren't subject to China's quota, however. By linking with local partners, DreamWorks Animation would be following a path taken by other Western studios, which have been recruiting local business partners on both individual films and broader production initiatives.

The DreamWorks Animation studio will tap as partners Shanghai Media Group, one of China's largest television broadcasters, and China Media Capital, according to one of the people familiar with the situation. DreamWorks' Chinese partners were identified earlier in a report by the Financial Times.

Negotiations on the film dispute have been an uphill struggle for the U.S., which has had very little bargaining power with China.

"The U.S. doesn't have the will to do anything to retaliate," said Stanley Rosen, an expert on Chinese films and a professor of political science at the University of Southern California. "Hollywood still thinks China is the only real expanding market in the world and doesn't want to lose out if and when China opens up."

China's government, meanwhile, has been eager for its homegrown studios to learn from Hollywood's know-how so that it can make big productions and export the country's culture overseas. It launched earlier this month China Mainstream Media National Film Capital Hollywood Inc., a first-ever government backed film fund in the U.S. market to finance and U.S.-China co-productions.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office, Carol Guthrie, said that the U.S. "continues to seek to address compliance issues in a way that achieves real and meaningful commercial goals such as getting more market access for U.S. films in China on commercial terms."

The Motion Picture Association of America, the trade group that represents Hollywood film studios, declined to comment.

China has been loath to change its film regulations as it looks to protect its domestic industry. The number of locally produced films shot up 50% in 2011 from a year earlier, to 791, according to media research firm EntGroup Inc. But Hollywood movies still dominate China's box offices. Five of the 10 top-grossing films in China in 2011 were U.S. productions.

Dan Mintz, chief executive of DMG Entertainment, a 19-year-old movie studio headquartered in Beijing with offices in Hollywood, said the DreamWorks venture could help spur the Chinese market.

"This is good for everyone," he said.

The DreamWorks Animation facility would produce animated films specifically for China, where the company's "Kung Fu Panda 2" earned about $93 million dollars last summer.

The nation's box-office revenue in 2011 climbed to about 13.1 billion yuan, or nearly $2.1 billion, up 28.8% from the 2010 level, according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

[GeneChing]

More Hollywood films set for China (http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/21/showbiz/china-us-film/index.html)
By Elizabeth Yuan, CNN
updated 6:50 AM EST, Tue February 21, 2012
Under the new U.S.-China deal, more IMAX or 3D films are being allowed into China.

Hong Kong (CNN) -- In a boon for IMAX and movie-watchers in China alike, a deal struck between the United States and China last week raises the number of 3D, IMAX and similar enhanced-format movies released in China.

China has remained mostly closed to Hollywood, with a quota of 20 foreign films per year, most of them being from the United States. Under the agreement, announced during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's trip to Los Angeles with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, 14 additional IMAX or 3D films would be allowed. Foreign film companies will also be permitted to take a 25% cut of the box office, nearly double the current 13%-17%.

In a White House statement, Biden said the deal would support "thousands of American jobs in and around the film industry," adding that "Chinese audiences will have access to more of the finest films made anywhere in the world." Some 2.2 million Americans have jobs that depend on the film and television industries, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

IMAX, which has 217 theatres open or contracted to open in China, hailed the move, saying in a statement Saturday that it was "also committed to bringing Chinese films presented in our format to the U.S."

On February 14, the company said that its first quarter box office of the year was $55 million, up from $38 million during the same period last year, driven primarily by "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol," which accounted for nearly half those earnings. The Chinese film, "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate," rounded the top four with $3.7 million.

Last year, Chinese box office revenue exceeded $2.1 billion, much of the revenues from 3D titles, the White House noted.

The deal resolves film-related issues related to a 2009 World Trade Organization ruling siding with the United States. According to the ruling, China's measures relating to the importation and distribution of films, sound recordings, audiovisual home entertainment products and reading materials breached its trading rights commitments as a WTO member.

Hollywood has been battling piracy in China, despite Beijing's closure of piracy websites, in no small part due to the limited access of U.S. films to Chinese screens.

Allen Wan, head of production for Hong Kong-based Salon Films Group which has worked with Hollywood companies in Asia, was positive about the deal. "Chinese audiences can see more films from the U.S. properly, officially. And on the other hand, I think it will increase more opportunities for Chinese and U.S. film (companies) to cooperate together to produce more films."

"The Flowers of War," directed by Chinese director Zhang Yimou and starring Oscar-winner Christian Bale, cost $100 million to make, the largest production made in China. The film, which is set during Japan's occupation of Nanjing and the 1937 massacre, was China's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Its executive producer is David Linde, CEO of Lava Bear Films and former chairman of Universal Pictures. (He was also executive producer for Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.")

The movie has failed to connect with U.S. audiences, however. For the week of February 14, it was playing in six locations, down from 30 when it opened, with an average gross of $550 per location, according to Boxoffice.com. The film's overall U.S. gross during its four-week run? $213,792, at last count.

On Friday, coinciding with the U.S.-China film deal, DreamWorks Animation announced a joint venture with China Media Capital (CMC) and two other Chinese companies to establish a China-focused family entertainment company, Oriental DreamWorks. "In addition to content creation, the joint venture will pursue business opportunities in the areas of live entertainment, theme parks, mobile, online, interactive games and consumer products," DreamWorks Animation said in its announcement.

The venture will have an initial capitalization of $330 million.

The Chinese companies will hold a 55% majority stake; DreamWorks Animation will hold about 45%, according to the announcement. On the agenda: "Kung Fu Panda 3," Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua cited CMC chief investment officer Li Huaiyu as saying in an exclusive interview.

DreamWorks Animation's "Kung Fu Panda" was the top animated film released in China in 2008, according to the company. The sequel, which made $95 million at the Chinese box office last year, was second only to "Transformers 3," which brought in $170 million. They can't sell Flowers of War to audiences here, but we can sell Transformers there. Interesting turn of the tables that.

[Jimbo]

They can't sell Flowers of War to audiences here, but we can sell Transformers there. Interesting turn of the tables that.

I don't think a movie like Flowers of War would have much appeal outside of China. I've never seen any of the Transformers movies, but I would assume that they're a lot more 'fun' than a movie like Flowers. I know if given a choice, I'd rather be entertained at the movies.

[enoajnin]

John Scalzi wrote an article about the new rules about Chinese film imports and how it will affect the American film industry. Basically, expect to see more big budget Sci-Fi and Fantasy Films.


However, a new film deal between the U.S. and China was announced last week. It does a number of things, including allowing for the creation of independent (i.e. not state-run) film distributors and an increase in the amount of the box office foreign (i.e. U.S.) film studios can take home with them -- it'll now be up to 25%, which is a significant bump. But more importantly it allows for an increase in the number of foreign films that can be shown in China. The Chinese government will allow for an additional 14 foreign films a year to unspool in its theaters.

You can read the whole article here: John Scalzi on Film (http://www.filmcritic.com/features/2012/02/china-can-change-future-science-fiction-film/)

John Scalzi is probably best know for writing "The Old Man's War"

[GeneChing]

I don't think a movie like Flowers of War would have much appeal outside of China. I've never seen any of the Transformers movies, but I would assume that they're a lot more 'fun' than a movie like Flowers. I know if given a choice, I'd rather be entertained at the movies. I totally agree. While I have yet to see Flowers, it may well fit into these heavily propagandized films that PRC. That just doesn't fly outside the PRC. We have our own U.S. propaganda to watch. Unless your a sinologist, PRC propaganda isn't particularly entertaining.

Aftershock is a great example. Aftershock was this Chinese blockbuster flick about the Tangshan and Sichuan earthquakes. Now, those of us who have been to China realize that the notion of a massive earthquake there is absolutely horrifying. Tangshan had 655,000 casualties; Sichuan had nearly 70K. The earthquake scenes are intense. It's a spin on Sophie's Choice, only with the quake instead of Nazis, and we learn what happens to the losing child. The first half is great, one of those terribly depressing Chinese tragedies, but engaging. The PLA are such heroes, and some of the scenes of the PLA in dress and rank are gorgeous. The film is fundamentally pro PLA propaganda. The second half starts racing through scenes, robbing us of the potential emotional impact of what was looking like some promising story arcs. The ending was completely unsatisfying and couldn't be saved, even with a sword fight.

[doug maverick]

thats the thing about alot of the chinese films, especially the martial arts ones coming out now...they are so **** propagandist...its like yes we get chinese people strong! everyone else weak! we got it! the only film that has blown me away besides some of the indie stuff coming out of their has been wuxia..i still have to the tsui hark film...but i remember watching yip man 2 and just becoming disgusted with it..because i felt the film should of been about yip man, adjusting to hong kong and having to deal with all the masters, the movies climax should have been yip man taking on sammos hung ga character, and them becoming friends and showing martial spirit...would have been a much much better movie and the message would have been better too. but whatever sales right?

[GeneChing]

DreamWorks Animation unveils China studio plans (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/02/dreamworks-animation-china-studio-oriental-dreamworks.html)
February 17, 2012 | 2:33 pm

DreamWorks Animation on Friday announced plans to build a studio in Shanghai, in what the Glendale-based company billed as a landmark agreement with two state-owned Chinese media companies.

The creator of the "Shrek" movies said it was forming Oriental DreamWorks, a joint venture with China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group in concert with Shanghai Alliance Investment -- an investment arm of the Shanghai municipal government -- to establish a family entertainment company in China.

With an initial investment of $330 million, the Shanghai studio would develop original Chinese animated and live-action movies, TV shows and other entertainment catering to the China market. The deal was among several business ventures announced in downtown Los Angeles during an economic forum attended by visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is widely expected to be the country's next leader.

"We share the same vision with DreamWorks Animation to build a world-class family entertainment company," Ruigang Li, chairman of China Media Capital said in a statement. "Oriental DreamWorks will be a unique position to create high-quality content and interactive entertainment products for China and international markets."

The new studio, which has been recruiting some staff in Hollywood, plans to begin operations later this year and could eventually surpass the size of DreamWorks' headquarters, which employs more than 2,000 people, Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said in an interview.

"Our objective is to build an animation studio that is competitive with what we’re doing here," Katzenberg said. "We already have people working on over a half-dozen projects."

The studio eventually hopes to produce one animated feature film a year, with its first release set for 2016. Additional animators will be hired locally to accommodate the new China facility, Katzenberg added.

The joint venture is the latest push by Hollywood to mine the world's largest country. Last year, DreamWorks signed a deal with online video site Youku.com to distribute the studio's popular "Kung Fu Panda" movies in China. Beverly Hills-based RealD also has partnered with Beijing SAGA Luxury Cinema Management Co. to equip the Chinese theater chain with 3-D technology. Production companies Relativity and Legendary East also have unveiled new ventures to co-finance and release movies in China.

"When you look out five to seven years from now, China will be the No. 1 media market in the world," Katzenberg said. "It’s a huge opportunity for us."

Major Hollywood studios have been frustrated, however, by rampant intellectual-property piracy in China, as well as restrictions the government places on the number of foreign films it allows into the country, and how much revenue foreign studios can share.

Talks between U.S. and Chinese officials to ease those restrictions have heated up this week, raising the possibility that an agreement could be reached during Xi's U.S. visit.
I'm impressed that Xi's trip had so many ramifications for Chollywood. That was well played. Xi is next in line as China's top leader. Given the way PRC politricks works, all he has to do is lay low and he'll get it. If he makes too many enemies, they'll bring him down. So there were a lot of eyes on his trip. If he chummied up to America too much, that might have reflected poorly back home. However making ties in Hollywood is a perfect solution - it makes everyone happy. It's a total win-win.

As for the political agenda in film, I address that in my inaugural Chollywood Rising column: Foreign Devils in 2010 September/October (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=913) issue.

[GeneChing]

I don't think a movie like Flowers of War would have much appeal outside of China. I've never seen any of the Transformers movies, but I would assume that they're a lot more 'fun' than a movie like Flowers. I know if given a choice, I'd rather be entertained at the movies.

Zhang Weiping is bellyaching over this but the bottom line is a flop is a flop.

The Blame Game (http://www.chinesefilms.cn/1/2012/03/05/141s7831.htm)
2012-03-05 09:34:00 China Daily

Zhang Weiping, producer of Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War, blames Hollywood and the United States press for "Nanjing Massacre denial". China Photo Press

Zhang Yimou is humble and sincere, but the man behind him delivers an Oscar-worthy performance of the bad cop, again.

Zhang Yimou may be the biggest filmmaker in China, but his producing partner, Zhang Weiping (no relation to the director) is extremely good at something else, namely spreading around culpability.

Recently, producer Zhang launched into a tirade against Hollywood and the United States press, essentially accusing them of "Nanjing Massacre denial".

In a series of media interviews, Zhang said that because "many Japanese denied the Nanjing Massacre, and two of the biggest film studios in Hollywood are owned by Japanese, Hollywood naturally identified with the Japanese view and concluded that The Flowers of War does not respect history, but is based on fabrication."

He specifically mentioned the review by The New York Times, which was published on Dec 20, 2011, as "changing the tide of public opinion in the West". In previews before that, he claimed, the film was "warmly embraced".

Government darling?

Zhang Weiping reasoned the West got its preconceived notions about the film from three sources: Zhang Yimou directed the Beijing Olympics show, the film got a loan from a State-owned bank, and had its premiere in a government building.

Of course, none of that determines it has to be a government-funded film. While all movies produced in China have to be government approved for content, not all are made by the government or government-owned entities.

But is it true that the perceived government association with Zhang Yimou's new war epic undermined its box-office performance in the US?

From what I have read, US press coverage of the film indeed showed some anxiety about the subject matter - whether it might be too "jingoistic" or whether it embodies some kind of government agenda. But once the critics saw the movie, it was pretty clear that what they did not like was the style rather than the content.

The story itself, while highly melodramatic, has a kernel of truth as it was recorded in the personal journal of Minnie Vautrin, the American missionary educator who saved many Chinese refugees from Japanese brutality.

Mike Hale, the New York Times film critic, wrote: "It's a contrived, hothouse state of affairs, summed up in a scene Mr Zhang likes so much that he repeats it: the laughing prostitutes sashaying across the churchyard in slow motion, oblivious to the impending tragedy. There will be tragedy, of course, though when it comes it takes a weirdly oblique form."

Well, some Chinese blogger pulled out many reviews from the US press and compared them with Zhang's accusation. The result is not only discrepancies, but outright contradictions. It's safe to say that while Americans do not love the massacre topic as much as they do the Holocaust, they made it a point that it's Zhang's film they did not care about.

It probably did not help either that the veteran director is no longer the art-house "dissident" whose work was constantly censured by the establishment.

But it shows producer Zhang's desperation and lack of finesse to over-politicize the reception of their film, especially associating it with serious denial of the massacre by some Japanese politicians.

Secretions of bitterness

Zhang Weiping is prone to hyperbole. Before the release of Flowers, he claimed that it would gross 1 billion yuan ($158.73 million) in domestic box office revenue and 200 million yuan ($31.75 million) in North America. He ended up with 630 million yuan in the home market and $250,000 Stateside as of February, 2012.

You can say he had high hopes and it is human nature to look on the bright side.

Zhang has the habit of employing "grand" strategies for promotion. Before the movie came out in China, there were rumors that Zhang Yimou was to remarry his wife, whom he divorced over 20 years ago. The film before that came with the opportune surfacing of early private photos of the director and Gong Li, his long-time beau and muse, but since separated for a dozen years. Nobody could tell whether director Zhang consented to such marketing gimmicks, but they probably worked wonders - as expected - or why did he (or the marketers he hired) keep using such tabloid-style schemes?

Zhang Weiping's company, China New Pictures Film, is strictly a one-trick pony, hmm, I mean one-director operation. If a project bombs, there is nothing to offset the loss, or send the blame elsewhere. And by "elsewhere", it means everywhere except the producer and the director.

For example, producer Zhang blamed Bill Kong, his long-time producing partner, for chickening out of Flowers of War. He reprimanded Christian Bale for "hurting the movie rather than helping it". Previously, he also disclosed that he paid the Hollywood star $20 million, a move that ran contrary to professional secrecy. (Shouldn't Bale have helped its American exposure by doing something that the Chinese government hated, I wonder?)

But Bale should not feel too bad about it. Zhang did say a lot of nice things about him before Flowers opened. Besides, at the time of Curse of the Golden Flowers, the producer hung out a laundry list of "bad behavior" by its star, Chow Yun-fat.

More surprisingly, Zhang Weiping admitted to full understanding of the risks of this undertaking, including its political risks. So, he should have known what would happen later, right?

As I see it, Zhang is not a gracious loser.

Film is a risky business. You do not know what people will like at a certain time. They may swarm to World War II movies one year and become totally apathetic the next. That makes moguls like Harvey Weinstein true geniuses because they are able to predict - with a higher degree of accuracy - what audiences will swoon over two or three years from now.

On top of that, it is ludicrous to place high hopes on Oscar recognition as a launch pad into the North American market. As has been shown in the past decade, the Best Foreign Language category has an aversion for big-budget epics. And even if it wins the award, it may not boost its box office in any substantial way, as has happened to many winners such as No Man's Land.

Zhang Weiping has the chutzpah of Harvey Weinstein or Louis B. Mayer, but he does not possess their artistic visions. He supports the director without giving him the necessary input of a true film impresario. Of all the people who should take some responsibility for the less-than-stellar turnout, the producer should be the one to say, "The buck stops here." That means self-reflection about both the business and artistic decisions of the enterprise.

By the way, whining like a baby will not help the director's future projects in terms of international cooperation. Who would want to be the next target of Zhang Weiping's wrath?

[sanjuro_ronin]

Advertising and Marketing, they aren't just words.

[GeneChing]

I think Jimbo is spot on with his earlier comment about Flowers. Ultimately Americans just aren't interested in that period of history, even with Bale as a lead man. Do they even teach about that era in schools in America? I know I never learned about it there. On the flip side, Transformers and Mission Impossible offer mindless spectacle and action. That has a universal appeal. When China gets over its politics and historical issues and figures out how to deliver that sort of a-cultural cinema fluff, then Hollywood should be really worried. But it never happened for Bollywood. They stuck to their format - culturally-immersed 3-hour musicals. India didn't care about the international market so much. China does.


Top China Film Executive Touring Hollywood Studios, Meeting With Bruce Willis (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/han-sanping-bruce-willis-china-film-group-corporation-297552)
7:45 PM PST 3/7/2012 by Borys Kit
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2012/03/han_sanping_a_l.jpg
Han Sanping, chairman of the powerful China Film Group Corporation, quietly arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday with a delegation from the country.

One of China's top film executives is quietly making the rounds for meetings at Hollywood studios this week.

Han Sanping, chairman of the powerful China Film Group Corporation, arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday with a delegation from the country, according to sources familiar with his activities. He was accompanied by principals from DMG, a Chinese-American media company run by Dan Mintz that is heavily involved in co-productions and distribution in China.

China Film Group is the largest state-run film company in China and the only importer of foreign films, which makes Sanping a key ally for Hollywood. While Sanping's meetings are very hush-hush, they are said to be with most of the major studios, as well as certain directors and actors and post-production houses. A source says the delegation is meeting or has met with brass at Disney, Sony and Universal. Those studios, as well as Warner Bros. and Paramount, declined to comment.

One talent name that has surfaced is Bruce Willis, who stars in the upcoming Chinese-Hollywood co-production Looper, which was shot in Beijing and is co-produced by Mintz’s DMG. Insiders speculate that Willis may be meeting with the Chinese delegation to discuss filming one of his upcoming movies in the country. Willis’ next two projects are Fox's A Good Day to Die Hard and a sequel to Red, both of which have international components to them.

This week’s meetings come on the heels of last month’s blockbuster announcement that China will allow more U.S. films to be shown on Chinese screens. This is considered a major breakthrough since the increase – which raises the 20 films-per-year quota by 14 – applies to “enhanced” movies such as IMAX or 3D releases. Currently, China’s massive filmgoing population can’t get enough of American tentpoles, especially 3D titles. Five of the top-grossing movies in China last year were Hollywood 3D releases, including Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which took in $172 million in China. More recently, Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol just crossed the $100 million mark.

Also in February, DreamWorks Animation announced it was teaming up with two state-owned Chinese media companies, Shanghai Media Group and China Media Capital, to create a studio dedicated to making film, TV and stage productions for the Chinese market.

Email: Borys.Kit@thr.com

Twitter: @Borys_Kit

[David Jamieson]

Oh crikey, you are spot on about the bollywood films.

one or two and the rest are unwatchable after that. lol

[GeneChing]

one or two and the rest are unwatchable after that. lol...a lot of people say that about martial arts flicks. :o

[doug maverick]

...a lot of people say that about martial arts flicks. :o

those people have no souls and are the devils spawn...just saying.

[mickey]

Greetings,

A Chinese film with no MA has to be really GOOD.

Red Sorghum was one. Well, there was one kick in it.


mickey

[GeneChing]

If only the interest in Asia would translate to Kung Fu Tai Chi sales (http://www.martialartsmart.com/19341.html).

China's rise driving Hollywood interest in Asia (http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2012/03/20/chinas_rise_driving_hollywood_interest_in_asia/)

HONG KONG—China's economic rise and growing international profile are spurring Hollywood's interest in movies using Asian themes and production money, U.S. movie industry veterans said Tuesday.

Big studios are trying to push further into China, where box office receipts rose more than a third last year to $2 billion. China represents one of the most attractive growth opportunities for the U.S. movie industry, which is facing declining North American theater revenue and slumping DVD sales.

For the last decade, China has allowed only 20 foreign films a year -- mostly big-budget Hollywood fare -- to get national distribution. But it opened the door a little more last month when it changed the rules to allow in up to 14 more films a year as long as they are made in 3-D or for the big-screen Imax format. The foreign share of ticket sales will rise to 25 percent, up from 13.5 percent to 17.5 percent under the old system.

"I know studio executives and even chairmen of studios who've never been to China, who are now saying: I need to go, I need to meet people," said Hollywood producer Tracey Trench.

At its current growth rate, China is expected to become the world's 2nd largest movie market in a few years, with box office takings projected to top $5 billion by 2015. In North America, revenue has fallen for two years straight, and ended 2011 with $10.2 billion in ticket sales.

Glenn Berger, the screenwriter of the "Kung Fu Panda" movies, said that China is a trendy theme now.

"Hollywood needs to tell the same story in new and unusual ways and right now China is hot, it's interesting and most people in the West don't know very much about it," Berger said.

"Kung Fu Panda 2," about a cartoon panda named Po who battles a pea**** villain, raked in $665 million at the box office last year, although only $165 million of that was from U.S. moviegoers.

Trench and Berger spoke at a panel at the Hong Kong International Film and Television Market, or Filmart. The entertainment industry trade show is one Asia's biggest, with 640 exhibitors -- 10 percent more than last year -- hoping to sell their films to 5,200 buyers expected from around the world.

Asia's growing wealth is one big draw for Hollywood studios who are looking for ways to keep costs down, especially on big-budget blockbusters, said Trench, who was executive producer of "The Pink Panther," "Just Married," and "Ever After."

"You already know it's costing you a ton of money, so you try to figure out every way possible to hedge that financial risk," including getting co-production money and rebates and shooting in cheaper locations, said Trench. "This region now plays into a lot of those factors."

Hollywood studios have been busy teaming up with Chinese production companies.

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., which produced "Kung Fu Panda," said in February it's tying up with three Chinese companies on a joint venture entertainment company that will make Chinese animated and live action content. Dreamworks will have a 45 percent stake in the venture, which is expected to begin operations in Shanghai later this year.

Legendary Entertainment, producer of hits including "The Dark Knight," "Inception" and the two "Hangover" installments, partnered with leading Chinese studio Huayi Brothers Media Corp. in June to form Legendary East. The venture plans one or two big budget movies a year starting in 2013 for global audiences that are also commercially viable in China. The films will be mainly in English and feature themes based on Chinese history, mythology or culture.

Another Hollywood studio, Relativity Media, said last year it's partnering with two companies to make Chinese films for global audiences and distribute movies in China.

While English is usually the preferred language for Asian-themed movies aimed at international audiences, that could change in the next decade as America's grip on the title of world's biggest movie market weakens, Trench predicted.

"There's a time right now that all of the studios, if they're going to do movies with Asian elements, they're going to be in English," she said. "But that's not going to be forever."


DreamWorks China Venture to Produce First Animation in 2016 (http://english.cri.cn/6826/2012/03/20/191s688008.htm)
2012-03-20 16:06:46 Xinhua Web Editor: luodan

A joint venture between DreamWorks Animation, producer of Hollywood blockbusters such as "Kung Fu Panda," and its Chinese partners is scheduled to release its first animated film in 2016, the head of the U.S. studio said Tuesday.

Ultimately, Oriental DreamWorks will become a landmark entertainment center in Shanghai, just like Broadway in New York and Hollywood in Los Angeles, said Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation (DWA), who began a two-day inspection tour of the Shanghai-based joint venture on Monday.

Katzenberg said there are seven animation proposals competing for Oriental DreamWorks' maiden production.

He said the joint venture, promoted as a Chinese family entertainment brand, will closely link elements of Chinese history, culture and literature in its various productions.

For 2012, work will focus on assembling talents into a competent team, Katzenberg said, adding that a studio will be set up with leading DreamWorks expertise, especially on three-dimensional (3D) technologies.

Yu Zhengsheng, chief of the Communist Party of China Shanghai committee, told Katzenberg on Monday that the city is marching toward becoming an international metropolis, and he hopes that Oriental DreamWorks can produce world-leading cultural products.

The joint venture was first announced in February amid Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States.

With a preliminary investment totaling 330 million U.S. dollars, the Chinese side -- composed of three state-owned Shanghai-based groups -- will hold 55 percent of ODW's shares, and DWA will take up the remaining 45 percent.

DreamWorks has most recently taken the spotlight with "Kung Fu Panda" and "Kung Fu Panda 2." Both achieved impressive box office success in the Chinese market, with the latter reaching ticket sales of 470 million yuan (75.2 million U.S. dollars).

[GeneChing]

Posted: Sat., Mar. 24, 2012, 4:00am PT
Studio complex puts China in the picture
Huairou Film Base hopes to lure Westerners (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118051848?refcatid=14&printerfriendly=true)
By Clifford Coonan
HUAIROU, CHINA -- About an hour's drive from Beijing, inside a giant studio complex, you'll encounter armies of kung fu specialists being put through their paces by China's top helmers. Or you might see Nationalist Kuomintang soldiers marching through 1920s Shanghai.

Drive through a gate proclaiming "China Film" and there's an arrangement of artillery weapons, all at the disposal of a prospective filmmaker

Welcome to Huairou Film Base, which in a few short years has emerged as the center of Chinese film production, and home to some of the biggest movie projects in this rapidly expanding market.

Following the Chinese government's announcement that it's prepared to open up a bit more to Hollywood by allowing more movies to be imported into China and by giving overseas producers more of the take from films distributed here, the base could well become a major destination for U.S. bizzers.

"This year, we had around 120 feature films, and the rest were TV shows," says Zhang Hongtao, a Huairou spokesman.

The complex, the largest of its kind in Asia, covers 131 acres and cost $294 million to build. It's cleanly landscaped and provides facilities for all aspects of production and post-production with 16 studios, a digital production shop and a prop/costume warehouse.

The facility has provided the famous Ningrong Street for the epic based on the classic novel "A Dream of the Red Chamber," as well as the cave where Mao Zedong lived during China's Civil War.

A visit to the costume warehouse includes some of the light suits from the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in 2008, as well as Gong Li's costume for "Curse of the Golden Flower," day beds with shell inlays, and a real throne used by the Qing Dynasty's Pu Yi, known to Western auds from Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor."

The throne is a gift from the culture ministry.

Since it opened, the fortunes of the facility have reflected the boom in the Chinese film biz. Revenues last year were around one billion yuan ($160 million).

"This is the first stop. All the projects made here come here first," Zhang says. "We organize not only shooting, but also development, catering, hotels and services for producers."

Many of China's most popular recent domestic films, including "Let the Bullets Fly" and "Forever Enthralled," were made here.

Now the studio is looking further afield for future growth.

In a recent coup for Huairou, Keanu Reeves signed on to shoot "Man of Tai Chi," a $32 million contemporary chopsocky and tai chi actioner that will film here. The cast includes Tiger Chen and Karen Mok, with Reeves as a bad guy -- and martial arts choreography by Yuen Woo-ping ("The Matrix").

One of the film's backers is China Film Group, the Chinese state film colossus that is also behind the Huairou Film Base. Other coin comes from Village Roadshow Entertainment Group Asia, Wanda Media and Universal.

The Huairou boom also has benefited the nearby town of Xiantai, whose denizens appear as extras and works as staff for the complex. Lu Hongxu, a 25-year-old law graduate who makes her living guiding people around the site, says Chow Yun-fat is the most famous thesp she's spotted on the base.

The regular employment of 2,000 townspeople is some consolation for the expropriation of their farmland, on which the government built the facility. Just outside the complex, serious high-end homes are going up, including a Netherlands-themed development, replete with a windmill.

And in June, Huairou will open a five-star hotel; in fact, June is the base's official opening, although it's already in use.

Traditionally, post-production on films shot in China has gone to Hong Kong, Australia or to the U.S., but the operators of the base are determined to keep that aspect of the business at Huairou, and are investing heavily to do so. This includes spending $240 million on a "producer headquarters base."

"In the future, we want to get more projects, and we will further train the locals," Zhang says. "This is a studio for producers, with services (ranging all the way) from development to post-production."

And on sound stage 7, there's a replica of a jungle that's not used for films, but rather serves as an indication of how conscious those at Huairou are of tapping into every possible revenue stream for the studio.

The jungle is meant to attract tourists to Huairou's theme park.

Here are the threads on MoTC (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60170) and LtBF (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63205)

[GeneChing]

More grist for the mill...


Hollywood looks to China (http://www.watoday.com.au/entertainment/movies/hollywood-looks-to-china-20120408-1wj4z.html)
Hong Kong
April 8, 2012

Kung Fu Panda raked in an estimated $US630 million, with $US26 million from the Chinese mainland alone.

China's booming movie industry is attracting interest from Hollywood heavyweights, as they chase bigger box-office returns to offset tighter margins at home.

Films with Asian and especially Chinese themes are becoming more prominent after Hollywood hit a 16-year low in movie tickets sales last year, while some of its biggest studios are setting up shop in the country.

DreamWorks Animation is setting up a China base while Legendary, the studio behind Christopher Nolan's wildly successful Batman series as well as Clash of the Titans and The Hangover franchises, is also developing a venture.

Keanu Reeves is making his directorial debut with Man of Tai Chi which is currently filming in China and Hong Kong, while Aamir Khan's Bollywood comedy drama 3 Idiots is in talks for a Hollywood remake.

"It's a hugely interesting time now," said executive producer Tracey Trench, whose projects have included Just Married and Ever After.

"The United States is still the biggest market. Within the next 10 years, we are not going to be the biggest market place, everything is going to change," she told a forum at the Hong Kong International Film and Television Market (FILMART) in March.

China's rapidly expanding film industry continues to break new ground and set new records, collecting an estimated 13.1 billion yuan ($A2.01 billion) in 2011 - up by around 30 per cent on-year.

Around 2500 more cinema screens are expected to be unveiled across the country in 2012, with its market now the third largest behind Japan and the United States.

This compares with a clear slowdown in North America.

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) says box office takings from 2007 to 2011 in the United States and Canada grew only 6.3 per cent to $US10.2 billion ($A9.97 billion), while the Asia-Pacific region saw 38 per cent growth to $US9 billion.

Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War was China's biggest box office smash of the past 12 months, starring Oscar-winning American actor Christian Bale.

It collected around $US90 million from the Chinese box office while picking up a nomination for best foreign language film at the Golden Globes in the United States.

It comes as Hollywood looks to increasingly give a Chinese angle to its output.

"There are so many stories that you can tell and right now China is hot, so many people want to know more," said screenwriter Glenn Berger, who wrote the popular 2008 animated Hollywood comedy Kung Fu Panda and its 2011 sequel.

A box-office hit in China, the film told the story of Po, an oversize and unfit panda who dreams of becoming a martial arts hero. But Berger said the movie was never really about China or kung fu.

"We were just trying to tell a classic underdog story, not particularly a Chinese story," he said of the film.

"But it was very well received in the Chinese market because they thought it was very respectful of Chinese culture," he said.

Kung Fu Panda raked in an estimated $US630 million, with $US26 million from the Chinese mainland alone.

Hong Kong's FILMART exhibition is Asia's major entertainment industry market and one of the top three events of its kind in the world.

This year it attracted a record 648 exhibitors and more than 5700 buyers, up 14 per cent from last year. The US pavilion had over 40 US exhibitors, or about 25 per cent more than last year.

Industry veterans say Chinese audiences are particularly drawn to movies that include Chinese references or elements of Chinese culture.

"People want to feel connected," said Chinese American writer Rita Hsiao, who wrote the screenplay for Toy Story 2 and 1998 animated musical Mulan, a story about a legendary Chinese girl-warrior.

"If you have that universal message and it's interesting, everybody everywhere can connect with it," she said.

One of the main obstacles for foreign filmmakers wanting to crack the Chinese market is a law limiting the number of international films that can be screened in the country to just 20 a year.

It forces studios to co-produce films with Chinese partners or risk having their films blocked at the border.

But all the pandas in the world won't guarantee a hit in China.

"It has to succeed on all the fundamentals of a movie, not just because it is shot in China," Berger said.

[GeneChing]

Aren't all Disney products made in China already?

Disney to join animation initiative with China (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-disney-china-animation-20120411,0,2177714.story?track=icymi)
Disney will offer its expertise in areas such as story writing and market research to help develop local Chinese talent, the company said in a statement.
By David Pierson and Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times
April 11, 2012

BEIJING — Walt Disney Co. said it would join an initiative to develop China's animation industry, marking the latest push by Hollywood to expand into the world's most populous country.

The agreement announced Tuesday unites the Burbank entertainment giant with an animation arm of China's Ministry of Culture and China's largest Internet company, Tencent Holdings Ltd.

China's government has identified animation as a key area for development to boost the country's global influence, or "soft power." The interest in animation is due in part to the success of DreamWorks Animation's "Kung Fu Panda" franchise, which sparked wide debate within China about why the country can't leverage its culture as effectively as Hollywood.

Disney's China partnership echoes DreamWorks Animation's announcement of a joint venture with Shanghai Media Group, China's second-largest media company, to build a family entertainment company to produce animated and live action movies and TV shows for the Chinese market. That deal was unveiled in February when Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited Los Angeles.

Disney said it would offer its expertise in areas such as story writing and market research to help develop local Chinese talent, the company said in a written statement.

"Our philosophy is to operate as the Chinese Walt Disney Company and as such will remain front and center to help local creative talent realize their dreams and help to create one of the most dynamic original animation industry sectors in the world," Stanley Cheung, managing director of Disney China, said in the statement.

Andy Bird, chairman of Walt Disney International, said: "Disney's involvement builds on our expertise and long-term commitment to nurture the local original animation industry."

Disney is currently building its first theme park in mainland China, a $3.7-billion attraction in Shanghai slated to open in 2015. The company also operates a network of English-language schools in China. Disney has had less success getting a dedicated television channel approved in the country, considered a vital part of its marketing strategy.

Although details on the partnership were sketchy, analysts described it as a potentially significant step by a major media conglomerate to build its footprint in China, which was the fastest-growing market for movie ticket sales in 2011, with $2 billion in box-office revenue.

"It's a big deal that they're doing this," said Ron Diamond, publisher of AWN.com, an online animation magazine. "You're taking America's creative brand and bringing it into a culture that has a long history of storytelling and is hungry to spend. This is a big opportunity for China and for Disney."

Stanley Rosen, professor of political science at USC and an expert on China, said healthy competition between Disney and DreamWorks — two studios with a long history of rivalry — may have played a part in the deal and fits China's long-term strategy of becoming a player in the global animation business, he said.

"Right now [the Chinese] need expertise in terms of telling stories, using technology and doing animation," Rosen said. "This is a way for the Chinese to succeed overseas."

The venture is the latest move by studios and production companies to mine China's vast market. Last year, Glendale-based DreamWorks signed a deal with online video site Youku.com to distribute the studio's popular "Kung Fu Panda" movies in China. Beverly Hills-based Real Inc. also has partnered with Beijing SAGA Luxury Cinema Management Co. to equip the Chinese theater chain with 3-D technology. Imax Corp., the Canadian big-screen theater company, also formed a joint venture with China's largest cinema operator, Wanda Cinema Line Corp., to open 75 theaters by 2014.

Many studios and independent film producers and distributors are hoping to capitalize on a recently negotiated trade agreement with China that significantly eased restrictions on distributing movies in the country. The accord increases the number of foreign movies allowed into China under its current quota system and gives foreign studios a larger slice of box-office revenue.

[GeneChing]

I wonder how the Avengers will do in China.

Hollywood warms to China's new openness (http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_20410550/hollywood-warms-chinas-new-openness?source=rss)
By Ryan Nakashima
Associated Press
Posted: 04/16/2012 05:57:04 PM PDT
Updated: 04/16/2012 09:10:17 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES -- There's a new breach in China's great cultural wall and Hollywood is cautiously moving in.

Disney's announcement Monday that it will make "Iron Man 3" in partnership with a Chinese company is the latest sign that movie studios are warming to China's new openness.

For decades, China has capped the number of foreign films it allows into the country each year. Until recently, the limit was 20, but in February Chinese officials announced that they are increasing the quota to 34.

China said it will also allow foreign studios to garner a greater share of box office revenue. Foreign companies can now expect to earn 25 percent of their movies' ticket sales in China, up from between 13.5 and 17.5 percent.

The changes are a significant move for a bureaucracy that is leery of outside cultural influences and competition from foreign films. The change could affect everyone from action movie fans in Guangzhou to Hollywood's most powerful filmmakers.

The relaxing of China's strict rules comes at a price for U.S. studios. The world's most populous nation wants foreign studios to bring their moviemaking know-how to China by forming joint ventures with Chinese studios.

Still, Hollywood isn't gushing. In recent years, U.S. movie studios have developed a rocky romance with China. Chinese people adore foreign movies, especially 3-D adventures like "Avatar," or more recently "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island." But studios have been jilted when Beijing has promised new openness only to reverse course. In Disney's case, many of its movies have made it into the country, but recent hit "Tangled," for instance, was stopped at the border.

In a recent interview, Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG, summed up the industry's attitude: "The goal lines are moving all the time," he said. "Everyone is wondering how it plays out."

China has long kept up a barrier against foreign films -- wary of insidious cultural influences while sheltering its own filmmakers. Officials last raised the annual cap on foreign movie imports as a condition of joining the World Trade Organization in 2001. The recent increased foreign movie quota is a belated response to a trade dispute the U.S. won nearly three years ago.

Studios are patiently trying to make the relationship work because of China's enormous potential. Box office revenue in China rose more than a third last year to $2 billion, putting the country on pace to become the world's second-largest movie market after the combined U.S. and Canadian region this year. It is expected to top $5 billion by 2015. The U.S. and Canadian theatrical market, meanwhile, shrank two years in a row to about $10 billion in 2011. So far this year, however, revenue at U.S. and Canadian theaters is up about 19 percent.

It's only a matter of time before China's moviegoing market is the world's biggest, according to some industry watchers. Whether it is the most profitable for outsiders is another question. In 2006, Warner Bros. pulled out of a 2-year-old theater chain joint venture when Beijing changed the rules, suddenly disallowing the studio's majority stake. Late last year, production company Legendary Pictures' joint venture, which is set to make the movie "The Great Wall," hit a stumbling block when its Hong Kong-based partner failed to raise enough capital.

Entertainment lawyer Schuyler Moore says he has warned clients not to be overly optimistic in dealing with the country, and says it will take a year to see how China implements its new movie policy. Moore believes China's new openness is aimed mainly at boosting its own cultural industries.

"In the long term, it's no different than China trying to make aircraft and cars and everything else. Their goal is to have the expertise so they can displace Hollywood," he says.

Against that backdrop, companies like Disney and Katzenberg's DreamWorks are entering a delicate dance.

Katzenberg traveled to China in mid-March to meet with Chinese officials about how the expanded quota rules would be applied. He also sought to work out details regarding the company's new joint venture in China, Oriental DreamWorks.

"(China) is big, it is the fastest growing and that's what makes it challenging," Katzenberg told The Associated Press before his trip.

Disney and its new partner, Beijing-based DMG Entertainment, didn't offer many details about their "Iron Man 3" project, although the companies say the movie will incorporate Chinese elements and be partly funded by DMG.

The DreamWorks deal, announced in February, is for a joint venture studio based in Shanghai that is 45 percent owned by DreamWorks and 55 percent owned by its Chinese partners, capitalized at $330 million.

So far, co-productions have had mixed success. The 2007 Ang Lee-directed film, "Lust Caution," which paired Hai Sheng Film Production and Universal Pictures' Focus Features group, won critical acclaim but failed to make its money back.

On the other hand, the retelling of the 1984 classic "The Karate Kid" by Sony Pictures and China Film Group in 2010 reinvigorated a franchise. Much of its success can be credited to the charming chemistry between its new star, Will Smith's son Jaden, and martial arts legend Jackie Chan, a well-established Hong Kong-born hit with Chinese audiences. The movie was a global hit. It cast China and kung fu in a positive light and grossed $343 million worldwide.

34

The number of foreign films China allows into the country each year. Until recently, the limit was 20.

25 percent

The amount foreign companies can now expect to earn from their movies' ticket sales in China, up from 13.5 to 17.5 percent

$5 billion

China's box office revenue by 2015, which would be the world's second-largest market behind the U.S.-Canadian market

[doug maverick]

I wonder how the Avengers will do in China.

avengers will crush all over the world. if online polls are any indicators, according to many websites like boxoffice mojo..its the most anticipated movie of the year...in my mind i wish they would stop making super hero movies after the avengers, thats the crescendo...even spider man wont compare. especially since its a reboot...and even thou they are going with the ultimate spider man, origin...its still the same **** different toilet. nerdy boy gets bit by spider, uncle dies, "great power blah blah" he becomes a super hero.....but the avengers....now thats different...not only does it have a original story but...you got some huge star power in it...scarlett johanson, jeremy renner(who is huge now, with mission impossible and bourne.) mark ruffalo, sam jackson. chris hemsworth, and ofcourse robert downey jr.


WARNERS will never ever make a justice league movie...at least not one with batman an superman in the same movie. so this is going to be it...and its going to be big.

[sanjuro_ronin]

avengers will crush all over the world. if online polls are any indicators, according to many websites like boxoffice mojo..its the most anticipated movie of the year...in my mind i wish they would stop making super hero movies after the avengers, thats the crescendo...even spider man wont compare. especially since its a reboot...and even thou they are going with the ultimate spider man, origin...its still the same **** different toilet. nerdy boy gets bit by spider, uncle dies, "great power blah blah" he becomes a super hero.....but the avengers....now thats different...not only does it have a original story but...you got some huge star power in it...scarlett johanson, jeremy renner(who is huge now, with mission impossible and bourne.) mark ruffalo, sam jackson. chris hemsworth, and ofcourse robert downey jr.


WARNERS will never ever make a justice league movie...at least not one with batman an superman in the same movie. so this is going to be it...and its going to be big.

Indeed, although I am curious to see the new Superman reboot next year.

[GeneChing]

Although Avengers (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62042) won't have the luxury that Hunger Games (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63225) has had this year - three weeks on top and nothing in the queue for this weekend that might bounce it off. I've been totally digging the sideways ads campaigns for Avengers.

Meanwhile, back OT (at least for this thread)...;)


4/18/2012 @ 5:27PM |278 views
China Gains Disney's Help With Animating Chinese Culture (http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/04/18/china-gains-disneys-help-with-animating-chinese-culture/)
Trefis Team Trefis Team, Contributor

Disney is partnering with the animation arm of China’s Ministry of Culture and Tencent Holdings Ltd. to push animation in China. [1] The success of the movie Kung Fu Panda parts 1 & 2 has helped China realize that it has a significant opportunity to leverage its culture and create successful animated movies.

Disney plans to be part of this initiative and benefit from China’s huge population and consequently large untapped market potential for animated films and TV shows. The company can leverage this partnership to also launch its dedicated channels in China where it has struggled in the past. Disney competes with other media companies such as Viacom, Time Warner and News Corp.

Importance of animation to Disney

Animation is a significant business for Disney. After ESPN, the Disney Channel is the biggest value contributor for the company among all of its cable networks at an estimated 5%. This might look small but Disney’s animated characters extend far beyond Disney Channel and play a major role in its box office sales, DVD sales, content licensing business as well as theme parks business. The company also leverages its animated characters to sell a variety of merchandise. Overall, animation is a big part of Disney, and it makes sense for the company to push further into China.

China’s growing box office market

Just as China has overtaken the U.S. and become the world’s biggest PC market, it overtook Japan recently as the world’s second largest box office market with total sales amounting to $2.08 billion in 2011. [2] This is still far off from $10+ billion box office market for the U.S. and Canada combined. [2] Nevertheless, the growth rate difference is notable. While China’s market grew by 33%, the U.S. and Canada market declined by 4% in 2011 compared to 2010.

The clear success of the recent animated movies in the U.S. and Canada demonstrates that it’s prudent for animation giant Disney to further its animation business in the growing Chinese box office market.

Our price estimate for Disney stands at $52.15, implying a premium of about 20% to the current market price.

BTW, Titanic 3D smashed it in China, but we we thinking the re-release was more about China than America.

Titanic claims China record (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/titanic-claims-china-record)
By Patrick Frater
Mon, 16 April 2012, 13:15 PM (HKT)
Box Office News

Titanic (1997), in its remastered and 3-D version, claimed a new opening weekend box office record in China with an astonishing $58 million gross. It also sailed on strongly through many parts of the Asia-Pacific region.

The previous Chinese opening weekend record belonged to Transformers: Dark of the Moon with $55 million last year. _Titanic's weekend figure also overtook the full $44 million income at the time of the film's original release, a box office record it held for more than ten years.

Including standard 2-D outings, and 2,400 3-D digital prints, Titanic was released on 3,500 theatres in China, giving a per screen average of $16,600.

The massive China figure contributed the lion's share of Titanic's $88m weekend total outside North America, according to distributor 20th Century Fox. The China figure also contributes the largest chunk of the film's total to date in Asia. Across the region it has grossed $74.5 million to date, with many territories including Japan and Australia showing significantly below average drops in its second week.

In Australia it added $1.50 million for a two week total of $4.58 million; in Japan it added $808,000 for a cumulative of $3.10 million; in Korea it added $757,000 for a cumulative of $2.60 million; and in India it added $727,000 for a total of $2.60 million.

Other Asian territories saw Hong Kong add $366,000 (for a cume of $1.42 million); New Zealand add $180,000 (for a cume of $675,000); Singapore add $176,000 (for a cume of $602,000) and The Philippines $171,000 (for a cume of $460,000).

[GeneChing]

...where are the HK film ninjas (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46260)? :rolleyes:


Hong Kong Film Piracy on YouTube Amounts to $308 Million Loss (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hong-kong-film-piracy-youtube-314976)
6:11 AM PDT 4/23/2012 by Karen Chu

Copyright-infringing videos of over 200 films found on world's largest video-sharing website

HONG KONG – Severe copyright infringement of Hong Kong films is rife on YouTube, with pirated footage of over 200 Hong Kong films found on the world’s largest video-sharing website, amounting to an estimated loss of over HK$2.4 billion ($308 million) to the local film industry, according to the Hong Kong Motion Pictures Industry Association (MPIA). MPIA members urged YouTube and other video-sharing websites to enforce the German court ruling last Friday (April 20) to implement measures to restrict content that infringe copyright.
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The recent local box office hit Love in the Buff was found to be uploaded in its entirety, directly affecting the theatrical gross of the film, a situation that the association called “extremely severe” in a statement.

The videos were taken down after a formal complaint made to YouTube by Media Asia, the copyright holder of Love in the Buff.

But YouTube did not act promptly when contacted by Media Asia to remove the illegally obtained uploaded Buff film, taking days for the removal. John Chong, producer of the film, commented in the statement that YouTube showed “an extreme lack of efficiency in the removal of the pirated videos, but was not responsible for any loss incurred due to the delay in the removal.” Previously, the website operator had immediately taken down pirated film material when contacted by the copyright holder.

“YouTube repeatedly requested the copyright holder to prove that they are the holder in order to remove the pirated videos of Love in the Buff, while they allow anyone to claim to be the copyright holder when uploading the videos. It’s very unreasonable,” MPIA CEO Brian Chung told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “The pirated videos on YouTube greatly hurt the theatrical performance of the film.”

Chong believed the German court ruling on Friday for YouTube to restrict videos that might violate copyright should be enforced for YouTube and other video-sharing websites at the earliest possibility.

In view of the pirated video of Buff on YouTube, MPIA members, which are made up of representatives from most of Hong Kong's film studios, have searched and found in three days over 200 films illegally uploaded on to YouTube, including past and recent Hong Kong Film Awards winners: A Simple Life, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, Echoes of the Rainbow, and Shaolin Soccer. Blockbuster Ip Man and its sequel were split into 107 videos, while the pirated YouTube videos of clubbing drama Lan Kwai Fong and Jet Li’s Fearless received 1.8 million and 1.4 million hits, respectively. A fight scene from Bruce Lee’s Way of the Dragon was viewed 4.8 million times.

With accumulated views of over 40 million, MPIA estimated a loss of over HK$2.4 billion to the Hong Kong film industry, based on an average cinema ticket price of HK$60.

“For a video-sharing website of this size and scope, YouTube must have censorship mechanisms to prohibit the uploading of illegal material, such as child pornography or content of extreme violence,” Chung added. “It makes no sense for the copyright owner of a current film release to upload the entire film on to YouTube, so how can YouTube allow just anyone to claim to be the copyright owner and show the whole film on their website?”

Chung said the association is not trying to single out YouTube, but the company’s international visibility and accessibility has made the severity of the situation impossible for Hong Kong filmmakers to ignore. “YouTube, or any other video-sharing websites, should have a set of ethics in dealing with copyrighted material. It’s unfair to the copyright owner,” Chung said. “The U.S. has always set great store by the protection of intellectual property. As a company headquartered in the U.S., owned by Google, the world’s largest internet search company, it turns out that it allows pirated content on its website. How would the U.S. view this situation?”

YouTube and its parent company Google have not yet replied to The Hollywood Reporter’s request for comment.

MPIA members are now in discussion to determine a strategy to combat piracy online, but meanwhile, “due to the urgency and severity of the situation, we’d hope to raise awareness on it as soon as possible,” Chung said.

While online piracy is an extension of the larger film piracy issue present since the 1990s, remarked Ip Man director Wilson Yip in the statement, he hoped for effective law enforcement to combat the issue. Free viewing of pirated films would pose an even more serious problem for the film industry, noted Lan Kwai Fong executive producer Patrick Tong, as it is nearly impossible to find the culprit responsible. “It’s a harsh blow to the producers and investors, giving rise to a vicious circle of fewer and fewer investors, and a further weakening of the Hong Kong film industry.”

[GeneChing]

I've been waiting for this to come up...

Studios' dealings in China said to be subject of SEC questions (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/04/studio-dealings-in-china-subject-of-sec-questions.html)
April 24, 2012 | 5:31 pm

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef016304b4f784970d-pi
BeijingFilmFest

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sent letters to at least four major Hollywood studios, including Walt Disney Studios and DreamWorks Animation, over dealings in China, a person familiar with the matter but not authorized to speak publicly confirmed Tuesday.

The letters center on the studios' dealings with China Film Group, the state-run company whose responsibilities include determining which foreign movies get access to a limited number of slots each year for revenue-sharing deals in the red hot Chinese movie market, now the second-largest movie market in the world behind the United States.

The SEC letters were confidential, meaning the studios are not supposed to discuss them publicly or disclose their existence to investors, another knowledgeable person said. Both the SEC and the Motion Picture Assn. of America declined to comment.

China has until recently permitted the import of only 20 foreign movies each year, most from Hollywood, under terms that allowed the studios to collect up to 17.5% of the box-office revenue. In February, China agreed to start letting in an additional 14 foreign movies per year, and increase their box-office revenue share to a maximum of 25%.

Foreign films that don't land one of the quota spots either receive a small fee to play in China -- typically less than $1 million -- or aren't seen in the country at all. As a result, getting into China under the quota can translate into tens of millions of dollars more in revenue.

The SEC letters may be related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it a violation of U.S. law to make improper payments to foreign officials for business purposes. The letters’ existence was first reported by Reuters.

Despite widespread piracy, China last year generated more than $2 billion in box-office revenue. Among the top performing movies there in the last few years have been “Avatar,” which grossed $207 million, and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” which generated $159 million. This year, the current re-release “Titanic 3-D” has taken in $105 million.

The number of Chinese screens doubled in five years to 10,700 at the end of last year, and is expected to rise to 13,000 by the end of 2012, according to the MPAA.

China Film Group's chairman, Han Sanping, recently visited Los Angeles and met with several prominent Hollywood executives, including top officials at Universal and Sony. Han was accompanied in some of the meetings by Dan Mintz, chief executive of Beijing-based DMG Entertainment, a Chinese-American media company involved in film co-productions and distribution in China.

A spokeswoman for DreamWorks Animation declined to comment on the SEC letter. The Glendale studio has had great success in China with movies such as “Kung Fu Panda 2,” which grossed more than $100 million in the country. In February it unveiled plans to build a studio in Shanghai under a joint venture with two state-owned firms.

A spokeswoman for Disney did not respond to a request for comment. The Burbank entertainment giant recently signed a partnership with a Chinese firm to co-finance the super-hero sequel “Iron Man 3” and film part of the movie in the Communist country. Disney is building a $4.4-billion theme park in Shanghai, and has a smaller one already open in Hong Kong.

Spokespeople for other studios, including Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures, declined to comment.

[GeneChing]

Chinawood just sounds funny.

Wu unveils Chinawood mega project (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/wu-unveils-chinawood-mega-project)
By Patrick Frater
Mon, 30 April 2012, 10:26 AM (HKT)


Seven Stars Entertainment, the new film and investment conglomerate headed by Chinese entrepreneur Bruno Wu, has struck a deal with local authorities in Tianjin to build a major production facility.

Called the "Chinawood Global Services Base", Seven Stars says the site will require $1.27 billion of investment and be the largest filmed entertainment and media hub in China.

Wu says that the facility is "targeted at the US led global industry" and will be the headquarters for a large number of financial, technical and creative companies.

Some 35% of the investment has been earmarked for film financing, ensuring that the unit "will play a major role as a base for Chinese co-productions with North America, Europe and other countries across the Asia Pacific."

Located between Beijing and Tianjin in the Binhai New Area, the first 35,000 m2 of offices will be open from October this year. Wu has committed two of his other companies Seven Stars Film Studios (SSFS) and Harvest Seven Stars Media Private Equity (HSSMPE) to move in.

The company says that Chinawood will attract overseas funds for co-production of global tentpole and independent films: act as a one-stop production facility; include 2-D to 3-D conversion facilities and act as a marketing and distribution centre. Among its financial services, it will offer a credit guarantee fund.

"With the East Asia film market on course to be worth $10billion by 2015, of which China will account for 50%, and rapidly catching up to North America, it is crucial, as well as inevitable, that we offer the products and services to facilitate substantial cooperation between the two territories. This project is a significant step towards closing that gap by providing expertise and facilities in all areas of financing, legal, co-production, distribution, marketing, sales and infrastructure," Wu said in a statement.

SFS recently announced two joint ventures with US director Justin Lin's Perfect Storm Entertainment and Canadian financier/producer Jake Eberts' Allied Productions East. Allied East's first project Mission Boys written by Erin Cressida Wilson is currently in development. It is envisaged that films resulting from these deals will be distributed by HSSMPE.

[GeneChing]

The underlying implications are intriguing.

AMC Said to Be Talking to Chinese Buyer (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/business/media/amc-said-to-be-talking-sale-to-wanda-group-of-china.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&ref=business&adxnnlx=1336755814-jod+GiFTRoePXnJajr0fQA)
By MICHAEL CIEPLY and BROOKS BARNES
Published: May 7, 2012

LOS ANGELES — AMC Entertainment, which owns the second-largest movie theater chain in North America, is in talks to sell the company or a significant stake in it to the Wanda Group, one of China’s largest theater owners, according to people briefed on the discussions.

The Loews AMC Theater on 34th Street in Manhattan in March. AMC is the second-largest theater chain in America.

If completed, the deal will begin a new phase in China’s push into the global film industry by sharply increasing its leverage with Hollywood and creating the first theater chain to have a commanding presence in the world’s two largest movie markets.

The people who described the discussions spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private and not finished. The off-and-on negotiations, they said, began more than a year ago, then became more serious in recent weeks, as AMC scrapped plans for a stock offering that would have raised as much as $450 million.

AMC has been owned since 2004 by an investment group that includes the Apollo Investment Fund, J. P. Morgan Partners, Bain Capital Investors, the Carlyle Group and others. Apollo and its founder, Leon D. Black, also had a major stake in the chain before it was sold eight years ago for about $1.7 billion to a group in which Apollo and J. P. Morgan are the largest holders, with about 39 percent each.

Neither Gerardo I. Lopez, AMC’s chief, nor a company spokesman responded to queries. A spokesman for Apollo declined to comment. A representative for Wanda in China was not immediately available.

Any deal, whether for the entire company or for a major stake, would probably put a current value of roughly $1.5 billion on AMC. That figure is based on its reported cash flow of about $181 million for the 52 weeks ended Sept. 29 and an industry expectation that theater chains in the United States will continue to sell for as much as eight times their annual cash flow.

For AMC’s investors, a recent spike in ticket sales may present an opportunity to cash out an investment that has been in place longer than is usual for hedge-fund money and to invest in businesses with more growth potential.

Wanda’s interest in AMC comes as China has been rushing headlong into new business alliances with American movie companies, as it seeks to double the contribution to its economy from entertainment and media in the next five years.

Wanda, a conglomerate whose interests include commercial properties, luxury hotels and department stores, is involved with film production and distribution in China. It operates a rapidly growing theater chain that now has 86 multiplex locations, and a total of 730 screens, including 47 large-format Imax screens.

On its Web site, Wanda says it accounts for about 15 percent of China’s movie ticket sales, which were about $2.1 billion last year. Wanda has said that by 2015 it plans to more than double its screen count to about 2,000.

Founded in 1920 by three brothers with a single Missouri theater, AMC, based in Kansas City, later was a leader in building complexes to show more than one movie at a time. It now operates about 350 theaters with 5,050 screens. (The biggest theater chain is Regal Entertainment, which has 522 theaters with 6,580 screens.) AMC is known for having better locations than some of its rivals, which include Cinemark, the third-largest chain. Six of last year’s 10 top-grossing theaters belonged to AMC.

In the United States, the major movie studios are largely barred from owning theaters under federal consent decrees that long ago broke up an integrated system under which the majors were able to produce, distribute and exhibit their own films.

After the breakup, theater chains became the direct customer for studio movies. The theaters sell tickets to those movies, splitting the proceeds with the distributor under deals that are often fiercely negotiated.

Last year, however, AMC expanded into movie acquisition. It joined with Regal to form Open Road Films, which buys and distributes the kind of midbudget pictures that studios have started to neglect in favor of megabudget film franchises. Open Road releases have included “The Grey,” an action drama starring Liam Neeson that took in $51.6 million earlier this year.

AMC and the other big theater chains are experiencing an upswing because of blockbusters like “The Hunger Games” and “The Avengers,” which took in $207.4 million over the weekend to set an opening record. Ticket sales in North America for the year to date total $3.6 billion, a 16 percent increase from the same period a year ago, according to analysts. Attendance is up 18 percent to about 456 million.

But the last few years have been extremely difficult for theater operators. Last year, attendance in North America fell to 1.28 billion, a 4 percent decline from 2010 and the lowest total in 16 years. Ticket revenue for last year totaled $10.2 billion, a 3 percent decrease.

Chinese theatergoers have shown a taste for effects-laden American fantasies and action films like “Avatar” and “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol.”

On the flip side, Chinese-made films have made little impression in the North American market, which remains five times the size of China’s, though people briefed on the current deal say Wanda’s ownership of theaters here might create a pipeline for Chinese films in the United States.

[GeneChing]

China's Wanda to pay $2.6bn for AMC (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/chinas-wanda-to-pay-26bn-for-amc)
By Patrick Frater
Mon, 21 May 2012, 14:00 PM (HKT)

Confirming weeks of rumours, it was today announced that Chinese property and cinema group Dalian Wanda Group Co Ltd 大連萬達集團股份有限公司 will pay $2.6 billion to acquire AMC Entertainment Inc, the second largest cinema circuit in North America.

The move, which is subject to regulatory approval, will create the world's largest cinema group. AMC currently operates 346 theatres with 5,034 screens primarily in the US and Canada (these include of 5,034 screens, including 2,336 3-D screens and 128 IMAX screens). Wanda has 86 theatres and a total of 730 screens in China as well as large-scale stage show, film production and distribution, entertainment chains.

Both companies are privately held, with AMC currently owned by private equity groups Apollo Global Management, Bain Capital, the Carlyle Group, CCMP Capital Advisors and Spectrum Equity Investors. Upon closing of the transaction, AMC will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Wanda.

"This acquisition will help make Wanda a truly global cinema owner, with theatres and technology that enhance the movie-going experience for audiences in the world's two largest movie markets. Wanda has a deep commitment to investing in the entertainment business and is already the largest in this sector in China, with more than $1.6 billion invested in cultural and entertainment activities since 2005," WANG Jianlin 王健林, chairman and president of Wanda.

"The time has never been more opportune to welcome the enthusiastic support of our new owners. Wanda and AMC are both dedicated to providing our customers with a premier entertainment experience and state-of-the-art amenities and share corporate cultures focused on strategic growth and innovation," said Gerry Lopez, CEO and president of AMC,

Wanda says it intends to invest up to an additional $500 million to fund AMC's strategic and operating initiatives.it also said that the deal is not expected to have any significant impact on AMC's 18,500 staff. Its operational HQ will remain in Kansas.



Kung Fu Wanda: China gets Hollywood makeover (http://rt.com/business/news/china-us-historic-deal-amc-dalian-wanda-808/)
Published: 21 May, 2012, 19:54
RIA Novosti/Aleksey Kudenko

North America’s second-largest movie theater chain has been bought by a Chinese company in a takeover that will create the world's biggest movie theater operator.

*AMC Entertainment Holdings was sold for $2.6 billion to the Dalian Wanda Group, with the Beijing-based company saying it will invest an additional $500 million in AMC's development.

While Wanda has his eyes set on Hollywood, Hollywood is shifting its focus to China.

The Chinese film market is booming with the rise of the middle class, causing US cinema productions to make decisions that favor Chinese audiences.

For example, Iron Man 3 will be filmed in China, guaranteeing the film will get a Chinese screening.

China has a quota for foreign films that can be released in the country. Even if a film passes through this restricting thoroughfare of 20 films a year, it must then pass the hurdles of censorship. However, Hollywood has already found a way around this by partnering with Chinese companies.

Given the success of Kung Fu Panda, Dreamworks announced a joint venture in February, Oriental Dreamworks, in order to develop in China. They are keeping 45 per cent in the company, while China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Alliance Investment will co-own the production company.

Since the US has dibs on the Chinese market, it was only fair and a matter of time before the Chinese made their big introduction, competing with the US cinema market.

The agreement gives Wanda access to the North American and Chinese movie markets, the world’s two largest. The US box-office had $10.2 billion in ticket sales last year, while China’s box office brought in more than $2 billion.

"This acquisition will help make Wanda a truly global cinema owner, with theaters and technology that enhance the movie-going experience for audiences in the world’s two largest movie markets," stated Wang Jianlin, chairman and president of Wanda.

The goal of developing technologically in filmmaking is shared by Yang Bu Ting, Chairman of China Mainstream National Film Capital Hollywood Group. He announced at a conference his broader objectives for opening an office in Beverly Hills. They hope to glean from their US counterparts’ techniques for distributing and developing visual effects and computer-generated imagery.

As Wanda also produces and distributes films besides owning theatres, American executives privately predict he might use his new American cinemas as a venue for releasing Chinese-made films in the US.

However, at the present, Wanda claims he has no intention of distributing movies in the US. The Wanda-AMC deal is currently awaiting approval by authorities in both the United States and China.
Wow. Well, at least I know one point in my next Chollywood Rising print column now.

[GeneChing]

Chinglish has always meant something entirely different to me.


Speaking a new language: Chinglish (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/speaking-a-new-language-chinglish)
By Patrick Frater
Thu, 17 May 2012, 14:45 PM (HKT)
Production Feature

English-language Chinese movies; it sounds incongruous. Except that in a matter of months many leading Chinese film groups have re-tuned their international strategies from being focused on selling more Chinese films abroad, or making co-productions within Asia, to one where they are instead hatching plans to work with Hollywood.

"There are so many people doing it now, they can't all be wrong," says Pietro VENTANI, the US and Beijing-based business partner of Rob MINKOFF who directed The Forbidden Kingdom 功夫之王 (2008) (pictured), the most successful Chinese-US co-production to date. "One of the imperatives for Chinese companies is to create content that can be exported. English-language is seen as that vehicle."

The US media conglomerates and the Motion Picture Association of America Inc (MPAA), have for years struggled to get what they wanted from the Chinese government (more film imports, better IP protection, theme parks and landing rights for US TV channels), so in Hollywood the new thinking has been welcomed with open arms. It comes down to money and the realisation that more can be achieved by working together than squaring off belligerently across the Pacific Ocean.

From the US perspective, Hollywood has learned that its domestic North American business is no longer growing, but that international export markets can replace that lost momentum. For certain kinds of films such as Transformers or 2012, the Chinese theatrical returns can outstrip even the more established mature markets of Germany, Japan and the UK. The recent Titanic (1997) re-release obliterated the film's previous box office record and saw the $126 million China take account for 48% of the film's cumulative gross outside North America.

Meanwhile Chinese firms and the Chinese industry regulators stopped pretending that their Chinese-language films were gaining ground in overseas markets. (The 2010 overseas box office figures for Chinese titles were greatly flattered by The Karate Kid 功夫夢 (2010), a largely financial co-production between Columbia Pictures and China Film Group Corporation 中國電影集團公司 which made a no better than okay impression at Chinese theatres.) For all that classy local films such as Let the Bullets Fly 讓子彈飛 (2010) or Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame 狄仁杰之通天帝國 (2010) could drum up fabulous box office in China, they were not selling or playing well abroad. And with budgets rising that was becoming a problem for Chinese film investors.

Attitudes and strategies have changed very quickly.

Only 3-4 years back the clever talk was about setting up co-productions that would allow US films a back door entry into China around the country's infamous, but in fact quite porous, import quota barriers. Paramount Pictures shoe-horned Mission: Impossible III (2006) in that way and, two years later, Universal did the same with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor 神鬼傳奇３ (2008).

After years of fretting about censorship and local cast and crew requirements, last year some of that co-production talk turned into corporate structures. These included Relativity Media LLC's tie up with two financiers and Huaxia Film Distribution Co Ltd 華夏電影發行有限責任公司 , a state-owned film distributor; Legendary East Ltd, a Hong Kong-based joint venture between Legendary Pictures LLC, Huayi Brothers Media Corporation 華誼兄弟傳媒股份有限公司 and construction industry money men; as well as a $300 million fund launched by China's DMG Entertainment ＤＭＧ娛樂傳媒集團 to bring US partners in to China. With only slightly less fanfare, Village Roadshow Entertainment Group Asia also got underway, headed by Warner's former chief in China Ellen ELIASOPH.

Late last year Bona Film Group Ltd 博納影業集團有限公司 and Huayi Brothers, China's two largest private sector film outfits, both said that English language films would be a new priority.

"Hollywood has done a fantastic job promoting its industry to the world and projecting its universal values," says Bona CEO YU Dong 于冬. "We would like to leverage this Hollywood strength and add Chinese elements." As if to hammer home his point Yu had Catherine Zeta-Jones, who until now has had no role in a Bona-made movie, ring the bell at NASDAQ with him.

Then in February this year, after a long- running dispute that went to the World Trade Organisation for arbitration, Chinese and US ministers agreed to dramatically change China's quota and distribution regimes. More Hollywood films will be allowed in and they will earn better rental terms. Suddenly, executives openly asked whether the hard work of making co-production films could be ditched in favour of simply distributing more Hollywood tentpoles in China.

The answer seems to be no, or rather there will be more imports and more co-productions and probably other permutations as well.

Wealthy entrepreneur Bruno WU 吳徵, who grandly calls the latest cross-Pacific initiative Chinawood, says simply that Chinese companies have broadened their horizons and gone global. "We are entering a global industry that utilises the best talent available. Obviously, we want to build on the existing base of talented Chinese filmmakers and actors, but if you review the elements of the majority of successful films, non-native filmmakers and actors are involved no matter their nationalities."

In the past few years the 'non- natives' working in China were primarily Hong Kongers and Taiwanese. The future it seems will involve more from across the pond.

These days US film-makers Rob COHEN, Bill PAXTON, Doug LIMAN and Minkoff are already warming up China projects, while Keanu REEVES is actually directing his first feature (in Chinese, not English!) for Village Roadshow. Universal Pictures Inc and musician turned filmmaker, the RZA have The Man with the Iron Fists in the can, though it is not clear this will qualify as a full official co-production.

So far, actual green-lighting has been slow. DMG, run by Dan MINTZ, an American who has made his way through the Chinese advertising and film industries for nearly two decades, is exec producing Endgame and FilmDistrict's sci-fi movie Looper. But it takes a big step up with Iron Man III, which it will next co-finance, co-produce and co- distribute with Disney.

Large amounts of money seem to be ready, waiting to be put to the service of the new 'Chinglish' tentpole films. In addition to the Hollywood studios' own resources, Wu's Chinawood has earmarked $450 million for production investment, China Mainstream has announced a fund which will take big stakes in tentpole titles, while Ryan KAVANAUGH's Relativity can call on the resources of SAIF Partners, a leading Asian private equity firm, and IDG China Media ＩＤＧ中國媒體基金. Bona, Huayi and others are also understood to be readying structured funds.

The challenge, as it has been for every film since Forbidden Kingdom, is to get the culture right. Chinese Odyssey, being hatched by Minkoff and Ventani, exemplifies the problem. "We are working with China Film Group and Beijing Galloping Horse Film Co Ltd 北京小馬奔騰影業有限公司 and with Jim Hart on something that is originated and developed in China. It is not a super hero movie, but needs to work in Beijing, Chicago and Munich," says Ventani.

"Conflict is very important in Western story-telling, but that is not held up as a value by Confucian cultures. The character-arc, or hero's journey, is not so common in Chinese literary tradition. The bladesman is still a bladesman at the end."

continued next post

[GeneChing]

One of the biggest wake-up calls for Chinese film-makers in recent years was the global success of animated film Kung Fu Panda (2008). It took cultural symbols of China and fed them back to global and Chinese audiences with an irreverent appeal that Chinese film-makers might have struggled with. Yet the film's co-writer Glenn Berger says he did not see it that way.

"It is a classic underdog story. I never thought of it as particularly Chinese," he says. "It's the story of a man who had a dream, was poorly equipped to fulfil it, but pressed on anyway. It is largely independent of setting." Only after the first film did Berger (an Asian studies major at college) take a research trip to China to consciously soak up more Chinese elements for Panda's sequel. "Similarly Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 臥虎藏龍 (2000) is not a Chinese-themed movie. To me it is a love story," says Berger.

Panda gives DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc an unmatched calling card in China, where stories abound and the local animation industry has been stuffed with public money from city and state authorities. Dreamworks Oriental, its new joint venture with the Shanghai Media Group 上海文廣新媒體有限公司, should be able to choose to work with number of well- equipped local partners all hoping that some of Dreamworks' story-telling and script development magic will rub off.

However, pitfalls abound on the way to achieving a smooth 'China-wood' harmony — perhaps more so for live action producers than for the animation sector. Counter-pointing the upbeat fund launches and the new-found political entente, the past year has witnessed several sticky moments along the way.

These have included the late December rejection of the finance bonanza promised to Legendary East by Hong Kong investors and the embarrassing overseas flop of The Flowers of War 金陵十三釵, ZHANG Yimou 張藝謀's very Americanised take on the Nanjing siege which its producers thought was a shoo-in for the Oscars. Disney last year closed its Shanghai-based script development team and VoD player turned film producer Le Vision Pictures Co Ltd 樂視娛樂投資（北京）有限公司 found it impossible to set up The Expendables II as a Chinese-qualifying co-production.

Human rights problems butted in awkwardly into Relativity's 21 and Over, which in order to qualify for co-production status shot briefly in Shandong province, home of dissident Chen Guangchen. Chen recently escaped house arrest and sheltered in the US Embassy in Beijing, causing a diplomatic firestorm.

Most recently, US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that it is conducting preliminary investigations into the China dealings of the Hollywood studios. It is concerned that to win business in China bribes may have been paid in contravention of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That has caused at least one Chinese company, perhaps temporarily, to suspend further co-prod ventures.

But others seem determined to press on. Legendary Pictures, which has a slate of Chinese-interest pictures in development, this month gave a new kick start to Legendary East with the hiring of former CAA China boss Peter LOEHR as its rainmaking CEO in China. a nice overview of a lot of topics we've engaged here.

[GeneChing]

A Hong Kong odyssey (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-05/26/content_15392101.htm)
Updated: 2012-05-26 07:52
By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/attachement/jpg/site1/20120526/f04da2db1122112a62da1f.jpg
Hong Kong cinema is merging into the larger Chinese cinema, gaining strength and at the same time losing its own identity.

Hong Kong cinema used to be one of the three largest in the whole world, ranking behind only Hollywood and Bollywood in productivity. In absolute terms, mind you. Per capita, it could well have been larger than every film industry on the face of Earth.

Like all industries, Hong Kong's goes through business cycles. When I got hooked on Hong Kong movies in the late 1980s - in San Francisco's Chinatown no less, the industry was growing into the apex. A Better Tomorrow (1986) by John Woo whipped up a frenzy among movie fans, even in that small Chinese enclave in the city by the bay. An Autumn's Tale (1987), a sweet story about Chinese diaspora in New York's Chinatown, found a long queue snaking into the neighboring Italian community for its midnight premiere. "Women are trouble", Chow Yun-fat's chauvinistic putdown that disguises his affection for the female lead, turned into a catchphrase as he pronounced "trouble" in broken English, effectively changing it to "Women are teapots".

The die-hard fan base of Hong Kong cinema in the Chinese mainland did not get their informal education from Chinatown screenings as I did. They got it from round-the-clock video shows in dilapidated halls in county towns across the country. The exposure was both intensive and extensive, cramming decades of movie watching into just a few years.

A Hong Kong odyssey

By the 1990s, many of Hong Kong's movies were shot on the mainland, using the country's larger and cheaper pool of labor and vast choice of locations. Nominally these were co-productions, but the mainland partners chipped in nothing but the licenses, which only State-owned studios possessed at the time. Movies like A Chinese Odyssey (1995) were purely Hong Kong-made in the creative sense.

But the Stephen Chow spoof of the Monkey King story did not become a viral hit until mainland college students started watching it on pirated discs and squeezed subversive interpretations out of it. People viewed it with such religious fervor that many lines turned into code words among the young generation.

Throughout the 1990s, however, the Hong Kong film industry was in a nosedive, hitting its nadir in 2003 when the epidemic SARS struck the Special Administrative Region. Partly as a result of this disaster and pleas from the industry and the Hong Kong government, the central government included Hong Kong's film industry in its package of economic incentives, officially known as Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, or CEPA for short.

Under the new policy, Hong Kong films are no longer categorized as imports and therefore not bound by the quota (20 films a year at that time and now expanded to 34). As domestic productions, they are subject to the same level of censorship for content.

Nevertheless, censorship poses only half the problem, the other being Hong Kong filmmakers pandering to the mainland audience. The unique sensitivity implicit in many Hong Kong films was thought to be part of the local culture, understood by only those who share the Cantonese dialect and could not travel beyond the Pearl River Delta. It was given up for an embrace of the larger market.

Hong Kong filmmakers became highly employable in the early CEPA years, but a truly integrated cinema did not emerge for a long time. A mainland film, such as World Without Thieves, may cast a Hong Kong superstar (Andy Lau in this case), but it essentially remains a mainland work. On the other hand, Hong Kong movies give more and more token roles to mainland actors. Squabbles on movie sets between the two sides occasionally surfaced in the press, a result of conflicting work styles and work ethics.

Hong Kong film artists began to feel the constraints embedded in the enlarged market. Gangster and horror movies, two genres that are known for their easy return on investments and serve as training for new talents, are off-limit because they usually fall into the realm of the forbidden. Trickier than genres are certain details that may run foul with censors.

Being shrewd businessmen, Hong Kong filmmakers are quick to gauge the regulatory environment and rarely complain in the name of artistic expression. Peter Chan's Warlords (2007) was supposed to be a remake of Blood Brothers (1973), but that would associate it with the real-life assassination of a Qing Dynasty official and, for reasons nobody could explain, would be irksome to some in power. So, the story was further fictionalized.

By 2008, when Painted Skin was released, it was hard to distinguish the origin of a Chinese-language movie. Gordon Chan's ghost story was based on a literary classic, thus tiptoeing around the no-superstition rules. The unified vision behind the period drama transcends any local limitations, and the fact that the director is from Hong Kong seemed to be irrelevant. Well, the sequel, which is coming out soon, is helmed by Wuershan, a newcomer from the mainland.

Still, there are lingering questions why Hong Kong films tick. Amidst the rush to gain a big slice of market share, the cinematic charm of Hong Kong is lost - until someone again tells quintessential Hong Kong stories and inadvertently stumbles into broader appreciation. Ann Hui's The Way We Are (2008) and Alex Law's Echoes of the Rainbow (2010) did not attempt to break into the mainland market, yet the ordinary lives of people in Hong Kong, as depicted in these small art-house movies, resonated with a vast swath of mainlanders.

Besides, a few Hong Kong filmmakers have stayed behind to preserve their artistic vision - or out of necessity. Johnnie To, known for his gangster films rich in political overtones, has so far resisted toning down his trademark violence and innuendos to crack the market to the north. Others have found a new niche in genres too hot for the mainland to touch. The erotic genre may see a small revival after 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy (2011) attracted hordes of mainland tourists who made catching the self-claimed, highly lifelike rendering of sex scenes, an essential part of their Hong Kong tour.

Other taboo genres that flourish only in Hong Kong include openly and graphically ****sexual stories such as Amphetamine (2010) and Permanent Residence (2009).

For those who understand spoken Chinese, one sign whether a film is a Hong Kong picture or a broader Chinese one is the dialogue. If something interesting is lost when viewed in Mandarin, this could mean the film is Hong Kong-made, even though it may be shot entirely in Beijing or Shanghai. Pang Ho-Cheung's Love in a Puff (2010) and its sequel Love in the Buff (2012) deal with a couple of youngsters from Hong Kong who fall in love during cigarette breaks and later migrate to Beijing. Instead of searching for commonalities that underpin most urban romances, Pang uses local differences as a palette to color his on-again off-again love affair. The side plot of a plain Jane from Hong Kong ending up with a mainland prince charming is simply and subversively hilarious. The story could also be taken as a parable for the evolving HK-mainland relationship, as many HK pictures subtly imply.

As more Hong Kong filmmakers make their home in Beijing, Hong Kong as a film capital of the East has ceased to exist. Its expertise and resources have injected Chinese cinema as a whole with much professionalism and vitality. Beijing is now indisputably the center of Chinese-language filmmaking, but Hong Kong may retain its status as a stronghold of innovation and tolerance, cinematic or otherwise.
I think the turnover of HK to PRC was pivotal, not only with some of the trends mentioned above, but with the effect it had on the content of HK cinema right around the transition. There were some fascinating films coming out then.

[GeneChing]

The new movie mogul

China Film Player Reveals Efforts to End Censorship (Q&A) (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wang-jianlin-amc-wanda-china-censorship-340290)
8:39 PM PDT 6/20/2012 by Patrick Brzeski

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2012/05/wang_jianlin_-_p_2012.jpg
Wang Jianlin, chairman of Beijing-based Wanda Group, talks with THR about his recent purchase of AMC Entertainment, his admiration for Hollywood and why China needs to rethink the way it regulates film content.

Wang Jianlin’s story is one of the great rags-to-obscene-riches sagas of contemporary China. As a boy he endured the brutal deprivations of the Cultural Revolution; as a teen he joined the Chinese military; and when he later dropped out, having never finished high school, he went on to found a small private real estate business that would grow into a $35 billion conglomerate, employing 50,000 people, with holdings in shopping malls, office towers, luxury hotels, and Chinese entertainment outlets.

Now, the 57-year-old Wang -- China’s sixth-richest individual, according to the Harun China Rich List -- also is the proud new owner of AMC Entertainment, North America’s second-largest cinema chain. In a deal announced in late May, Wang’s Beijing-based Dalian Wanda Group acquired AMC for an estimated $2.6 billion, with $500 million allocated for direct investment and upgrades in AMC’s theaters. Adding AMC’s existing 5,034 screens to Wanda’s 730 in China (with a goal in place for 2,000 screens by 2015), Wang’s company is now the biggest film exhibitor on the planet.

In China, he’s regarded as one of the true visionaries of his generation. But his big buy into North American exhibition, where ticket sales declined by 4 percent last year, generally has been appraised as a risky bet by the international business commentariat.

In a frank conversation from his Beijing headquarters, Wang spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about his next big buys in the Western entertainment world, the hands-off approach he plans to take toward managing AMC and why China must reform its censorship regime if the country’s film industry is ever to compete on the global stage.

The Hollywood Reporter: You’ve mentioned in recent interviews that you’re interested in making further investments in movie studios, film production and live entertainment. What are your ambitions in this area?

Wang Jianlin: We don’t have concrete plans for movie co-productions with any Hollywood studios yet, but since the AMC merger and acquisition announcement, we’ve come around to this idea of working with big studios from Hollywood for film production. Eventually we plan to do that. For Wanda’s film production business at home, our target is to be among the top three in China within the next three years. But in regards to oversees production and related industries, we don’t currently have any set plans.

THR: We’ve heard that Europe is the next market you’re looking to buy into. Can you share some details about your plans and ambitions there? What are you pursuing?

Wang: Well, the first prerequisite is the successful transaction of the AMC deal. As you know, the AMC acquisition must first get the approval of the relevant American authorities. We’re going to seek to acquire one or two European theater circuits, but only after the successful closing of the AMC deal. Right now we’re holding some discussions with European theater chains, but because of confidentiality agreements, I can’t give you names yet.

THR: More generally, why have you chosen to target the global entertainment sector with Wanda’s considerable resources?

Wang: As you know, Wanda Group started by developing shopping centers, and at that time -- about 10 years ago -- movie theaters in China were run by state-owned companies. There were no cross-provincial companies running theaters. So it was at this point in time, with this opportunity in mind, that we first started our film and entertainment business. Right now, for our investments in culture industries, we’re pursuing five areas: film exhibition, film production, stage shows, chain entertainment outlets such as karaoke centers and, lastly, fine art collecting. Wanda is currently the largest private investor in the Chinese culture industry. Why? Because it’s good business. By the end of 2012, our revenue from our culture and entertainment investments will amount to $3.5 billion. Our target for the end of 2015 is $6 billion.

THR: What specific factors motivated you to acquire AMC Entertainment?

Wang: There were two main considerations. The first was to accelerate the expansion of Wanda’s theater circuit abroad. We want to be a global film exhibitor, and to develop this infrastructure on our own would take a very long time. Through the M&A, we could achieve this feat very quickly. Secondly, as you know and as others have said, considering the U.S. market alone, the rate of return on this kind of M&A is comparatively low. However, Wanda’s cinema business is seeking an IPO soon, and we’re expecting certain approval of our application. Following the IPO, we’re estimating that through renovation and remodeling of AMC’s theaters over the next one to two years, we’ll be able to generate profits. And we would like to put that into Chinese assets so as to generate its profits in a Chinese kept market.

THR: It’s been reported that Wanda-AMC is looking to show a more diverse lineup of content in AMC cinemas -- more Spanish and Bollywood programming has been mentioned -- and that Wanda’s $500 million investment will help make this possible. Are you interested in showing more Chinese content in AMC theaters as well? Is that a priority or a goal?

Wang: For Wanda itself, we don’t currently have any plans or a structure in place to export Chinese films. Whether AMC cinemas will show more Chinese films will be totally up to AMC’s current management, which we intend to leave intact, responding to market demand.

THR: Are you a big movie fan yourself? What kind of films and entertainment do you enjoy?

Wang: I’m actually not much of a movie fan. [Laughs.] Although I’m heavily invested in the movie theater business now, I seldom go to the cinema myself -- I’m a pretty busy person. I’ve only seen a couple of movies from the U.S. recently: Titanic and Kung Fu Panda, both in Imax and 3D.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

THR: The Financial Times recently reported that you eschew Hollywood fare because of its lack of “traditional Chinese morality.” Is it going to be uncomfortable for you if some of the films showing in your cinemas, both in China and the U.S., could be perceived as not particularly “moral”?

Wang: No, that report must have been mistaken. On the contrary, I very much admire and support Hollywood movies -- particularly the big ones. I find them very impressive, and they usually show a very positive attitude about life -- they capture some of the beauty of life and a sense of its true value. It’s actually Chinese movies that I often find unsatisfactory. I often don’t see much value in them.

THR: About that -- how do you assess the current state of the Chinese movie industry?

Wang: In my view, our culture and entertainment industry is still pretty immature. Its share of the world market and its share of the Chinese GDP is very, very small. That’s the reason that our government stipulated a very providential policy last year for developing this sector over the next 10 years. There have been a number of policies concerning laws and taxation introduced to encourage our entertainment industry. So I’m looking forward to a golden era sometime in the next 10 to 20 years in the development of Chinese culture and entertainment.

THR: What do you think is holding back the Chinese film industry? What needs to occur for Chinese filmmakers to compete with Hollywood on the world stage?

Wang: From my observations, there are three things holding back the Chinese industry. The first thing is lack of attention from the government and private enterprise. In recent years, we’ve attached great importance to the country’s economic development through core industries, while mostly ignoring culture and entertainment. The second reason has to do with the investors themselves. Before, our major investors in entertainment were just small and medium-size enterprises. There were no deep-pocketed investors like Wanda active in the industry. So that constrained the size of investment and the level of quality Chinese film production and entertainment could achieve. The last factor is our comparatively strict censorship system for film production and publication. These are the biggest factors that have been holding us back. But I think we’ve begun to acknowledge these issues and are now proposing solutions. Right now, as I mentioned, the Chinese government has attached great importance and has held many meetings and produced influential papers supporting the development of culture and entertainment. We need to attract more of China’s biggest enterprises to join this industry and make big investments, such as Wanda is doing. Thirdly, I think we should lose the censorship and approval system of film production and publication.

THR: Lose the censorship? Do you think that there’s a good chance that will actually happen?

Wang: It’s absolutely possible. There’s a chance.

THR: In your view, how has the censorship and approval process in China been hindering the industry?

Wang: A censorship system in general is not a problem. Many countries have a censorship system of some kind; the U.S. has its rating system. The problem with our system is that there is only one authority -- the film bureau [the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television] -- with a small number of people who are in charge of the approval of all films, which takes a long time. And some of these people will shoulder different ideas, so the directors will have to correct or make changes to their artistic vision, based on the opinion of a small number of so-called experts. This has severely held back the development of our film industry. I’ve proposed that we have to decentralize the censorship process and assign it to local, provincial governments. If we let different provincial governments handle the approval of various films, we can learn what works from the various instances and films. If that can be achieved, I believe the film industry of China can prosper.
Lose censorship in China? Seriously?

[GeneChing]

It has begun. Tomorrow two Chinese films are being distributed via AMC:

Flying Swords at Dragon Gate (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57723) has a one-week run in 3D IMAX at 15 theaters

The Bullet Vanishes (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1185510) is also opening, but I don't know for how long or in how many theaters yet.

[GeneChing]

I'm excited for TC0 (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62429) & CZ (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53875)

Huayi thinks big (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/huayi-thinks-big)
By Stephen Cremin
Thu, 13 September 2012, 12:05 PM (HKT)

China's Huayi Brothers Pictures Co Ltd 華誼兄弟影業投資有限公司 has expanded their partnership with IMAX Corporation to digitally remaster seven forthcoming films in the large screen format.

Huayi previously released FENG Xiaogang 馮小剛's Aftershock 唐山大地震 (2010) in IMAX in July 2010, which contributed to its — at the time — record-breaking RMB665 million (US$105 million) box office.

Feng's new film, wartime drama Back to 1942 一九四二, is among the new titles being converted. Although no opening date has been announced, Huayi confirmed that it will release the historical epic this year.

The new IMAX lineup launches with martial arts fantasy Tai Chi Zero 太極１　從零開始 on 27 Sep, followed by Tai Chi Hero 太極２　英雄崛起 on 25 Oct and Jackie CHAN 成龍's Chinese Zodiac 十二生肖 on 20 Dec.

Three yet to be announced films will also be presented in IMAX format.

The new deal was announced by IMAX Corp CEO Richard GELFOND (pictured right) and Huayi's president James WANG Zhonglei 王中磊 (pictured left) at Beijing's CBD Wanda IMAX Theater yesterday.

[GeneChing]

I wish they left that line in the film.

Black Widow was the best thing in tA (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1043). Must have been that Semir outfit.

China big on product placement in films (http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/China-big-on-product-placement-in-films-3866816.php)
Los Angeles Times
Published 5:42 p.m., Friday, September 14, 2012

http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/15/13/62/3456156/3/628x471.jpg

Hollywood movies regularly showcase American brands such as Ford, Coca-Cola or Apple. But recent U.S. films and TV programs have begun enjoying product-placement deals from half a world away: China.

Recent episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" have featured Shuhua Milk, made by the Chinese dairy giant Yili. "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" featured Shuhua and products from Chinese clothing company Meters/Bonwe, computer maker Lenovo and electronics company TCL, which will also be a marketing partner on "Iron Man 3." In "Iron Man 2," Chinese clothing line Semir, an official sponsor of the movie, provided the outfit for Scarlett Johansson's character, Black Widow.

In most cases, the primary goal isn't to woo American consumers. Instead, the Chinese firms hope that their presence in Hollywood productions will resonate with Chinese viewers. "The Big Bang Theory," for instance, does not air on TV in China, but has drawn as many as 18 million hits on domestic video sites.

"Chinese consumers are wowed when they see Chinese brands in American media," said Janie Ma, entertainment marketing director at Ogilvy Beijing, which represents Lenovo. "It polishes the brands' local image."

China is calling on Hollywood product-placement experts for help. Norm Marshall, a Burbank maven of Hollywood product placement, set up the "Transformers" promotion for Lenovo, even creating a character named Brains with director Michael Bay specifically for Lenovo. (The character transformed into a Lenovo computer.)

For years, Chinese companies have paid to include their brands in Chinese films, sometimes subsidizing as much as 30 percent of a movie's budget for the privilege. Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's film "A World Without Thieves" featured BMW, Nokia and Canon, among others.

The product placement doesn't always promote a strictly positive image. In the 2006 Chinese comedy "Crazy Stone," a can of Coke drops from the sky and smashes into a truck, which then crashes into a BMW.

But saturation in these films - coupled with a general belief that Hollywood represents a globalized cool - has led to a push into big-budget, English-language movies.

"We think Hollywood movies have great advantages in their quality, box office (reach) and commercial operation compared with domestic films," said Xie Wei, brand manager for Meters/Bonwe. "To a certain extent, Hollywood means high-tech, high box office, high quality."

Chinese companies are also looking for exposure, and with Hollywood films dominating the Chinese box office, a product placement in a big American movie ensures that large groups of people will see the goods.

Some early statistics suggest that the approach may be helping drive sales. In the 2011 film "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," a wacky Chinese scientist slurps a carton of Shuhua Milk in an elevator with star Shia LaBeouf. "Let me finish my Shuhua Milk," he said in the Chinese version, and the line became an online catchphrase in China. Sales of Shuhua Milk rose 12 percent last year.

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," the previous film in the "Transformers" series, featured the Meters/Bonwe logo. In the first week after the film's release in 2009, Meters/Bonwe's Shanghai flagship store sold 10,000 Transformers T-shirts, Xie said.

"One of the key goals of product placement is to make a brand seem bigger than it actually is," said Morgan Spurlock, director of the documentary "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" and a product-placement expert. "And in a lot of places around the world, nothing does that better than being in a Michael Bay movie."

[GeneChing]

Nice piece on censorship.

Reel China: A crash course in different storytelling traditions (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-china-screenwriting-20120923,0,545974.story)
Reconciling disparate narratives in China versus America has become a challenge for filmmakers to appeal to Chinese sensibilities and censors.
By Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore and John Horn, Los Angeles Times
September 22, 2012, 8:00 a.m.

BEIJING — Every movie project involves a certain amount of negotiation, but finding middle ground proved no easy matter when writer-director Daniel Hsia tried to film "Shanghai Calling" in China.

To secure permission to make his story about a Chinese American lawyer relocated to the country's largest city, Hsia exchanged numerous screenplay drafts with China's censors. The government's film production arm, China Film, which co-produced the movie, wanted to make sure that Shanghai was depicted as an efficient modern metropolis, that locals were shown as "kind and hospitable," that the visiting lawyer comes to appreciate the country by the film's conclusion and that a plot about piracy would be rewritten into more of a business misunderstanding, Hsia said.

But the most complicated give-and-take focused on the movie's investigative journalist, and the character's heroic path. American movie heroes typically choose greatness, but their path to glory is often sidetracked by failings or doubts as the idol struggles with physical and emotional setbacks. Chinese movie paragons, on the other hand, normally have greatness thrust upon them, are physically and emotionally stable and rarely change over the course of a tale.

"American heroes go out of their way to search for trouble," said Hsia, whose movie has played several festivals and will be shown at the Mill Valley Film Festival on Oct. 13 and 14. A Chinese protagonist, conversely, "does what he does because it's his duty, it's his job — not because he wants to do it." Incorporating that fundamental difference, Hsia said, led to "another huge rewrite," and the project was subsequently approved.

For all of the concessions and changes he had to make, Hsia said, "I absolutely would do it again." The movie opened Aug. 10 in China to glowing notices and solid box-office returns, and Hsia said he expects the independently financed film to play in U.S. theaters next year. "I do feel I got to make the movie I wanted to make," he said.

Hollywood and China are separated by more than 6,000 miles, but the more significant gulf can't be charted on any map. There are vast, historical differences in storytelling tradition that owe as much to Confucianism as modern political sensitivities, and bridging that narrative chasm has become a burning challenge given that within the next few years China will become the world's biggest movie market.

Thanks to loosening quota limits and an explosion of new theaters, Chinese moviegoers have been patronizing American movies in record numbers. The returns for U.S. films have been so outsized this year that Chinese authorities in the last several weeks have tried to limit their popularity. The steps include blackout periods in which no imported films can be exhibited in China and releasing two Hollywood blockbusters on the same day to limit their upside, as Chinese exhibitors recently did with "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Amazing Spider-Man."

Those punitive limits, which prompted the Motion Picture Assn. of America to complain to Chinese authorities and the Obama administration, are compelling American producers to search for more Chinese co-productions such as "Shanghai Calling," which are not subject to retaliatory exhibition restrictions.

In many cases, the East-West partnerships are relatively painless, as was the case with "Looper," a science fiction action story opening here and in China on Sept. 28, which originally was set in France but rewritten to unfold partly in China. But in several other instances, American filmmakers have had to undergo crash courses in Chinese storytelling traditions, which can be as complex as a hero's journey and as seemingly trivial as how dragons are portrayed.

"There is no clear definition of what you can do and what you cannot do — from both the culture aspect and the censorship aspect," said Chinese American director and screenwriter Anna Chi, the director of the HBO film "Dim Sum Funeral" and co-director of "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers." "Of course there are regulations, there are laws. Everybody knows you can't do [a movie about] Tibet, you can't talk about the Falun Gong," she said of the spiritual practice the China Communist Party has tried to eradicate. "But in terms of creativity there is no handbook. It's all project by project."

To qualify for co-production financing, productions must include a Chinese story element and employ some Chinese production staff. China benefits from the expertise of foreign filmmakers, while Hollywood, in addition to avoiding the retaliatory distribution tactics, gets access to Chinese funding and a bigger cut of box office receipts than a purely American production.

Backers of foreign films typically take home around 25% of cinema grosses, assuming they are among the handful of non-Chinese movies allowed into the country under an import quota. But the American makers of Chinese co-productions can collect nearly double that amount of ticket sales. Qualifying for a co-production, however, can be akin to untying a Gordian knot.

"Back home in the States you are talking to just one person: the consumer. Here, you are talking to two: one is the government, the other is the consumer," says the Beijing-based American Dan Mintz, chief executive of DMG Entertainment, the Chinese partner for "Iron Man 3," a proposed co-production that has not started filming in China but has commenced in the United States.

Chi's proposed co-production "Women Warriors of the Yang Family" ran into problems over the depiction of its protagonist in her script. The story follows the life of the well-loved Northern Song Dynasty general Yang Zongbao, considered a hero in Chinese history books. To make his character more nuanced and a bit more Western, Chi provided him with a foible. To save his loved ones, he must first do something they abhor: When captured by the enemy he becomes a traitor. In reality, he is secretly fighting for his family.

The Chinese producers and censors demanded that the twist must be scrapped.

"[They said] he is a historical figure, so we cannot put any shameful things to his name. Because he's so beloved they say a Chinese audience wouldn't accept it," said Chi, who has since rewritten the script.

It wasn't Chi's first brush with Chinese censors. In "Cicada's Summer," a fully Chinese-funded movie Chi directed and wrote, two scenes had to be removed after shooting was finished, one in which a schoolgirl has an abortion, the other where schoolchildren post photos on a social media site during class. Both were deemed detrimental to the image of the country's education system.

Sometimes, the governmental concerns might seem almost trivial.

Just before shooting commenced on 2011's "The Dragon Pearl," Australian writer-director Mario Andreacchio was forced to tear up his script, largely because of how he was depicting dragons.

The family film, the first official treaty Australia-China co-production, revolves around two teenagers' discovery of a live dragon in China. Andreacchio had envisioned a Western-style dragon: a fearsome, fire-breathing creature with connotations of evil. In China, however, dragons traditionally symbolize prosperity and power.

"We had to rewrite the screenplay — we were six weeks out from shooting, and I had to go back to treatment stage, which is pretty scary for any producer," Andreacchio said. "The only way we could continue was to unstitch the story and stitch it up again with changes so we could get filming approval." The benevolent Chinese dragon won, and the film turned into a modest Chinese hit.

Producer Pietro Ventani, who was a consultant on 2008's Chinese-American co-production "The Forbidden Kingdom" with Jet Li and Jackie Chan and is developing with director Rob Minkoff the proposed co-production adventure tale "Chinese Odyssey," said the screenwriting education is not a one-way street.

If Chinese filmmakers want their films to travel beyond the country's borders, Ventani said, they also must reexamine narrative rules, and understand why movies such as "Avatar," which grossed more than $182 million in China, do so well in Chinese multiplexes. In many Chinese films, Ventani said, "the accomplishment is given as much emphasis as the individual, which can be a problem because we are drawn to people stories." But Chinese society is changing rapidly, Ventani said, and its homegrown movies will soon follow, embracing more Western structures. "The Chinese audience is ready to embrace those kind of stories."

john.horn@latimes.com

Correspondent Sebag-Montefiore reported from China, staff writer Horn from Los Angeles.

[GeneChing]

I wonder if its a full-sized IMAX

Bona opens China's largest cinema (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/bona-opens-chinas-largest-cinema)
By Patrick Frater
Wed, 03 October 2012, 07:59 AM (HKT)
Exhibition News
http://www.filmbiz.asia/media/BAhbB1sHOgZmSSIyMjAxMi8xMC8wMi8wOC81MC8wMi84MzAvQm 9uYV9UaWFuamluX0lNQVguanBnBjoGRVRbCDoGcDoKdGh1bWJJ Ig01MDB4MTAwMAY7BlQ?suffix=.jpg&sha=fc51d346
Bona Film Group has opened what it claims is China's largest cinema complex in Tianjin, a city some 70km from Beijing that is a burgeoning film hub.

The company opened its Nongken Bona International Cineplex, which has fully digital projection systems and the largest IMAX screen in northern China. In a country where multiplexes are still modest-sized compared with Western ones, the company says: "The cineplex has 10 auditoriums, making it China's largest fully-commercial theatre complex."

The Nongken cinema is Bona's 15th complex and increases the number of company-owned and operated screens to 123. It has a seating capacity of 2,104.

"The success of premium releases in IMAX and 3D proves that Chinese audiences appreciate the enhanced experience of watching visually-impressive blockbusters in these highly immersive formats. As we continue to expand the geographic footprint of our theatre business, we are focused on developing theatres that provide top-of-the-line amenities," said Bona founder, chairman and CEO Yu Dong.

[GeneChing]

This is somewhat random, but it reminded me that I was leafing through the Guinness Book of World Records 2013 (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/GWR-2013/) and they listed Karate Kid (2010) (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=902)as the highest grossing martial arts film. I couldn't find that on their site however.

Chinese martial-arts films face competition in the West (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90782/8089026.html)
By Liu Wei (China Daily)
12:58, January 11, 2013

Martial arts is still the best-received genre of Chinese cinema in the West, but none has reprised the glory of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and challenges await those ambitious enough to try their luck.

Earlier this year, Time magazine critic Richard Corliss listed Hong Kong director Peter Chan's Dragon (also titled Wu Xia) as the eighth-best film of 2012, praising it as "a sophisticated, stand-alone delight".

"It is exciting news," says Jia Leilei, a researcher of Chinese National Academy of Arts and expert on wuxia cinema. "But I'm not surprised. Action is a universal language, and the dazzle of Chinese martial arts provides strong, direct visual impact."

However, the old genre's exposure in the West, especially in the United States, may not be as wide as Chinese filmmakers expect.

"Most Chinese wuxia films cannot make it into mainstream theaters, but end up in cinemas in Chinese communities," says Stanley Rosen, professor of political science at the University of Southern California. "A few renowned directors, such as Zhang Yimou, can have their films released in art-house theaters, but most Chinese directors won't have any (US) theatrical release at all."

Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle was, according to Rosen, the most widely distributed Chinese martial-arts film in North America, opening with 2,500 screens in 2004. When Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon premiered in 2000, it was released in only 16 locations in the first week.

Some US distributors also shorten the films or change the music, which they think will make the film more acceptable by the audience.

DVD is an effective way for many wuxia films to reach their US audiences. Successful examples include Yuen Woo-ping's Iron Monkey and some old works of the Shaw Brothers.

A major reason why Chinese martial-arts films did not have a wide theatrical release in the US is the language barrier. It's a problem for all foreign films that want to be released in the country, where people are known for being parochial about film soundtracks.

According to Boxofficemojo.com, only two of the 20 highest-grossing martial arts films were made in Chinese, namely Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou's Hero. The top players are mostly English-language ones, such as Rush Hour 2 and The Karate Kid (2010).

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon represents a milestone, as well as a special case hard to copy, which sets a bar high for followers.

"Ang Lee was well-known, so was Chow Yun-fat. And the film's marketing techniques were very effective, including the promotion among the young hip-hop community and the attention to word-of-mouth effect," Rosen says.

The film was released first in art-house theaters, but its reviews were so overwhelmingly positive that it entered commercial theaters later.

Other filmmakers have tried to duplicate that success, such as Zhang Yimou, whose Hero was an immediate beneficiary, but none has achieved the same popularity and critical appreciation.

In addition to the language barrier and the US editing, the repetition of genre and visual style also play a hindering role.

While back in 2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was something new to the US audience, they have seen too many imitations, both from China and the US since.

"Martial-arts films are still the most famous genre of Chinese cinema," Rosen says. "But since 2006, the impact of those films is much less, because not only Chinese films, but also many US pictures, are imitating them, too."

And few characters of the Chinese wuxia films are well-remembered by the Western audiences, Rosen adds.

"Characters in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon made a stir, but cinema-goers are mainly young people who find it hard to remember that well a Chinese film's characters 12 years ago."

One way out might be shooting the film in English from the very beginning, or making it a co-production, Jia says.

"But combining the Chinese martial arts into a story accessible to the global audience has a long way to go," he says. "While we have a universal language, we need to explore further on universal values."

Aki Aleong, president of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, is optimistic. "Wuxia is an easy way to go, because action sells. But Chinese need to make more films that touch people emotionally," he says.

"When more young Chinese filmmakers who study in the US and work in the community go back to China, they will look at filmmaking and marketing them in the West differently and do it more effectively."

[GeneChing]

Honestly, how hard is it for Hollywood to kiss China's ass? It's Hollywood. Billions of dollars on the line. It's not like we're talking films making major political statements. It's just entertainment flicks. :rolleyes:


To Get Movies Into China, Hollywood Gives Censors a Preview
20th Century Fox (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/business/media/in-hollywood-movies-for-china-bureaucrats-want-a-say.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)
By MICHAEL CIEPLY and BROOKS BARNES
Published: January 14, 2013

LOS ANGELES — When “Kung Fu Panda 3” kicks its way into China’s theaters in 2016, the country’s vigilant film censors will find no nasty surprises.

After all, they have already dropped in to monitor the movie at the DreamWorks Animation campus here. And the story line, production art and other creative elements have met their approval.

The lure of access to China’s fast-growing film market — now the world’s second largest, behind that of the United States — is entangling studios and moviemakers with the state censors of a country in which American notions of free expression simply do not apply.

Whether studios are seeking to distribute a completed film in China or join with a Chinese company for a co-production shot partly in that country, they have discovered that navigating the murky, often shifting terrain of censorship is part of the process.

Billions of dollars ride on whether they get it right. International box-office revenue is the driving force behind many of Hollywood’s biggest films, and often plays a deciding role in whether a movie is made. Studios rely on consultants and past experience — and increasingly on informal advance nods from foreign officials — to help gauge whether a film will pass censorship; if there are problems they can sometimes be addressed through appeal and subsequent negotiations.

But Paramount Pictures just learned the hard way that some things won’t pass muster — like American fighter pilots in dogfights with MIGs. The studio months ago submitted a new 3-D version of “Top Gun” to Chinese censors. The ensuing silence was finally recognized as rejection.

Problems more often affect films that touch the Chinese directly. “Any movie about China made by outsiders is going to be very sensitive,” said Rob Cohen, who directed “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” among the first in a wave of co-productions between American studios — in this case, Universal Pictures — and Chinese companies.

One production currently facing scrutiny is Disney and Marvel’s “Iron Man 3,” parts of which were filmed in Beijing in the last month. It proceeded under the watchful eye of Chinese bureaucrats, who were invited to the set and asked to advise on creative decisions, according to people briefed on the production who asked for anonymity to avoid conflict with government or company officials. Marvel and Disney had no comment.

Another prominent film, Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi,” which was nominated last week for 11 Academy Awards, made it through the process mostly unscathed, but got some pushback over a line in which a character declared that “religion is darkness.”

“They modified the translation a little, for fear of provoking religious people,” Mr. Lee said.

Hollywood as a whole is shifting toward China-friendly fantasies that will fit comfortably within a revised quota system, which allows more international films to be distributed in China, where 3-D and large-format Imax pictures are particularly favored.

At the same time, it is avoiding subject matter and situations that are likely to cause conflict with the roughly three dozen members of a censorship board run by China’s powerful State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, or S.A.R.F.T.

In addition, some studios are quietly asking Chinese officials for assurance that planned films, even when they do not have a Chinese theme, will have no major censorship problems.

The censorship bureau did not respond to a list of questions submitted by The New York Times seeking information about its process and guidelines.

Studios are quickly discovering that a key to access in China is the inclusion of Chinese actors, story lines and locations. But the more closely a film examines China, the more likely it is to collide with shifting standards, unwritten rules and unfamiliar political powers who hold sway over what can be seen on the country’s roughly 12,000 movie screens.

Mr. Cohen’s “Mummy” film, which was shot throughout China in 2007, was a historical fantasy about an evil emperor who is magically resurrected by foreign adventurers in 1946. The script was preapproved by China’s censorship board with only token changes — the emperor’s name had to be fictionalized, for instance. The censors also cautioned that the ancient ruler should not resemble Mao Zedong.

On reviewing the finished film, however, they found a deeper problem that “we didn’t have any way of seeing, or any way of fixing,” Mr. Cohen said: “White Westerners were saving China.” The picture was approved, he said, but its release was delayed until it had played elsewhere in the world, and pirated versions took a bite out of the Chinese box-office receipts.

For Americans, dealings with the Chinese censors are mostly a distant and secondhand business. Films are normally submitted by their Chinese partners, while various consultants in China handle the bureaucratic communications that lead to approval or rejection.

But those who shoot in China often assume that censorship officials have eyes and ears on the set. “There were points where we were shooting with a crew of 500 people,” said Mr. Cohen of his movie. “I’m not sure who was who or what, but knowing the way the system works, it’s completely clear that had we deviated from the script, it would not have gone unnoticed.”

continued next post

[GeneChing]

In a 2011 Web post, Robert Cain, a producer and consultant who guides filmmakers through China’s system, described having worked in Shanghai on a romantic comedy that went off script; the director included a take in which an extra, holding a camcorder, pretended to be a theater patron taping a movie on a screen.

The next day, Mr. Cain and others involved with the film were summoned to the office of a Communist Party member who told them the film was being shut down for its “naïve” and “untruthful” portrayal of film piracy. Assuming they had been reported by a spy on their crew, the producers apologized and managed to keep the film on track.

Studios are seeking out official co-productions, in which a Chinese company works with an American studio in financing and creating a film, because they can bypass the Chinese quota system and bring their distributors a 43 percent share of ticket sales, rather than the 25 percent allotted to foreign-made films.

Co-productions like “Kung Fu Panda 3” draw close monitoring by the censors at every step. Scripts are submitted in advance. Representatives of S.A.R.F.T., according to Mr. Cohen and others, may be present on the set to guard against any deviation. And there is an unofficial expectation that the government’s approved version of the film will be seen both in China and elsewhere, though in practice it is not unusual for co-productions to slip through the system with differing versions, one for China, one for elsewhere in the world.

Questions about how Chinese forces are shaping American movies are now playing out in the making of “Iron Man 3,” which is set for release on May 3.

Disney and its Marvel unit want “Iron Man 3” to gain co-production status, partly because the previous two “Iron Man” movies performed well in China. To work toward that distinction, Disney and Marvel made a deal last year for Beijing-based DMG Entertainment to join in producing and financing the film.

But they have taken a middle-of-the-road approach that appears intended to limit Chinese meddling in the creative process. A finished script was not submitted for approval and the companies have not yet made an application for official designation as a co-production. Rather, they are trying to show a heightened sense of cooperation in hopes the government will approve the status once that application is formally made in the spring.

The producers made a presentation to censors early in the process, describing broad strokes of the story, the history of other Marvel and Disney movies, and plans to integrate Chinese characters into the movie.

That won a conceptual sign-off for the film, which is being directed by Shane Black. Next, bureaucrats were invited to the set and were able to meet the star, Robert Downey Jr.

Hollywood executives are only now becoming familiar with the censorship board and its workings. A recent count by one of their advisers found that the board has 37 members, including representatives from government agencies and interest groups, like the Communist Youth League and the Women’s Federation, along with filmmakers, academics and professional bureaucrats.

At the top of S.A.R.F.T. is Cai Fuchao, a recent member of the Communist Party Central Committee. In a previous municipal post in Beijing, he was widely reported to have policed Web sites for banned material with the help of 10,000 volunteers, and to have joined in a roundup of a million illegally published books in 2004.

In 2008, after an uproar over the release of Ang Lee’s “Lust, Caution,” whose story of wartime love and collaboration caused unease even after sex scenes were deleted, written censorship guidelines were circulated in China, in what filmmakers there took to be a crackdown.

Some of the prohibitions were broad, barring violations of the fundamental principles of the Constitution and the harming of social morality. Others were more pointed. Disparagement of the People’s Liberation Army and the police were banned, as were “murder, violence, horrors, ghosts, demons and supernaturalism.”

In all, the standards would appear to clash with almost any American film, other than, perhaps, the PG-rated animated fare of a DreamWorks Animation. (Even “Kung Fu Panda” provoked objections by some Chinese, who saw the lead character as profaning a nationally revered animal.)

But some who have dealt with S.A.R.F.T. say the censors are often pragmatic, and appear to walk a line between the demands of viewers, who want more global fare, and those of politicians, who are out to protect the status quo.

For example, 20th Century Fox managed to get “Life of Pi” through with only the modification of the “religion is darkness” line, despite the movie’s spiritual themes — which tread close to a prohibition against the preaching of cult beliefs and superstitions — and the earlier trouble over “Lust, Caution.”

For Americans, the hard part is knowing what might suddenly cause trouble — initial approvals notwithstanding. In 2009, Sony Pictures and its partner, the China Film Group, submitted their script for “The Karate Kid” to China’s censors, and dutifully changed parts of the story to suit them. But the finished film was rejected, according to people who were briefed on the process, essentially because film bureaucrats were unhappy that its villain was Chinese.

After negotiation, 12 minutes of the film were cut, and it was released in China, though later than intended.

Some filmmakers here suggest that impositions by the China censors are similar to the restrictions imposed by a ratings system administered by the Motion Picture Association of America. But Joan Graves, the chairwoman of Hollywood’s ratings board, insists otherwise. “We’re the only major country with a ratings system that does it on a voluntary basis,” she said.

Steven Soderbergh, whose film “Contagion” was shot partly in Hong Kong, said the participation of China’s censors simply added to the chorus of input that surrounds every big-budget filmmaker.

“I’m not morally offended or outraged,” Mr. Soderbergh said. “It’s fascinating to listen to people’s interpretations of your story.”
Hollywood just needs to be a little smarter, a little more sensitive, and not make films like Red Dawn (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1072) if they want that China market.

[GeneChing]

This is a good overview of who Wanda is.

Timeline of Wanda's expansion in cultural industry (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-01/03/content_16078829.htm)
Updated: 2013-01-03 07:56
By Liu Wei ( China Daily)

Wanda Cultural Industry Group has been nicknamed "a flagship of China's cultural industry" since the day it was founded on Dec 1, because of its scale, assets, variety of businesses and potential.

It has an ambitious blueprint that covers various ventures, including its art collection, movie productions, distribution and exhibition, stage show, theme parks and film bases.

Wanda has proved its foresight in the cultural sector by its success in film industry since it entered the business seven years ago. At present, its cinema line is the most powerful among Chinese film exhibitors.

Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Collection (the late 1980s)

Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin is a veteran art collector known for his insight and generosity. China Entrepreneur Magazine revealed that as early as 1992 he could spend 8 million yuan ($1.27 million) on a work by Fu Baoshi, a modern Chinese painter who died in 1965.

Insiders say Wanda's art collection could stock a museum. According to the company's website, the group focuses on collecting paintings and calligraphic work by famous modern and contemporary Chinese artists, and has owned roughly 1,000 pieces valued at 10 billion yuan in total.

Cinemas (2005)

Wanda owns the largest cinema chain in Asia and the second-largest in North America. It has 86 five-star cineplexes in China, most of which are located in downtown areas of cities across the mainland. It also owns the most IMAX screens in China. Among its 1,000 screens, approximately 50 are IMAX. Wanda Cinema Line holds around 15 percent of the market share in China.

In September, it completed acquisition of AMC Entertainment and its 5,048 screens in North America.

Media (2007)

Wanda purchased Popular Cinema, which was China's most popular movie magazine in the 1990s but was struggling to survive the fierce market competition until Wanda acquired it this year. Wanda also has interests in China Times, a weekly business & finance magazine, and Global Business, a monthly magazine.

Film and Television Bases (2009)

Wanda is building a film and television production base in Dalian, Northeast China.

Karaoke (2010)

Wanda owns 45 "Superstar" karaoke centers nationwide and plans to have 130 by 2015, making it the largest operation of its kind in China.

Theme Parks and Resorts (2010)

Wanda plans to build world's leading theme parks in Beijing, Dalian in Northeast China and Xishuangbanna in the southwestern province of Yunnan. The construction of the Dalian park is expected to be completed in 2015. The Xishuangbanna park will start construction soon. The Beijing theme park, tentatively named Dreamchasing City, is located in the eastern district of Tongzhou and is scheduled to open in 2016.

The group is also building a recreational park, involving film production and technology, in Wuhan.

Stage Show (2010)

Wanda has a joint venture with the Franco Dragone Entertainment Group in the US and will invest $1.6 billion to launch five stage shows in Wuhan, Dalian, Sanya and other cities. The Wuhan show will premiere in 2014.

Film and Television Production (2011)

The company's website notes that the group invested $80 million to found the Film & TV Production Company in 2011. It has produced or distributed a small number of works this year, but plans to make more than 10 movies or television works annually after 2013.

Some of the company's better-known projects include the production and distribution of The Warring States in 2011, starring veteran Sun Honglei and newcomer Jing Tian, the distribution of Taiwan director Wei Te-sheng's epic Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale in May, and the production of a romantic feature called Holding Love, starring Yang Mi and Liu Kaiwei, in June.

[GeneChing]

Why Hollywood studios need to learn Chinese (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-hollywood-chinesebre91l0wb-20130222,0,6087913.story)
Lucas Shaw Reuters
11:50 a.m. CST, February 22, 2013

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - For the last few years, Hollywood has sharpened its focus on releasing English-language movies in China, one of the world's fastest growing film markets. But that may not be enough.

In the next few years, they may want to make the movies in Mandarin as well.

A pair of recent releases co-produced by Village Roadshow Pictures Asia, a subsidiary of Village Roadshow Limited focused on Chinese-language movies, show why language may matter more than ever.

Its first effort, fantasy-action comedy "Journey to the West: Conquering Demons," from "Kung Fu Hustle" actor-director Stephen Chow, earned more on one day - ironically, Valentine's Day - than any other movie on any day in Chinese history, grossing 122 million reminbi ($19.6 million). It also has also become the fastest film to reach $100 million in its homeland.

And VRPA's second film, "Say Yes!," a Chinese-language remake of a TV drama, set a new record for a romance film opening on Valentine's Day, which this year coincided with Chinese New Year, earning $7.5 million.

Together, the two films accounted for 85 percent of the box-office grosses on the Hallmark holiday.

"This will be the largest indigenous market outside of English language movies in the U.S," Greg Basser, CEO of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, told TheWrap. "It's still very immature, but we have a big familiarity with the region and a good brand in the region."

They aren't the only ones tapping into the market. DreamWorks Animation has partnered with three Chinese companies to launch DreamWorks Oriental, which will be headquartered in Xuhui. It will make original Chinese-language films based on local stories, and the first original movie should arrive in 2017.

Fox International Productions, a subsidiary of News Corp., has already released local-language movies in a number of markets, including China. Last October, it partnered with the Bona Film Group to co-produce more such films.

"With China growing as a market, you're only going to see more of this," Phil Contrino, vice president and chief analyst for BoxOffice.com, told TheWrap. "A Hollywood movie won't appeal to a Chinese moviegoer just because it flies to Beijing or Shanghai for a sequence. In the same way, an American might not watch a movie in Chinese with an all-Chinese cast just because 10 minutes of it are in America."

While the success of Chinese-language movies is not new, a recent surge in broken records reflects the irrepressible growth of the marketplace. A series of Chinese companies, led by Beijing Enlight Pictures, account for the biggest hit yet in China, "Lost in Thailand," which this year broke the record set by "Avatar" in 2009.

Fox International Productions, which distributed the record-setting "Journey to the West" in Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia but not China, has charted smaller hits with "Love in Space," a Hong Kong-set romantic comedy, and "Hot Summer Days."

No wonder the Australian-based Village Roadshow, whose Village Roadshow Pictures is a major co-financier and co-producer for Warner Bros., is planning to make four to eight Chinese language pictures a year, budgeted from $2 million to $25 million. The next release is Keanu Reeves' directorial debut, "The Man of Tai Chi," which Universal will distribute.

Village Roadshow has been involved in the Chinese film market for more than 40 years. As part of a partnership with Golden Harvest, a Hong Kong-based film company now called Orange Sky Golden Harvest, it distributed Bruce Lee movies in Australia, while Golden Harvest distributed some of Village Roadshow's movies in China.

In 1988, the two companies signed a joint venture agreement to form Golden Village, a multiplex operator across Asia. Together, they opened Singapore's first movie theater and at one point operated cinemas in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and India.

They also opened the first multiplex in Shanghai. "Immodestly, I will say we multiplexed Asia," Basser said.

More than 20 years later, Village Roadshow decided it would rather produce films in China than simply own physical cinemas. Just before the 2009 release of "Avatar," the most successful movie in Chinese history until "Lost in Thailand," Basser and Village Roadshow Chairman Rob Kirby met with Orange Sky to talk about the growing audience in China.

"There are over 300 different film companies in China," Basser told TheWrap. "There's this huge appetite. Although we've released 70-odd pictures in China, we decided to focus on making films in Chinese for the Chinese market."

And the marketing expense? "A fraction," according to Basser, because studios don't have to spend anywhere close to the same amount on TV and print advertisements in China as in the U.S.

Of course, while the success of some of these Chinese-language local productions has indicated an appetite for more local products, none of this means the Chinese will stop watching American-made films with subtitles or dubbing.

Contrino pointed to the recent success of "Cloud Atlas," a movie that bombed in the United States and has now made just as much in China as it did domestically. Global box-office receipts hit record levels in 2012, thanks in large part to the growth of the Chinese market.

However, the Chinese government has long stifled filmmakers, producers and distributors from across the globe by imposing a quota on the number of imported films it would permit. It also has a limit on the percentage of box office grosses that could come from foreign titles.

Several companies have found ways to get around the quota, most notable co-productions that film scenes in China and feature Chinese factors.

With "Looper," Endgame Entertainment partnered with Beijing-based DMG Entertainment, moved production from France to China and added new cast members. Sony, whose TriStar Pictures released "Looper," partnered with China Film for 2010's "The Karate Kid," gaining access to several Chinese landmarks.

DreamWorks Animation has planned "Kung Fu Panda 3," the latest installment in the billion-dollar-franchise, as a co-production. And Marvel Studios did the same with "Iron Man 3," due in theaters May 3, though it has not officially registered it as a co-production yet.

Yet Hyde Park Entertainment CEO Ashok Amritraj, whose company operates a fund out of Singapore that it will use to make local language co-productions, said the number of co-productions remains small because of legal and logistical difficulties.

"It's getting more tricky to qualify English-language films as co-productions," Amritraj said. "The rules are fairly strong and one has to be very careful how one qualifies."

Most co-productions face another hurdle - an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. As a result of allegations that production companies were bribing people to secure filming permits, the SEC is looking into whether American companies have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars U.S. companies from bribing public officials in other countries.

Despite a recent story about how this has unnerved several companies, some of whom declined to comment to TheWrap about this piece, lawyers said that the investigation served more as a warning flag for future projects.

A bigger question looms: As the burgeoning market for Chinese-language movies evolves, what are its chances of an even wider audience - possibly even one in the United States?

Few Chinese-language movies that were successful at home have drawn crowds in the U.S. "Lost in Thailand" made less than $30,000 in its first weekend in the U.S. while "Love in Space" only played briefly in New York.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is the best example of a Mandarin movie that succeeded stateside, but most see that more as an exception than the rule.

"There is not yet a formula where local language films can play to anything other than a real niche audience in America or some of other foreign countries," Amritraj said. "Once you do it in Mandarin, you are restricting yourself to the Chinese marketplace."

Yet Village Roadshow and DreamWorks Animation are still betting their movies will eventually travel around the world.

"Can a Chinese movie go worldwide?" Contrino asked. "The first step is appealing to their own people. After that, they can get more ambitious and try to compete with Hollywood on a global scale."
It always comes back to CTHD (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57881). Ang Lee has been at the forefront ever since. He even won the Oscar for Best Director last night. He's still the MAN.

[GeneChing]

This sums up the story so far quite nicely.

Lost in translation (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/lost-in-translation)
By Patrick Frater
Thu, 28 March 2013, 10:30 AM (HKT)

Many headlines over the past year have marvelled at the growth of the Chinese film industry – the box office records, the number of new cinemas opened each day and its blow for blow tussle with Hollywood.

So when international critics and buyers got a chance to see Lost in Thailand 人再囧途之泰囧, China's low budget box office miracle, at last month's Berlin film market they rushed in. They emerged bemused by a comedy which is slick and competently made, but is very parochial in its subject and humour, and which has minimal appeal outside China's borders.

The reviewers' disappointment is typical of an older dichotomy, namely how to sell Chinese films abroad while also building an industry at home. The problem may become more acute before it is resolved.

While box office in China has grown very substantially, some 30% in each of the last two years, making the country now the number two theatrical market behind North America, exports of Chinese film has waned. According to the State Administration of Radio, Film & Television (SARFT) 國家廣播電影電視總局, the overseas box office of Chinese films dropped by 49% in 2012.


Changing Export Markets

European buyers warmed to Chinese and other Asian films in the early part of the century when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 臥虎藏龍 (2000) singlehandedly blasted out a new market. Distributors and audiences worldwide tuned in to Chinese costume action films and settings and were able to ignore the traditional hurdles of subtitles or unfamiliar stars that normally make such films a tricky sell.

It was followed by In the Mood for Love 花樣年華 (2000) albeit in a different genre, which broke BO records in territories including the UK, then by Hero 英雄 (2002) and House of Flying Daggers 十面埋伏 (2004). Hong Kong's Infernal Affairs 無間道 (2002) trilogy also kept Cantonese language films in buyers' minds.

The success of these films helped Sony/Columbia open a production office in Hong Kong and encouraged other producers and stars to cash in by delivering the next film in the vein of Crouching Tiger. There were some unhappy knock offs such as Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger 龍騰虎躍 (2001) and Roaring Dragon, Bluffing Tiger (aka Heroes on Fire 南國風雲 (2000)).

The boom occurred at a time video was still strong and provided robust ancillary market support following theatrical releases. Video and DVD sales have since tumbled in Europe and North America – major retail chains HMV and Tower Records went bust as a result – and have not been fully replaced by paid-for online sales.

Collapsing video, global economic recession and the revival of local films in some territories has meant that distributors are no longer keen to acquire as many Chinese films as they were in the early 2000s.

"We simply don't buy as many Chinese films as we did in the Contender days," says Jo Sweby, who previously headed acquisitions at UK genre video label Contender Entertainment Group before she and Contender joined multinational distributor Entertainment One (eOne). Similarly, Showbox Media Group, a rival UK video group which used to be a mainstay, has not bought a Chinese film for two years.

The problem of changing markets is not one uniquely faced by Chinese films. "International markets are increasingly difficult, because output deals and co-productions leave little room for indie or foreign fare," says Albert LEE 利雅博, CEO of Emperor Motion Pictures Ltd 英皇電影有限公司, which as a producer straddles Hong Kong and China and is also a Hong Kong distributor. And many local Asian film industries have succeeded in growing the domestic share of their home markets.

But the failure of Chinese films to connect in international sales markets is significant considering how many film funds in the pre-financial crash period were posited on slates of new Crouching Tigers and the idea of Chinese films becoming a global currency.

In particular, the North American market, which was rarely the most lucrative for Chinese films, but was often the most symbolic, has changed dramatically.

Several indie distributors such as Magnolia and IFC have scaled back on theatrical releasing, in favour of ventures into premium-video-on-demand and ultra-VoD (showing on video before theatrical). Other Asian specialists in North America ImaginasianTV, Tokyopop and Indomina Releasing have closed their distribution arms. Similarly, the Hollywood studios, have slashed their buying of Asian titles, and many Chinese titles have waited in vain for a deal.

Well Go USA Inc remains a traditional distributor that opens titles aimed at cross-over audiences in theatrical release ahead of other windows, though it actually makes more than 70% of its revenues from old fashioned DVD sales. Rival, China Lion Film Distribution Inc seeks the Chinese diaspora audiences and wherever possible gives its titles day-and-date outings at the same time as their China or Hong Kong releases.

US exhibition giant, AMC Entertainment Inc, which is now owned by Chinese property and cinemas giant Wanda, has itself also put a toe into the US distribution arena. It acquired and released Lost In Thailand in Feb 2013 (grossing just $57,000 in its first two weeks) and is aiming for two releases per year.

"There are several factors that have [negatively] affected box office revenue of Chinese films in the US," says Well Go CEO Doris PFARDRESCHER. "VoD has become an easy way to watch movies, especially with theatrical and video windows shrinking. Second, genre. Chinese films that do well in the US are martial arts action, however the films that are currently doing well in Chinese territories are comedies, romance and fantasy films – all of which have a hard time translating overseas."

"It is not necessarily true that the market-ability of Chinese film is declining. At China Lion our BO in 2012 was up 100% over 2011," says China Lion founder, Milt BARLOW, who left the company earlier this month. "The real issue is there is still not enough focus from Chinese studios and sales agents to get a meaningful US release up and running. With piracy as our top competitor for Asian American audiences in North America, if we are not day-and-date with Asian home countries then the film is dead. And let's get real, mainstream Western audiences do not want to see these films."


continued next post

[GeneChing]

We're very pleased to be working with Well Go USA now. The have bought our topmost banner to promote Bangkok Revenge (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64334) and Muay Thai Warrior (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58512), as well as supplied several prizes for our sweepstakes (http://www.kungfumagazine.net/index.html). I encourage you to support them.



Genre Identity

The kind of movies Chinese film-makers are serving up is an equally tricky issue. They are widely seen as too parochial or formulaic.

Mainland China's censorship system, which makes certain subjects taboo, and on the other hand requires every film to be acceptable for general release – China does not have a rating or classification system like most other countries – is blamed by film-makers and overseas distributors alike for narrowing the range of films being made.

Producers including Edko Films Ltd 安樂影片有限公司's Bill KONG 江志強 and Lion Rock Productions 獅子山製作有限公司's Terence CHANG 張家振 say that such restrictions mean that they are unable to make contemporary thrillers for the mainland market, though they do so from Hong Kong instead. (Kong was last year responsible for Cold War 寒戰 which was released in China and achieved over $40 million at the box office.)

"Filmmaking is all about genres and having a strong antagonist. Without the bad guy, the good guy has nothing to do, but it's hard to make contemporary movies because crime today won't pass censorship," mainland director CHEN Daming 陳大明 has said.

EMP's Lee sums up the sales agent's dilemma. "Chinese comedy doesn't travel. Action films are beaten by US films for special effects. Drama needs stars and we don't have them. And historical martial arts is over-exposed," he says.

Scholars such as Film Business Asia's chief critic Derek ELLEY argue that today's 700 title per year output from China is far more cutting edge and innovative than it is given credit for. Supposedly taboo subjects such as ghosts and time travel are indeed making it on screen. China even enjoyed its first monster action adventure Million Dollar Crocodile 百萬巨鰐 last year.

But perceptions are hard to change and Chinese film may remain stuck until sales agents and marketers actively promote China's diversity and use international platforms such as festivals to do so. "I don't need to see any more glorifications of Chinese history. I'm surprised these films still have any success with Chinese audiences. It is no surprise that Chinese film exports are dropping," says Christoph TERHECHTE, head selector at the Berlin International Film Festival's Forum section.

While China's domestic market remains so robust there is little incentive to make huge efforts to curry international favour.

"Chinese companies have no idea about international sales. That's because they are so strongly focussed on their home market. It is like Japan in the 1970s," says EMP's Lee. "China is our opportunity. We should actually redeploy staff from our international side to the China operations," says Lee. "And in fact we are already doing so."

There are exceptional films,which enjoy sales success. But they are few. "The China market has evolved into such a monster that [mainland China] films don't travel either in Asia or the rest of the world. Lost In Thailand is an example," says LIM Teck 林德, head of Clover Films Pte Ltd, a Singapore distributor, which has now begun making its own Chinese-language movies.

"[Jackie CHAN 成龍's] CZ12 十二生肖 is one of the rare Chinese films that did connect – it did well in China and broke records around Asia. The challenge is to balance local and international needs – to find the next CZ12."

Others point to a factor that even the censors cannot be blamed for: mood. "Chinese movies have become very dark, there is rarely a transcendent hero," says producer and Chinese film commentator Bey LOGAN. "The Warlords 投名狀 (2007), Bodyguards and Assassins 十月圍城 (2009), The Guillotines 血滴子 and Back to 1942 一九四二 were not fun. The Last Supper 王的盛宴 was also very dark. Its director LU Chuan 陸川 tells me that's the darkness in Chinese people's soul. But that's why people can be turned off. It's also why the Ip Man 葉問 (2008) films were well regarded. They are simple stories of individual heroism that are well told.

Technical Factors

Technical, industry-specific factors may also hinder Chinese films from punching at their full weight in international markets.

"It is difficult for foreign distributors to programme and market Chinese films because they have so little forward certainty over the date of release," says Infernal Affairs producer Nansun SHI 施南生. "That gives problems with censorship and materials."

In the longer term history and economics may anyway work in China's favour. A decade from now the picture may be one where other Chinese firms have followed Wanda Media Co Ltd 萬達影視傳媒有限公司's example and acquired their own stakes in Hollywood, and one in which foreign firms like Village Roadshow Pictures Asia Ltd 威秀電影亞洲有限公司 and Fox International Productions are fully embedded in Chinese production.

Already, these companies' films like Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 西游　降魔篇 and Hot Summer Days 全城熱戀熱辣辣 (2010), have put Chinese audiences and tastes first and made money locally for their backers. International sales are simply treated as a bonus.

[GeneChing]

Well Go USA will buy out our topmost banner again next week. Finally all of this work promoting Chinese movies is paying out...or at the very least, helping to fund our forum here. :)

China’s homegrown hit films flop overseas (http://asiancorrespondent.com/102658/chinas-homegrown-hit-films-flop-overseas/)
By AP News Mar 20, 2013 1:12PM UTC

HONG KONG (AP) — The surprise hit in Chinese theaters last year was a low-budget, wacky road-trip comedy that even beat out global blockbuster “Avatar” to become the country’s highest-grossing film ever. But “Lost in Thailand” disappeared overseas.

The film that earned 1.26 billion yuan ($200 million) in China earned a paltry $57,000 during its U.S. theatrical release, joining other homegrown hits that have flopped internationally. It is the latest sign that while the country has become a box-office superpower, it faces a harder task fulfilling its leaders’ hopes that its studios will be able to rival Hollywood for global influence.

Action-comedy “Let the Bullets Fly,” starring Chow Yun-fat, grossed $111 million at home but $63,000 in the United States, while action-fantasy “Painted Skin: The Resurrection,” starring Donnie Yen, earned $113 million domestically but $50,400 in the U.S., according to Hollywood.com.

Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-fat, left, and Chinese actor and director Jiang Wen seen in 'Let Bullets Fly'. The film was a huge hit in China, but failed to make an impact in the US. Pic: AP.

Chinese movies’ overseas box office receipts fell 48 percent last year, alarming regulators, who also worried about Hollywood movies taking more than half of ticket revenue, which totaled 17 billion yuan ($2.7 billion), for the first time in nine years. Tong Gang, head of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, urged filmmakers to “better express Chinese images and stories in line with the international film mainstream” and step up their marketing and publicity, according to state media.

China’s film industry has been reaching out to Hollywood in search of co-production deals that would help studios make movies that both Chinese and global audiences like. They’re hoping to make the next “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” a 2000 U.S.-China-Hong Kong-Taiwan co-production that became a global blockbuster.

But film distributors say selling China’s movies to the world is hampered by subject matter that doesn’t travel well, different storytelling methods and the sheer size of its own market.

Lim Teck, managing director of Singaporean producer and distributor Clover Films, said China has become so lucrative that local studios don’t need to think about other markets.

“China has become so big and so powerful. Basically a lot of movies nowadays are very China-centric,” Lim said at a panel discussion at the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market, a major trade show.

“They’re produced primarily for the China local market, which is nothing wrong because the market is so big, but with that in mind it sort of undermines the (appeal to the) rest of Asia,” Lim said.

Doris Pfardrescher, president of distributor Well Go USA, said the kinds of movies that are popular in China today — romances, comedies and fantasy flicks — don’t necessarily appeal to audiences in other countries.

“For the U.S. market, what primarily does well are your martial arts action films. … Usually they have simplified stories. It’s all about visual effect. They’re just easier to consume as far as with the fanboys,” she said, adding that China is making fewer and fewer such movies.

“The films that are being made now, the Chinese films, are these romantic comedies that just don’t do well for us.”

“Lost in Thailand” follows two businessmen who encounter a tourist while searching for their boss. While it has been applauded for depicting modern middle-class life in China, critics say its humor doesn’t appeal outside China.

In an interview, director Xu Zheng said, “I didn’t even think of the foreign market when I was making the film, because the budget was limited.” Had he known it would have been released in other countries, “I might have changed some things in my script.”

China’s censorship system has also been blamed for limiting the kinds of films made, as filmmakers stay away from edgy subjects like in contemporary thrillers in favor of safer storylines.

Film distributors said there are also subtle differences in storytelling, especially with historical and cultural touchstones that differ among audiences.

“There are a lot of things you need to explain and tell to the Western audience (that) would be considered boring” to a Chinese audience, said Jeffrey Chan, CEO of Hong Kong-based Distribution Workshop.

Action movies aside, “you need social, historical, cultural background. Then the way you tell it to a Chinese audience and the way you tell it to a non-Chinese audience will be very different,” Chan said.

Pfardrescher added that for “a lot of Chinese films that I see there is this assumption that Americans know maybe the history or the political humor or something, but unfortunately we don’t. We don’t understand. We don’t know. So it doesn’t translate.

“The only way to do that is to make a lot longer movie to explain it all, but it would be very boring for Chinese audiences.”

[GeneChing]

Isn't all the Disney merch made in China already?

Kennedy seeks Disney expansion in China (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/kennedy-seeks-disney-expansion-in-china)
By Patrick Frater
Sun, 21 April 2013, 19:30 PM (HKT)

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Kathleen KENNEDY, one of the most successful Hollywood producers of all time, said that The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm Ltd are seeking ever greater film-making collaboration in China.

Making a keynote speech at the Beijing International Film Festival 北京國際電影節, Kennedy who recently became president of Lucasfilm, described the attraction of China.

"The landscape of entertainment is changing — and a major part of that change — is China's growing role in the global film industry. – As a new member of the Disney family, — I speak for all of us — when I say — that we are thrilled to work with China. Disney and Lucasfilm are committed to working with the best filmmakers, wherever they are – and offering support to help develop young talent — however we can."

She pointed to Disney's commitment to a research venture with Beijing's National Animation Creative Research and Development Cooperation, a joint partnership between Disney, the Ministry of Culture's China Animation Group, and Tencent Holdings Ltd 騰訊控股有限公司.

"The goal — is to grow China's homegrown animation talent, — develop projects, and deliver original content — that will reach people locally and around the world," Kennedy said. "To be able to export Chinese stories and culture — through this collective — is very meaningful to Disney, and it's something we are honored to be a part of."

Earlier, Lucasfilm cemented its visual effects pact with Beijing-Based provider Base FX.

On behalf of Disney she also revealed that the Hollywood studio has pledged a donation of $1 million the relief fund for Saturday's Sichuan earthquake.

Her speech on the subject of innovation, included reminiscence about her first trip to China, in 1985, when shooting Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, and a message about self-belief, determination and good quality execution.

[GeneChing]

Everyone wants a piece of China and Korea has worked that mine for years.

China's genre revolution (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/chinas-genre-revolution)
By Derek Elley
Tue, 23 July 2013, 08:30 AM (HKT)
Industry Feature

Over the past decade or so a movie revolution has been taking place in the world's most populous country that's largely gone uncharted outside its borders — and has certainly not been recognised by international film festivals beyond niche events. China's evolution from a relatively small movie producer (given its size) to one that now ranks alongside India, Japan and the US as one of the biggest by number of productions has been dominated by a single development — the emergence of a powerful commercial sector in which straight genre movies (comedies, horrors, rom-coms, action) now play the same role as in any other market.

Among other Asian countries, tiny South Korea has also seen a similar, if smaller, revolution that's been more internationally visible — partly thanks to the Koreans' canny use of marketing mechanisms like festivals as well as the creation of centralised bodies like the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) 영화진흥위원회 to lead the overseas charge. China, by contrast, has a much less co-ordinated structure and way less fervour in proving itself to the rest of the world — at least where movies are concerned.

However, aside from major festivals pigeonholing China into political and "underground" slots, and the country's own lack of a centralised promotion agency, there are other reasons for the country's revolution passing the rest of the world by. Chinese-language cinema (Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan) has been as much hindered as helped by its 40-year-old identification with action and martial-arts movies. Those genres were essentially developed "offshore" in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and burst upon the West in the '70s, at a time when it was hungry for exciting new genres. Apart from a brief spell during the 1920s, martial arts movies have never formed a major constituent of Mainland production in the same way — and certainly not in the PRC after 1949, when social and political-oriented fare dominated by government decree. As production in China started to diversify in the '80s and considerably loosen up during the '90s, those action/martial-arts film-making skills had long been lost to Hong Kong, and have only recently begun to be re-learned with the help of Hong Kong talent.

That left China with a big identity problem. When the Korean New Wave began in the late '90s, it was lucky to start with a cultural blank slate, with no western pre-conceptions of what a South Korean movie really was. China, however, was "Chinese" — but "Chinese culture" had basically been hijacked by Hong Kong back in the '50s and '60s. If China couldn't produce action/martial arts movies with a finesse and pacing like Hong Kong's, how could it distinguish itself commercially on the world stage, especially as western audiences had been schooled to think that these genres were all there were?

As much for political reasons than commercial ones, China became identified via western festivals with political, protest, socially-oriented and "underground" films — though the country, in fact, was rapidly changing back home. As film-making, like the rest of the economy, became less centralised and more market-driven, with private production companies blooming, China focused on developing its vast home market and to hell with its international image. As in any other national industry, that meant genre movies for its vast home audience — with no need, unlike tiny Hong Kong, to develop an export-oriented industry.

The past decade has been a gradual process of China redeveloping a broad film industry on a par with Shanghai's of the '20s and '30s and in line with other major Asian ones. It's been a period of "firsts", shouted from posters whether true or not: "China's first spy/war super-production" (The Message 風聲 (2009)), "China's first modern-day psycho-thriller franchise super-production" (Lost in Panic Cruise 密室之不可靠岸 (2011)), "China's first disaster movie" (Super Typhoon 超強颱風 (2008)), and even "Henan [province]'s first local super-hilarious film" (No Kidding 不是鬧著玩的 (2009)). Directors previously known for artier movies have climbed on the genre bandwagon. And though political biographies and war films still form around 5-10% of titles, under the canny leadership of HAN Sanping 韓三平 even state-owned China Film found a way of making The Founding of a Republic 建國大業 (2009) and Beginning of the Great Revival 建黨偉業 (2011) marketable by turning them into spot-the-star-cameo games.

As Film Business Asia's analysis of Mainland theatrical releases during the past decade reveals, Drama (including Melodrama and Romance) has always been the dominant genre, providing 40-50% of all production — way higher than Action or Comedy, two basic staples in neighbouring Hong Kong. As other genres like Rom-Com and Horror have developed in the past few years, they've basically emerged from Drama and taken some of its share.

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continued next post

[GeneChing]

Horror
Unlike in the West (which tends to focus on pure shocks and gore), but similar to other Asian countries, modern-day Horror has essentially grown out of the tradition of ghost stories, in which belief and acceptance of ghosts as a parallel part of life play a large part. The tradition is well-established in classical Chinese literature but was proscribed under the early PRC as a "feudal" tradition and is still officially encouraged to be presented as an irrational fear. That hasn't prevented film-makers in pushing the envelope to a point where it's hardly an impediment to making full-blown Horror: a final caption describing events in rational terms, or a scene (similar to earlier US movies, such as Psycho) of a specialist providing an explanation, generally gets round the proscription, but even those are becoming progressively rarer.

Horror jogged along in the early '00s with a couple of films a year, followed by a brief spike in 2005 and two movies by artier directors in 2007 (LI Shaohong 李少紅's The Door 門 (2006), with stars CHEN Kun 陳坤 and HUANG Jue 黃覺, and TENG Huatao 滕華濤's The Matrimony 心中有鬼 (2006), with FAN Bingbing 范冰冰, Hong Kong's Leon LAI 黎明 and Taiwan's René LIU 劉若英). The last two made some money but it wasn't until 2010 that the genre really took off, with the surprise success of John CHIANG 蔣國權's Illusion Apartment 異度公寓 (2010) (with RMB19 million/US$3 million), Hong Konger LO Chi-leung 羅志良's Curse of the Deserted 荒村公寓 (2009), with China's Kitty ZHANG 張雨綺 and Hong Kong's Shawn YUE 余文樂 (RMB23 million), ZHANG Panpan 張番番's Lost in Panic Room 密室之不可告人 (2010), with Taiwan's Alec SU 蘇有朋 and Pace WU 吳佩慈 (RMB21 million), and especially ZHANG Jiabei 張加貝's Midnight Beating 午夜心跳 (2010), with Hong Kong's Simon YAM 任達華 and Francis NG 吳鎮宇 (RMB30 million). The code had finally been cracked: money could be made from Horror by employing Greater China casts and upping production values.

Zhang, who'd earlier directed the horror E-mail 信箱 (2007), followed Lost in Panic Room with Lost in Panic Cruise, set on a ship, to equally good returns. But it was the surprise (and lucky) hit of Hong Konger Rico CHUNG 鍾繼昌's Mysterious Island 孤島驚魂 (2011) in summer 2011 that really surprised the Mainland industry, with RMB90 million earned from combining slasher-horror with scantily dressed babes and a marketing campaign centred on sexy starlet Mini YANG 楊冪 in a soggy T-shirt. As was shown by the failure of Chung's Mysterious Island 2 孤島驚魂２ early this year, Horror is still a fragile genre that's not to be taken for granted. But it's now an established part of China's genre fabric, in 12% of the country's theatrical releases last year, and has also been attracting foreign directors. The China-produced Bunshinsaba 2 笔仙Ⅱ (pictured), by South Korea's AN Byung-ki 안병기 | 安兵基, has just broken the opening record of Mysterious Island.

Rom-Com
Romantic comedies are the other most significant development of the past few years, taking elements from Drama (traditional romances and melodramas) and Comedy, and combining them with the emergence of a yuppie class during the '00s in prosperous New Urban China. The genre is an almost exact parallel with Hong Kong's '80s yuppie rom-coms from companies like D&B Films and Cinema City, plastered with band-name advertising, end-title logos, aspirational living and a new national confidence.

The template for the modern China Rom-Com can be traced back to New Year hitmeister FENG Xiaogang 馮小剛's Be There or Be Square 不見不散 (1998), with comedian GE You 葛優 and actress XU Fan 徐帆 playing two Mainlanders in Los Angeles. At the time, the film was practically ignored overseas, as it fitted into none of the Mainland pigeonholes established in the West. A subsequent precursor was Li Shaohong's Baober in Love 戀愛中的寶貝 (2003), an ambitious film that was ahead of its time when it appeared in 2004 and was met with mystification by general western critics (more used to Li's artier movies) when shown at some festivals that year. Locally, however, audiences were already ripe for the genre, which suddenly took off in 2007.

The episodic Call for Love 愛情呼叫轉移 (2007), by Shanghai-based ZHANG Jianya 張建亞, set things rolling, with comedian XU Zheng 徐崢 (who was to hit the super bigtime five years later with the comedy Lost in Thailand 人再囧途之泰囧) trying to romance a bevy of women played by name actresses. Zhang followed it with the equally episodic Fit Lover 愛呼２：愛情左右 (2008), which earned a healthy RMB33 million, but it was the mega-hit later that year of Feng's If You are the One 非誠勿擾 (2008), which made 10 times the amount, that definitively announced the arrival of the glossy Rom-Com. Starring his favourite actor Ge and Taiwan actress SHU Qi 舒淇, the odd-couple rom-com combined Feng's trademark ironic comedy with glossy production values that reflected the changes in lifestyle since Be There or Be Square a decade earlier.

The Rom-Com immediately became the genre of choice, especially for actresses, with Eva JIN 金依萌's Sophie's Revenge 非常完美 (2009), produced by and starring ZHANG Ziyi 章子怡, with South Korea's CJ Entertainment as a production partner, clocking up a handsome RMB94 million, and actress-director XU Jinglei 徐靜蕾 acing that the following year with Go! Lala Go! 杜拉拉升職記 (2010) (RMB114 million), an office rom-com with a Greater China cast that oozed confidence and great clothes. The genre took advantage of marketing hooks (Valentine's Day, White Day, Singles' Day) and since then has produced several skilfully written and played movies, none better than Teng Huatao's office rom-com Love Is Not Blind 失戀３３天 (2011), Xu's reteaming with Taiwan-American actor Stanley HUANG 黃立行, Dear Enemy 親密敵人 (2011) (which takes the China rom-com into global high finance), and not least SUN Zhou 孫周's I Do 我願意 (2011), with terrific lead playing by SUN Honglei 孫紅雷 and LI Bingbing 李冰冰.

Unlike Horror, which remains one of the few exportable genres in Asian cinema, Rom-Com remains a tough genre to sell to the West, however well-made or enjoyable as entertainment. Comedy is an even trickier overseas proposition, and in China has always played considerable second fiddle to Drama.

Pure Comedy, rather than Comedy-Drama, is more often found on TV than on cinema screens, though in the past five years it's been taking a rising share of film production and showing considerable inventiveness beyond just slapstick. A spate of money-chasing comedies, partly sparked by NING Hao 寧浩's Crazy Stone 瘋狂的石頭 (2006), has revealed a local gift for multi-character, criss-crossing scripts that make good use of the country's vast supply of character actors, give chances to younger actors, and throw up unlikely stars in goofy comics like HUANG Bo 黃渤, WANG Baoqiang 王寶強 and Xu Zheng. Black comedies, like GUAN Hu 管虎's Cow 鬥牛 (2009) and Design of Death 殺生, ZHAO Tianyu 趙天宇's Deadly Delicious 雙食記 (2007), and YANG Shupeng 楊樹鵬's The Robbers 我的唐朝兄弟 (2009) and An Inaccurate Memoir 匹夫, have continued to blur genre lines in an inventive way, while genre spoofs like Big Movie 大電影之數百億 (2006) and Two Stupid Eggs 兩個傻瓜的荒唐事 (2007) by Ah Gan 阿甘 (aka Kiefer Liu) have broadened the comic spectrum.

Pure Action, with no Comedy elements, remains surprisingly low on the Mainland genre scale, partly because of a traditionally Chinese preference for interweaving the two and partly because crime movies largely remain the preserve of TV drama series. Hard-driven action dramas set in China's deserty landscapes, like GAO Qunshu 高群書's Wild East-style Wind Blast 西風烈 (2010), have begun to appear, though Ning Hao's reportedly very dark No Man Land 無人區 (2009) remains on the shelf, a victim of a censorship system in which all films must be suitable for all audiences. South Korea's notorious propensity for ultra-black, ultra-violent movies doesn't look as if it will be replicated in China soon — partly because there's little taste for such fare among Chinese audiences.

Despite that, the sky is pretty much the limit in Mainland genre cinema at present. As China's reliance on Hong Kong imports decreases as its own star system grows and filmmakers learn their own tricks, genre cinema looks set only to grow and diversify further, to feed the ever-expanding home market and a huge, diverse population with very different tastes in the north and south. The revolution continues.

The graph above reflects the percentage presence of five key genre elements in locally produced, theatrically released features. (Hong Kong and Taiwan films with a considerable non-Mainland constituent have been excluded.) As many films feature more than one genre element, the graph records the genres as an overall percentage, not by numbers of titles.

Production in China has mushroomed during the past decade. The number of films certified by SARFT currently runs at around 700 a year, though only some 20% ever get a wide theatrical release and many of those last only a few days due to intense competition for screens. The majority of smaller films go straight to DVD or TV, or receive special screenings, regional showings and so on. For 2003, FBA surveyed just over 30 local productions; for 2012, the figure was over 180.'ultra-black, ultra-violent movies' oh yeah. :)

[GeneChing]

Chinese films opening in N. American cinemas (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/chinese-films-opening-in-n-american-cinemas)
By Kevin Ma
Thu, 25 July 2013, 15:05 PM (HKT)

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Several Chinese films will be released theatrically in North American cinemas over the next two months.

Well Go USA Inc released Jay CHOU 周杰倫's The Rooftop 天台 last weekend on 17 screens in the United States and Canada. In its first three days of release, it made US$47,259. It is already the US-based company's second highest grossing film of the year, behind South Korea crime drama New World 신세계 | 新世界.

Well Go – in partnership with Variance Films – will next release Johnnie TO 杜琪峰's Drug War 毒戰 in one New York City cinema this weekend. They will then expand the release across the US and Canada in August. Well Go will also launch pre-theatrical VoD for Ip Man: The Final Fight 葉問　終極一戰 on 20 Aug before a limited theatrical release on 20 Sep.

China Lion Film Distribution Inc is releasing GUO Jingming 郭敬明's Tiny Times 小時代 (pictured) this weekend. The hit youth drama will open on three screens in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto. The multi-national distribution firm released Vicki ZHAO 趙薇's So Young 致我們終將逝去的青春 in the three cities in June.

The highest profile Asian release in the upcoming months is WONG Kar-wai 王家衛's The Grandmaster 一代宗師. The Weinstein Company is set to release the martial arts epic in cinemas on 23 Aug. The distributor has already started its publicity campaign in North America with Wong Kar-wai's visit to the Comic-Con in San Diego and a special event devoted to the director hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on 22 Jul. Wong and actress ZHANG Ziyi 章子怡 both appeared at the Academy event. Let's see now, we've been following tR (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66280), IM:tFF (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64470), and of course, GM (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53227).

[GeneChing]

This is exactly why we reviewed Wolverine (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1104) & Pacific Rim (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1100).

Martial arts elbowing into Hollywood's biggest films (http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/07/31/martial-arts-hollywood/2595055/)
Scott Bowles, USA TODAY 1:08 p.m. EDT August 1, 2013
Fanboys get a kick out of kung fu's resurgence on the big screen.

Everybody in Hollywood is kung fu fighting this summer.

Films showcasing Asian martial arts were once relegated to grindhouse theaters and niche markets, but the genre is enjoying a subtle resurgence in the mainstream. Major studio tentpole films are using kung fu to woo American kids raised on anime, and they're luring Asian kids by showcasing action heroes from that part of the planet.

The past month has been rife with releases featuring Eastern-influenced action that would please the surliest of samurai:

• The Wolverine. The sixth installment of the X-Men franchise is a ninja-meets-superhero hybrid set in Japan. The film, featuring Hugh Jackman and a largely Japanese cast, scored a convincing No. 1 this weekend by taking in $53 million.

• Red 2. Despite a premise of aging European and American spies, the sequel features a new character in South Korean action star Byung-hun Lee, who plays an unstoppable Asian assassin. Lee also provided the high-flying kicks in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, out this week on DVD.

• Pacific Rim. The latest film from avowed fanboy Guillermo del Toro is a mashup of martial arts and monsters. Inspired by Godzilla movies and the Ultraman TV series, Rim includes combat-training sessions in dojos of the future.

Hollywood's fascination continues with The Grandmaster (due Aug. 23), a drama about Ip Man, the martial-arts master who trained Bruce Lee. Keanu Reeves becomes a samurai in 47 Ronin (Dec. 25). And last week, the Weinstein Co. announced that it was remaking two martial-arts classics from more than 30 years ago, The Avenging Eagle and Come Drink With Me (no release dates yet).

Studio executives say Japan and China have become titans at the international box office, and films have had titles and scenes altered to sell overseas. Disney and Marvel Studios added four minutes to Iron Man 3to include Fan Bingbing and Wang Xueqi, both Chinese stars, against a Chinese background.

Chris Aronson, 20th Century Fox's president of distributions, says the studio wasn't catering to an overseas crowd in setting The Wolverine in Japan. He says the backdrop "comes straight from an X-Men comic book" that featured the Silver Samurai. And the martial-arts infusion, he says, "was just to expand Wolverine's skill set for the fans."

But authors and academics say there's more to it.

"I think the resurgence is definitely meant to pander to animefans, international markets and our nation's ongoing fascination with Asian culture," says Brad Ricca, author of Super Boys, a biography of the creators of Superman.

Aging fanboys are also behind the surge, he says. "These films are appearing because the directors and producers were raised on this fare and only now are in a position to make them as passion projects. Del Toro is an unabashed monster aficionado."

As China becomes a bigger player at the box office, "it's inevitable for American films to feature this 'fusion' culture," says Sang Nam, associate professor of communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. "Previously, American culture was Euro-centric. Now, the Chinese are coming."

Some welcome the invasion. Jeremy Conrad, editor of furiousfanboys.com, says the Asian influence "is natural, given fanboys were raised on Bruce Lee movies and Kung Fu TV episodes."

He says that martial arts, "when they're done right, look great in a movie. It's ballet. We love that stuff."

[GeneChing]

120 IMAXs in China. Wow.

Everything is in place. Now all Wanda has to do is deliver some international blockbusters.


China's Wanda Pushing Film Credentials With 'The Palace' (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chinas-wanda-pushing-film-credentials-604853)
5:14 AM PDT 8/13/2013 by Clifford Coonan

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2012/06/wang_a.jpg
Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group and China's second richest individual
The conglomerate, whose chairman Wang Jialin is China's second richest individual, wants to be a major player in the cultural industries as well as a real estate giant.

Wanda Media, the production and distribution arm of Chinese real estate conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, is stepping up its efforts to become a major player in the "cultural industries" with the opening of costume drama The Palace.

The movie is a love story set during the Qing Dynasty and features Zhou Dongyu, who made a big splash for her role in Zhang Yimou’s Under The Hawthorn Tree, and also features Lu Yi, Zhao LIying and Chen Xiao.

The movie was directed by Pan Anzi and opens in China today.

In May of last year, Wanda bought the North America's second-largest theater chain, AMC Entertainment, for $2.6 billion to create the world's biggest cinema owner, and the group is keen to exploit the distribution synergies that the acquisition offers.

For the next three years, the company plans to distribute nine films and produce eight annually.

"With the support of Wanda Group, the company is also seeking to set up slate financing agreements with major Hollywood studios to get the financing and distribution rights for China, while also seeking to co-produce films with international companies," the group said in a statement.

Among Wanda Media's production credits so far are Keanu Reeves' directorial debut, Man of Tai Chi, Police Story 2013 with Jackie Chan and The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven 3D with Donnie Yen and Chow Yun-fat.

As a distributor, Wanda has Jim Sheridan's Dream House, the Taiwanese epic Seediq Bale and Eng Dayyan's Inseparable with Kevin Spacey and Daniel Wu.

A key factor behind the expansion of the Chinese film business has been the number of cinemas opening in the shopping malls springing up over China. Many of those malls are being built by Wanda.

Wanda group has assets of $48 billion and an annual income of $23 billion, and operates 71 Wanda plazas, 38 five-star hotels, 6,000 cinema screens, 57 department stores and 63 karaoke outlets across the country.

The company is Imax's largest international exhibition partner since a deal last month when its exhibition unit Wanda Cinema Line Corp. pacted with Imax for up to 120 new theaters for China.

Wanda and Imax revised their 2011 joint revenue share agreement to add at least 40 and as many as 120 new theaters to be located throughout China, and the deal also extended Wanda's lease terms for all new theaters to 12 years, from 10, and will see Wanda commit to up to 210 theaters.

"We have set a great goal for this company. In 2020, the revenue will reach 80 billion yuan, ranking within the global top 10 of cultural industry players," company chairman Wang Jianlin told a gathering of entrepreneurs in December.

All told, Wanda comprises 11 companies working in nine different areas, including Wanda Cinema Line, AMC Theaters, its theme park business, gallery and a film magazine.

The group's culture unit, the Beijing Wanda Culture Industry Group, has registered capital of five billion yuan ($820 million) and total assets of 31 billion yuan ($5.06 billion).

"The Chinese film market is very big these days, and all flowers should be blossoming in this garden," said The Palace's scriptwriter Yu Zheng, adding that he expects the movie to have broad appeal.

[GeneChing]

More Leading Roles for Asian Actresses Shows Hollywood's (Slow) Progress (http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/more-leading-roles-for-asian-actresses-shows-hollywood-s--slow--progress--183343149.html)
By Vera H-C Chan | Movie Talk – Fri, Jul 26, 2013 3:18 PM EDT

Ladies, it may be your turn.

Overseas Asian performers who get top-tier Hollywood treatment has mostly been male — Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, Jet Li, Ken Watanabe. This summer, Korean actor Byung-hun Lee broke the Hong Kong/Japan chokehold with combative turns in "G.I. Joe" and "Red 2" (where he did a fleeting but eye-catching nude scene).

Now actresses are joining Hollywood's work-abroad program. Japanese model Tao Okamoto is the love interest in "Wolverine," which also features Rila Fukushima as a cherry-haired bodyguard-assassin. Rinko Kikuchi — the first actress from Japan to receive an Oscar nomination in 49 years — lobbied "Pacific Rim" director Guillermo del Toro to play Kaiju-battling pilot Mako Mori. French-Cambodian Elodie Yung, who comes by way of France, applied her black-belt training as Jinx in "GI Joe: Retaliation."

Four in four months may not sound like a monumental trend. Then again, you're talking about an industry where:

Asian Pacific Islanders wrangle 3.8 percent of TV and theatrical roles — low considering APIs make up 5.1 percent of the U.S. populace and 13.9 percent of California, Hollywood's home base.
Leading roles for women — Asian or otherwise — have sunk to a five-year low. In 2012, only 28 percent of speaking roles in the top 500 movies went to females. (This year's not much better, female cop buddy movies aside: Only 32 percent of 2013 movies so far star women.)
Actresses still experience lots of sexism, as a rabble-rousing Comic-Con panel confirmed.

All this cross-cultural casting is Hollywood hustling for that billion-dollar market called Asia. China leapfrogged Japan in 2012 as the world's second-largest film audience and should overtake the U.S. by 2020. Plus, the homegrown popularity of China's domestic movies portends "negative growth" for U.S. films there.

Production companies in China, Japan, and South Korea have been busy celebrity-swapping in their pan-Asian productions. Those partnerships pose another challenge to Hollywood, but they also widen the casting net. Tinseltown execs can issue generic casting calls for an "Asian actress" and land quality performers. Besides this year's crop, they scored Summer Qing (China) for "Looper," Doona Bae (Korea) for "Cloud Atlas," and Yu Nan (China) for "The Expendables 2."

Exit the sex kitten, enter the dragon lady
"Hunger Games" success aside, the American summer blockbuster is mostly male territory, so this 2013 batch might warrant even more respect. Del Toro told the Toronto Star that he deliberately sought out tough for "Pacific Rim."

"One of the other things I decided was that I wanted a female lead who has the equal force as the male leads. She's not going to be a sex kitten, she's not going to come out in cutoff shorts and a tank top, and it's going to be a real earnestly drawn character."

And, giving relief to action fans tired of hokey Harlequin romance injections, pilot Mori doesn't hook up with co-workers, either.

Universal Pictures' Kikuchi gets another chance before international audiences, starring opposite Keanu Reeves in "47 Ronin," debuting Christmas 2013. And she'll reclaim the ultimate Asian female stereotype as sorceress Mizuki, who literally turns into a dragon.

Er, progress?

Somewhat, if one takes the global view. Roles deemed stereotypes in America aren't thought so very much in Asia, where actors and actresses have done martial arts since the silent era, and female shape-shifters are the stuff of classic Chinese literature.

A female lead and an Asian presence in Hollywood productions are just way overdue. "Looper" changed the setting to Shanghai and the ethnicity of the lead character's wife to seal a China production partnership, but the tweak reflected the political reality of China as a 21st-century power.

Not that some casting decisions aren't strained: Arthouse actress Yu had a better screen presence than most of her "Expendables 2" co-stars, but her youth made her the odd woman out among action-hero senior citizens. (She was 2 when Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky" came out in 1978.)

That's better than the tokenism of Fan Bingbing in "Iron Man 3." Only Chinese audiences saw the extended scenes of a crack Chinese surgical team saving Tony Stark — and they mercilessly ridiculed the ham-fisted scenes. Fortunately, Bingbing gets a better shot as mutant Blink in "X-Men: Days of Future Past," due out 2014.

A fighting chance for Asian-Americans?
Might Hollywood's courtship of overseas talent help the native pool here? Unknown. Producers want to tap into proven Asian commodities — the Catch-22 for underemployed Asian American actors. In March, Masi Oka ("Hawaii Five-O" and "Heroes") talked about the difficulty that Asian-Americans still have getting a job in their own backyard.

"It’s changed in Hollywood, but only so much. You can’t get Asians cast in leads yet. Maybe as a second lead, but the lead is still going to be Caucasian or African American. But Hollywood is fickle: It follows trends. If a show or a film did well with an Asian lead, then it would take off."

Asian American actress Maggie Q of "Nikita," who had a leading role in the 2008 big-budget China film "Three Kingdoms," pointed out at Comic-Con that she's in "the action box and the ethnic box; it's a very small box they put you in. It's a lot of effort to climb out. At least it's something to climb out of."

More opportunities are opening up, albeit in that same box. The Weinstein Company and Celestial Pictures (owner of an immense library of 1970s Hong Kong actioners) will remake such classics as "Come Drink With Me" (1966), featuring a swordswoman as the compelling lead. Also in the works is a "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" sequel starring the inestimable Michelle Yeoh, one of the rare female crossover stars in U.S. films: "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997), "Memoirs of a Geisha" (2005), and "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" (2008).

Ironically, Yeoh and her fellow actresses stoked up controversy (Chinese playing Japanese) in the adaptation of Arthur Golden's already controversial bestseller. This time, Okamoto and Bae match their characters' nationalities, but there are no guarantees. The "Cloud Atlas" role of the Korean clone had been offered to Natalie Portman before the Wachowski brothers muted accusations of whitewashing by hiring Bae.

Here's one twist: Set to co-star with Yeoh in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon II: The Green Destiny" is Donnie Yen, the fifth-highest-paid actor in Asia. Born in China, he emigrated at age 11 to Boston, where his mother — a martial arts grandmaster — founded the Chinese Wushu Research Institute. He ended up finding cinematic fame by heading East, a route followed by other North American Asian actors. The rising tide that lifts all boats seems to do best for those bound for China.


Hollywood racism is why I'm not a major movie star. :p

[GeneChing]

I'm delighted to see that this trend I've been spotlighting since the launch of my Chollywood column in 2010 (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=913) is finally catching the attention of others. It's very vindicating. :)

What’s Behind Hollywood’s Asian Flirtation? China’s Box Office (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/03/what-s-behind-hollywood-s-asian-flirtation-china-s-box-office.html)
by Marlow Stern Aug 3, 2013 4:45 AM EDT

From Pacific Rim to Wolverine to Only God Forgives, Asians are finally getting good roles in big films. Why? It’s helping the studios’ bottom lines. By Marlow Stern.

Cinema has long held a mirror to society, both present and past. Its contribution to the cultural fabric is not, as F. Scott Fitzgerald so eloquently put it, “exactly minus zero,” but substantial. The movies serve as one of many cultural barometers, informing us where we are, and where we need to be. And there’s a recent trend emerging in Hollywood that the most optimistic of cineastes might call groundbreaking.

http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2013/08/03/what-s-behind-hollywood-s-asian-flirtation-china-s-box-office/_jcr_content/body/inlineimage.img.503.jpg/1375494683000.cached.jpg
(L-R) Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori in 'Pacific Rim', Rila Fukushima as Yukio in 'The Wolverine', and Yayaying Rhatha Phongam in 'Only God Forgives'.

For three consecutive weeks, a hotly anticipated film featured an Asian actress playing the lead/love interest opposite the ubiquitous tortured white hunk. There’s Oscar-nominated Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi batting eyelashes at Charlie Hunnam in the robots vs. monsters blockbuster Pacific Rim; former Thai pop star Yayaying Rhatha Phongam as the apple of Ryan Gosling’s bruised eye in Only God Forgives; and Japanese model-cum-actress Tao Okamoto making Hugh Jackman’s blood boil in The Wolverine.

“What’s happening right now, I think it’s about time, to be honest,” says Michelle Yeoh, who served as a torchbearer, playing a Bond girl in 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies. “There are so many terrific Asian actresses, and the world is so global now that I don’t think our passports define us. It shouldn’t be so unfathomable to have an Asian actress be the love interest.”

Yeoh had to endure a grueling casting process to land the role of Colonel Wai Lin, a Chinese spy and ally/paramour of Pierce Brosnan’s 007. At one point, she almost lost out to buxom blond Natasha Henstridge.

“When I first started, you could literally count the number of Asian actresses on one hand that would appear in European or Hollywood films, and there was always a need to find an excuse for why there’s an Asian face in the middle of an all-white movie,” says Yeoh. “We’d have to be in the triads or in Chinatown and speaking funny English, which I found very objectionable.”

But why this sudden breakthrough in Hollywood’s casting diversity? It’s “a market thing,” as New Yorker critic David Denby told me.

In the first half of this year, China’s box-office revenue grew by a mammoth 36.2 percent from the same period a year ago, making it the world’s second biggest movie market after the U.S., according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Further, more than 70 percent of movie studios’ annual box-office revenue is now coming from international markets.

To court Asian box offices, American blockbusters, like The Wolverine and parts of Pacific Rim, are being set there. Western studios are even shooting different versions of their movies for Chinese audiences.

"Getting a big Chinese actor or actress in your movie is coveted now, but the quality of the part is another story.”

For example, there’s the recent comedy 21 & Over, about a Chinese medical student tormented by parental-induced anxiety who alleviates medical-exam stress by partying on an American college campus. Before production began, executives at the studio, Relativity Media, told filmmakers they’d be shooting additional scenes in China for a customized version of the film, The Los Angeles Times reported. Relativity had brokered a deal with several Chinese companies, including the government-owned Huaxia Film Distribution Co., to partially fund the movie (along with other undisclosed benefits). Thus, the Chinese cut of the film has a radically different ending than the U.S. version.

“21 & Over, in China, is sort of a story about a boy who leaves China, gets corrupted by our wayward, Western partying ways, and goes back to China a better person,” said Jon Lucas, the film’s screenwriter.

Studios are also tweaking their films to make them more Chinese-friendly. Take World War Z. In an early cut of the Brad Pitt starrer, a scene had characters debating the origins of the zombie epidemic before coming to the conclusion that it all started in China, a Paramount executive told The Wrap. Fearing trouble with a release there, producers changed the origin to South Korea. And for last year’s remake of Red Dawn, the invading enemy army was North Korean, changed from the original Chinese in post-production in order to ensure access to China’s coveted box office. Even Iron Man 3 added additional Chinese characters and scenes to its Chinese version.

The change is not-too-subtle in Hollywood’s slate of future releases. Famous Asian names are part of ensemble casts in a host of hopeful blockbusters: there’s Tadanobu Asano in Thor: The Dark World; Maggie Q in Divergent; Ken Watanabe in Godzilla; Fan Bingbing in X-Men: Days of Future Past; and Li Bingbing in Transformers 4. Even so, the roles are usually supporting ones, around seventh, eighth, or ninth billing.

“There’s been a definite shift, and I can see it when we’re developing movies—the talk of the global audience, the talk of China,” says G.I. Joe Retaliation director Jon M. Chu. “Anything to make the movie more global is a good thing for a film that needs to make a lot of money back. And getting a big Chinese actor or actress in your movie is coveted now, but the quality of the part is another story.”

Maggie Q is a half-Vietnamese action star who’s appeared in Mission: Impossible III, Live Free or Die Hard, and the upcoming Divergent. She stars as a government agent on the CW series Nikita.

“We are action, historical, hookers, or accented in a lot of what’s out there,” she says. “They are not looking for a woman like me to pair up with a white male heartthrob. It would take a pretty brave and open producer to have the vision for something more than what the mainstream has offered.”

She adds, “We need to be part of the solution. Even though it’s hard, we need to be walking away from roles that don’t move us forward. That’s how we change our circumstances.”

As far as global box office is concerned, Asia—in particular China—is only growing stronger. Four of the top 10 highest grossing films of all-time in China came from Hollywood, including the recent Iron Man 3 ($122 million and rising), which has already become its seventh-highest grossing movie ever.

A recent report by Ernst & Young even predicted that the U.S. movie box office would be eclipsed by China in 2020. So, you can expect to see more and more Asian faces in Hollywood films, in varying capacities.

“Lots of big social changes have happened for purely financial reasons, and that’s OK, but I think that’s just the beginning,” says the American-born Chu. “I’m excited for a future where there isn’t just an Asian actor included for box office, but an Asian-American actor that has nothing to do with being exotic, or from another land.”

[GeneChing]

Odd time to drop this with The Grandmasters (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53227) having it's national release today. I'm reposting it here mostly because I reminds me of our Chollywood Rising column in our current print issue (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=1113). Our copy editor Gary Shockley (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56820) took over for this installment, and some of his comments are echoed in the article below.


Chinese Cinema: Have Pics, Can’t Travel (http://variety.com/2013/film/news/chinese-cinema-have-pics-cant-travel-1200593372/)
August 30, 2013 | 12:07PM PT
Filmmakers focus on local market but int’l expansion may come from corporate giants
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

While the Chinese film industry is booming at home, with production volume, cinema numbers and theatrical box office all racing ahead, film exports are going almost nowhere.

Official figures are vague on the value of overseas sales achieved by Chinese rights holders, but data points to overseas box office for Chinese films dropping for the past two years.

In some quarters this is a cause for concern, but for others it is a matter of sublime indifference. That’s because they are too busy figuring out how to profit from this domestic golden era.

“China’s companies have no idea about international sales. That’s because they are so strongly focused on their home market,” says Albert Lee, CEO of Emperor Motion Pictures, another conglomerate that straddles Hong Kong and China.

When local films can gross anywhere between $30 million for “Say Yes” to the $200 million earned by “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” and “Lost in Thailand,” (pictured) China’s filmmakers will not go to the trouble of learning the complications of overseas territories for only marginal extra income.

While the new commercial movie crop is well-made and marks a refreshing break with the past, its stories are also more local. They may resonate with audiences in Asia, but for audiences in the U.S. and Europe, the new films, young directors and little-known TV and Internet stars may remain remote.

“For Chinese-language films, only kung fu movies work internationally,” says Bill Kong, head of Hong Kong- and China-based conglomerate Edko. In August he unveiled plans for “Rise of the Legend,” an attempted revival of Wong Fei-hung, one of the iconic characters of the Chinese action genre.

The irony here is that Kong was one of the producers of Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” a surprise global hit that was largely responsible for a massive surge of interest in Chinese movies in 2000. Unfortunately the boom, which had happened at the tail end of the video and DVD era, did not last. Also, the great financial crisis in the West meant many film funds never took off, output deals were allowed to expire, and U.S. and European buyers became more risk-averse — across the board, not just with Chinese movies.

The structure of China’s film industry has also hampered overseas success, especially its censorship system. Stories must not only steer clear of sex, drugs, religion and present-day politics, but also sci-fi, time travel, ghosts and contemporary thrillers. Censorship has also made international co-productions tricky, as regulations do not officially permit multiple versions of a Chinese film.

Filmmakers such as Chen Daming have complained that such rules make it difficult to have a strong antagonist, while John Woo’s producer partner Terence Chang says a contemporary crime thriller, such as the Chinese version of “The French Connection” he dreams of making, is out of the question because crime, corruption and police procedures are all taboo.

After liberalization in 2000-01, this meant a clustering of titles in “safe” genres: martial arts and ancient historical action.

Film regulators have gradually eased up and a genre normalization has taken place. The transformation has become more apparent with a succession of local hit movies this year, ranging from romantic comedies “Say Yes” and “Wedding Diary” through glossy actioner “Switch” to “American Dreams in China” and “So Young,” light contemporary dramas projecting a hip and aspirational universe contrasting with the naive simplicity of Chinese film just a decade or two ago.

In the longer term, the weight of history and economics may be on China’s side. China’s booming economy will draw in international talent, investors and co-producers such as Oriental DreamWorks, Legendary Pictures, Village Roadshow or Fox Intl. Productions. Chinese companies like China Film, Enlight, Le Vision, Bona Film or Huayi Bros. will seek the prestige and brand enhancement that comes from being a Hollywood player. Few believe that property-to-cinema group Wanda’s acquisition of U.S. cinema chain AMC is the last move in the Chinese film industry’s international expansion drive.

[GeneChing]

Maybe I should change the name of this thread to Wanda Rising. :rolleyes:

Wanda unveils Qingdao entertainment complex (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/wanda-unveils-qingdao-entertainment-complex)
http://www.filmbiz.asia/media/BAhbB1sHOgZmSSIxMjAxMy8wOS8yMi8wMi80Ny81NS80NjEvdH Jhdm9sdGFfcWluZ2Rhby5qcGcGOgZFVFsIOgZwOgp0aHVtYkki DTUwMHgxMDAwBjsGVA?suffix=.jpg&sha=aad427dd
By Kevin Ma
Sun, 22 September 2013, 17:50 PM (HKT)

Dalian Wanda Group Co Ltd 大連萬達集團股份有限公司 unveiled plans for the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis 青島東方影都, a RMB30 billion (US$4.9 billion) entertainment complex, at its opening ceremony in Qingdao today.

The 5.4 million square meter complex – targeted for a June 2016 launch – will include a production studio, film museums, a convention centre, a hotel resort and a yacht club.

Wanda Group chairman WANG Jianlin 王健林 announced that it has signed tentative agreements with several production companies and talent agencies. He estimates that 100 domestic and 30 international productions will be filmed at the complex each year.

Wang also announced that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the four top talent agencies in the world and the China Film Association 中國電影家協會 have offered their support in creating the Qingdao International Film Festival 青島國際電影節.

If approved by the central government, the first edition of the festival will be held in Sep 2016.

This morning's ceremony – including a 30-minute red carpet ceremony – featured appearances by representatives from SAPPRFT, Hollywood studios, American talent agencies and the AMPAS.

International stars like Leonardo DiCAPRIO, Nicole KIDMAN, John Travolta, Catherine Zeta Jones, Tony LEUNG Chiu-wai 梁朝偉, ZHANG Ziyi 章子怡, HUANG Xiaoming 黃曉明, Vicki ZHAO 趙薇 and Donnie YEN 甄子丹 also attended.

Local media reported that Wanda paid a rumoured RMB1 million (US$163,000) attendance fee for the appearance of certain local stars. It is not known if Hollywood stars were paid to attend.

[GeneChing]

Bringing the Best in Chinese Cinema to You (https://www.amctheatres.com/programs/independent/chinese-cinema)

At AMC, we scour the world for global gems and bring them to a movie screen near you.

Check out the list of Chinese films that are playing now and coming soon to an AMC near you.

Participating < Theatres
California

Orange 30
Puente Hills 20
Atlantic Times Square 14
Fashion Valley 18
Bay Street 16

Illinois

River East 21
South Barrington 30

Massachusetts

Methuen 20

New Jersey

Deptford 8
Jersey Gardens 20

New York

Empire 25

Texas

Stonebriar 24
I'm bummed about probably missing Young Detective Dee (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66536) as these showings aren't promoted much. Just have to keep a tab on this site, I guess.

[GeneChing]

Chinese professor calls on to break bottleneck of Chinese martial arts films (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90782/8421406.html)
(Xinhua) 20:01, October 10, 2013

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/mediafile/201310/10/F201310102003213605239032.jpg
Xu Haofeng (L), professor of Beijing Film Academy, speaks during the "The Martial Art Film in China" session of 2013 Busan International Film Festival Forum, in Busan, South Korea, Oct. 9, 2013. Xu Said that the unique storytelling, the exploring of the spirit of martial arts and the respect for motion patterns are panaceas for Chinese martial arts films to break its current bottleneck. (Xinhua/Peng Qian)

BUSAN, Oct. 10 -- The unique storytelling, the exploring of the spirit of martial arts and the respect for motion patterns are panaceas for Chinese martial arts films to break its current bottleneck, said Xu Haofeng, professor of Beijing Film Academy.

Xu, also the martial arts adviser and scriptwriter of the film "The Grandmasters" directed by Wang Jiawei, made the remarks on Tuesday during the "The Martial Art Film in China" session of 2013 Busan International Film Festival Forum. "The martial arts became nothing particular worldwide. Chinese martial arts films are facing with threatens from Hollywood," said Xu, adding that Hollywood has seen a surge of China's Hong Kong's choreography directors who are responsible for action sequences since 1990's. They have trained a generation of professional local choreography directors, especially African Americans.

As a result, western films have already adopted the techniques of China's Hong Kong and China's Taiwan martial arts movies successfully and applied them in films such as the series of " Sherlock Homes", "The Twilight Saga" and "Kung Fu Panda". Xu graduated from China's Beijing Film Academy in 1997. His movie debut "The Sword Identity" made its world premiere in the Orizzonti section of the 68th Venice Film Festical. He has learned Chinese martial arts since childhood and also has became a well- known writer of Chinese martial arts for his professional understanding of motion patterns and history. "The martial arts films previously were always telling a very simple story--the revenge. The only factor that can absorb the audience is the splendid actions, which is the mainstream of Chinese martial films in the past 20 years," said Xu.

In 2000, the success of Ang lee's film "Crunching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" catalyzed the rebirth of martial arts movies in the Chinese mainland and led to productions of blockbuster movies featuring international cast of film stars and bid budget. Noticeable directors from this period include Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang.

The blockbuster like "Hero", "The Night Banquet" and " Curse of the Golden Flower" used techniques of traditional Hong Kong martial arts movies in 1990's and deliver artistic considerations at the same time. Although achieving high box office scores, they received a wide range of criticisms from both the audience and film critics due to a weak storytelling. "To some extent, Chinese martial arts films have ended up with the era of artistic consideration. The next step is trying to nourish itself with the social reality. It is urgent to change the situation that current Chinese martial arts films paid excessive attention to action technology instead of the humanity, "Xu told Xinhua, who preferred to set the film "The Grandmaster" as an example for the future development of Chinese martial arts movies.

In Xu's perspective, the previous Chinese martial arts films were full of imagination. But "The Grandmasters" reproduces a real "forest of martial arts" in the film. They use the word " forest" instead of other words like "industry" because martial arts players were teachers for royal families and parts of the noble class in the past. The film chronicles the life and struggles of several Chinese grandmasters in 1930's with a merging of physicality and philosophy of martial arts.

Xu said the collapse of Chinese martial arts films also lies in the rot of their roots--the martial arts novels. The neo martial arts novel in China's Hong Kong and China's Taiwan declined in the 80's and martial arts novels in the Chinese mainland became non-mainstream. "The initial shinning point of martial arts novels is the unique storytelling that vivid depict of various social classes in terms of the emperors, the noble, gangsters or ordinary citizens. But as China's social structure is not as diverse as before, the writers' imagination and creative ideas are blocked, "said Xu who expects a revival of the social vitality.

Furthermore, he anticipated Chinese martial arts films to explore the spirit of martial arts, which in his view is Confucianism and is emphasized in "The Grandmasters". " Understanding the martial arts needs a view of the world. In order to make good martial arts films, we need to insist the original virtue and respect the traditional motion patterns," said Xu. "Our motions have divine nature. It is like Japanese tea ceremony which puts priority to the manners of tea drinking rather than the taste of it," said Xu.

（Editor：WangXin、Liang Jun） Well, that's a fine concluding diss on Japanese Tea. :p

[GeneChing]

...but highly relevant.

China: Hollywood Studios Still Face Headaches (http://variety.com/2013/biz/news/china-hollywood-studios-still-face-headaches-1200605514/)
SEPTEMBER 10, 2013 | 09:10AM PT
Amid massive opportunity, China remains a reluctant partner despite increased access for their movies, and a territory that continues to grow

Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

With more and more foreign films now being allowed into China, and potential revenues that can be earned having risen to 25% (from as little as 13%), one might think that doing business in China is getting easier for Hollywood.

But that’s simply not the case.

The U.S. Trade Representative had to intervene when China Film Group — which distributes Hollywood movies in China — tried to pass on a national value-added tax by withholding money on revenues earned by American films that played in the territory. And while that dust-up seems to have been resolved, plenty of other tensions remain.

A recurring migraine is the selection of release dates, determined by China Film Group and industry regulator the Film Bureau. The Hollywood studios maintain they have little advance notice of dates, that slots change suddenly, and that many movies don’t fulfill their potential because they are intentionally programmed in close proximity to each other.

And even though the studios now conduct marketing alongside China Film, the murkiness of release dates makes it is difficult to build sustained promotional campaigns, which in turn makes media-buying tricky.

Moreover, the Film Bureau still appears to be operating blackout periods, in which foreign films are not allowed to open. While this year’s summer blackout was comparatively limited, the studios expect October and December to be largely out of bounds for their films. December sees the release of at least three big Chinese films — “Police Story 2013,” starring Jackie Chan in the sixth film of the franchise; Feng Xiaogang’s “Personal Tailor”; and “The Monkey King” with Chow Yun-fat.

The job of the studios’ Beijing offices remains, crucially, a lobbying effort, trying to persuade China Film and the Film Bureau which pictures to pick for import. And although the quota has expanded from 20 revenue-sharing movies per year to 34, with the additional titles being in 3D or Imax formats, gaining entry into China does not appear to be getting much easier.

China Film seems to be intent on cherrypicking movies that do well at the U.S. box office rather than choosing evenhandedly among all of the studios’ offerings.

And China’s government organizations aren’t the only ones that have been dogging the studios. In April 2012, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sent a letter of inquiry to 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks Animation and Disney regarding their dealings with the Chinese government. The SEC was probing the possibility of bribes paid to Chinese officials by the Hollywood companies looking to secure distribution. But there has been little further movement in the investigation.

Slowly, other distributors and rights owners are grabbing small pieces of the pie in China. Bona Film (now 20% owned by 21st Century Fox) is releasing Summit’s “Red 2” and Constantin’s “Mortal Instruments,” and Huayi Brothers Media will distribute QED’s “Fury.” Legendary Pictures, IM Global and Lionsgate are among the larger independents also seeking Chinese deals on specific titles.

Whatever the situation, it rarely pays for foreign players to complain too loudly. That’s never more true than in the case of Hollywood, which experienced a bumper year for its films in China in 2012, with $100 million grosses for the 3D reissue of “Titanic” and for “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” and $90 million performances for “The Avengers” and “Life of Pi.” By year end, foreign films had amassed a 55% market share, with Hollywood accounting for all but 6% of that total.

This year, Hollywood’s China returns have been less triumphant. Although more titles have entered, and overall market size has grown, Hollywood’s revenues slipped, and first-half market share tumbled. That may reflect the paucity of effects heavy sci-fi movies and animation that Chinese audiences still feel nobody does better than Hollywood. “Skyfall,” “Iron Man 3” and “The Croods” were the standouts in the first half of the year. And helping the biz stage something of a second-half revival have been “Pacific Rim” ($110 million), “Fast & Furious 6” ($66.5 million) and “Jurassic Park 3D” ($29 million in its first week).

Tantalizingly though, China remains a mega-market in which profits can never seem to be maximized.

[GeneChing]

Nice recap of the year so far...

China box office up 35% in 2013 (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/china-box-office-up-35-in-2013)
By Kevin Ma
Thu, 24 October 2013, 08:30 AM (HKT)
Box Office News

China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) 國家新聞出版廣電總局 released third quarter box office statistics this week.

Total box office revenue for the first nine months of the year is RMB16.4 billion (US$2.7 billion), a year-on-year growth of 34.9%. With a market share of approximately 58%, domestic films continue to rule the market with RMB9.56 billion (US$1.57 billion) in total revenue, a year-on-year growth of 93.8%.

Five of the top ten grossing films of the first nine months of the year are domestic films: Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 西游　降魔篇 (RMB1.24 billion), So Young 致我們終將逝去的青春 (RMB715 million), American Dreams in China 中國合伙人 (RMB538 million), Finding Mr. Right 北京遇上西雅圖 (RMB518 million) and Tiny Times 1 小時代 (RMB488 million).

(Opening at the end of September, Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon 狄仁杰之神都龍王 has already surpassed American Dreams as the third top grossing domestic film of the year. By Tuesday night, it had taken RMB583 million.)

Several major releases set for December are expected to further lift domestic films: Benny CHAN 陳木勝's The White Storm 掃毒, FENG Xiaogang 馮小剛's Personal Tailor 私人定制, Alan YUEN 袁錦麟's Firestorm 風暴 and DING Sheng 丁晟's Police Story 2013 警察故事２０１３.

Foreign films made RMB6.87 billion (US$1.13 billion) in total revenue, a year-on-year decline of 5.2%. This represents somewhat of a recovery over the summer. In the first half of the year, foreign films were recorded as experiencing a year-on-year decline in box office revenue of 21.3%.

The top five grossing foreign films of the first nine months of the years — three of which were in cinemas during the third quarter — are: Iron Man 3 (RMB751 million), Pacific Rim (RMB694 million), Furious 6 (RMB412 million), The Croods (RMB394.8 million) and Man of Steel (RMB394.6 million).


CHINA'S TOP 10 FILMS 2013 (to 30 Sep)

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (RMB1.24 billion; US$203 million)
Iron Man 3 (RMB751 million; US$123 million)
So Young (RMB715 million; US$116 million)
Pacific Rim (RMB694 million; US$114 million)
American Dreams in China (RMB538 million; US$87.6 million)
Finding Mr. Right (RMB518 million; US$84.4 million)
Tiny Times 1 (RMB488 million; US$80.2 million)
Furious 6 (RMB412 million; US$67.8 million)
The Croods (RMB394.8 million; US$64.88 million)
Man of Steel (RMB394.6 million; US$64.86 million)

[GeneChing]

I've been wondering how the financials for Hulu+ & Netflix work as they aren't quite VOD pay-per-view.

Asian cinema on demand (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/asian-cinema-on-demand)
By Kevin Ma
Fri, 15 November 2013, 16:30 PM (HKT)
Ancillary Feature
http://www.filmbiz.asia/media/BAhbB1sHOgZmSSI3MjAxMy8xMC8yMi8yMC8zNi8wMy85NzIvaX BfbWFuX3RoZV9maW5hbF9maWdodC5qcGcGOgZFVFsIOgZwOgp0 aHVtYkkiDTUwMHgxMDAwBjsGVA?suffix=.jpg&sha=31c1c2b9
Thirteen years ago, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 臥虎藏龍 (2000) set a box office record for an Asian film in North America, grossing US$128 million. While the success of Ang LEE 李安's martial arts film has not been repeated, Hero 英雄 (2002) (US$53.7 million), Fearless 霍元甲 (2006) (US$24.6 million), Kung Fu Hustle 功夫 (2004) (US$17.1 million) and House of Flying Daggers 十面埋伏 (2004) (US$11.1 million) can each be considered successful foreign films in the North America market.

But the days of large theatrical grosses for Asian films in North America may have come to an end.

The highest grossing Asian film in North America last year was Indonesian action film The Raid Serbuan maut (2011) which made US$4.1 million, despite heavy media coverage and strong word-of-mouth. This year, despite opening on 750 screens – considered a major release for a foreign film – and an extended promotional campaign that included an appearance at ComicCon by director WONG Kar-wai 王家衛, The Grandmaster 一代宗師 made only US$6.57 million in North America, representing 10.5% of its worldwide gross.

Yet the demand for Asian entertainment hasn't necessarily diminished. Consumers can now easily obtain the latest Asian films online, and distributors are scrambling to shepherd that audience with new business models. While some distributors have opted to target the diaspora audience with day-and-date multiplex releases, others are making use of new release platforms.

Breaking out of cinemas

In the United States, foreign films are often relegated to arthouse cinemas, regardless of the genre. These films usually open in limited release, starting in the major cities before slowly rolling out across the country. In the past, the wait for a North American theatrical release may be a year or more.

The exception to this rule was the so-called Chinatown cinema circuit. Located in major cities with large immigrant populations from Hong Kong, such as Vancouver, New York and San Francisco, these cinemas carried the latest Hong Kong films on a day-and-date basis. As the Hong Kong Diaspora audience began to rely on home video, Chinatown cinemas virtually disappeared.

Globalisation — and the internet — has helped spread the exposure of Asian cinema to people around the world and driven audiences' desire to get access to the latest Asian films immediately. Meeting that demand has become easier than ever, thanks to access to parallel imports and illegal downloads.

That demand has also spread the Chinatown cinema model to films from other Asian countries.

Indian companies like UTV Motion Pictures have been distributing Bollywood films directly to cinemas in the United States since 2004. South Korea's CJ Entertainment Inc ＣＪ엔터테인먼트 – starting with its own CGV cinema in Los Angeles – began directly distributing some of their own films in the United States in 2009 and has since expanded to home video distribution.

Originally based in Australia, China Lion Film Distribution Inc also brought the day-and-date distribution model to the United States to take advantage of Chinese cinema's newfound success. However, opening on anywhere from just 7 to 150 screens, these films have had a difficult time finding financial success within the traditional theatrical release model.

Instead, Asian films have found a new life in the ancillary market. Parallel imports have affected home video sales, and the physical video rental market has shifted out of traditional video stores to services like Netflix, which now boasts more subscribers than HBO. While the increase in internet speed has helped made illegal downloading easier, it has also boosted the popularity of legitimate video-on-demand services.

In 2009, American distributor Well Go USA Inc began making a number of its Asian releases available digitally on demand in addition to home video. In 2011, the company experimented with day-and-date theatrical and digital release. This year, they took that a step further with their first "Ultra VOD" release – making a film available digitally before its theatrical release.

According to Well Go President Doris PFARDRESCHER, their decision for using an "Ultra VOD" release depends on various factors. For Drug War 毒戰, the company used the positive reviews to its advantage to build momentum for a traditional theatrical release. However, for Ip Man: The Final Fight 葉問　終極一戰 (pictured), Well Go decided to appeal to the genre's established fan base and used the "Ultra VOD" release pattern to reach a wider audience.

"Up to this point, we have been extremely pleased with the early results. One of our biggest fears was damaging our package media business (DVD, Blu-ray), which is still a critical part of our revenue, and so far this has not been the case," says Pfardrescher.

Ever since 2010, Asian Media Rights – founded by the former heads of Asian-American television station ImaginAsian TV – has been acquiring Asian films for their various digital platforms. In addition to home video and video-on-demand platforms on cable networks across the United States, the company also makes part of its 500-plus catalogue available for free on popular video site Hulu.

"It's our goal first and foremost to create the kind of awareness on our films that will allow us to crossover beyond certain segments of population and in order to do so, we need time, assets and talent, which often is not available to us when going out day/date with Asia," says Pfardrescher.

Hollywood online

In July 2012, Apple expanded the music and movies section of its iTunes store to 12 Asian counties, including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Some Hong Kong companies also began making their films available on the store alongside the predominant Hollywood films. This is the first time Hollywood films were legally available digitally in several of these countries.

Currently, only 34 foreign films can be released in China under revenue-share basis, although additional titles can be imported without a revenue-sharing deal. Even if nearly all 34 of those revenue-sharing films are from the United States, each major studio can only release a handful of films each year in China.

This was a trouble Universal ran into earlier this year with Despicable Me 2. Even though the film is suitable for a family audience, its local distributor Edko (Beijing) Films Ltd 安樂（北京）電影發行有限公司 reportedly chose not to use one of its limited quota slots on the untested animation series. Similarly, Academy Award Best Picture winner Argo never received a theatrical release in China.

However, these films have since been available legally on Chinese video platforms like Youku Tudou, LeTV and Tencent.

In China, an average 2-D movie ticket costs around RMB35 (US$5.72), while the price of a legitimate DVD can cost anywhere from RMB20 (US$3.27) to RMB40 (US$6.54). As movie-going remains an activity for the middle class, those living in urban areas with low income often resort to extralegal means to see films.

Thanks to a deal signed by the studios and video platforms, Chinese audiences can now see some of the latest Hollywood releases just weeks after their theatrical release in the United States. While the bigger films require a fee or a monthly subscription, most older titles are available for free.

An internet release in China may only bring in a fraction of what a theatrical release can earn, but there are several advantages to this strategy.

Video sites need a large catalog of major releases to attract subscribers to their subscription plans, which means they are more likely to buy films in bulk. Instead of relying on ticket sales, studios can still bring in revenue for older catalog titles through these deals. Not only does this provide a new way for the studios to break into what will eventually become the world's biggest film market, it would encourage Chinese consumers to pay for legal content in the long run.

Theatrical releases in China have to go through the government's strict censorship process, but video sites are in charge of censoring their own content. While video sites do make self-determined edits to films for objectionable content like nudity and graphic violence, censorship on these sites tend to be far more lenient. Films like World War Z that had censorship difficulties in the theatrical market, are available online in China with minor edits.

Like the video-on-demand platform in North America, the long-term benefits of Chinese emerging video platforms are yet to be seen. However, as audiences embrace new ways to watch films, finding new forms of distribution to capture these audiences can benefit both consumers and content owners.

[GeneChing]

Piracy affects the Chinese market more dramatically than the U.S. market it seems.

China 2013 Box Office Surges 27 Percent to $3.6 Billion (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-2013-box-office-surges-668181)
12:41 AM PST 1/2/2014 by Clifford Coonan

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2014/01/journey_to_the_west-2.jpg
Huayi Brothers Media
"Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons"
Preliminary data from the world's second-biggest movie market shows strength of homegrown films, but a smaller market share for Hollywood fare.

Chinese box office revenue rose $760 million (4.6 billion yuan) to $3.57 billion (21.6 billion yuan), an increase of 27 percent over last year's $2.8 billion (17 billion yuan), data from China's biggest online film review site, Mtime, showed on Thursday.

The figure marks a strong performance for the world's second-biggest film market, but it falls slightly short of the expectation of $3.64 billion (22 billion yuan).

While the data will be cheered by Hollywood executives keen for a piece of this burgeoning market, U.S. titles did not perform as well as in previous years, after a strong showing by local players. Of the top 10 biggest films of the year here, seven were Chinese.

However, the report noted that two foreign movies in particular -- Justin Lin's Fast & Furious 6 and the latest James Bond movie Skyfall -- suffered because they were released weeks after they had opened elsewhere, in order to give local films a head start, while pirates ate into revenues.

The data is expected to be updated with official figures tallied by the state-owned publication China Film News, but the numbers are very much in line with what's already in circulation, which show that China's box office total breached the $3 billion barrier in late November, hitting $3.17 billion by the end of that month.

The biggest movie in China last year was Stephen Chow's Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, which took in $205.9 million, according to the figures. Journey passed the one-billion yuan threshold ($160 million) in China in just 16 days.

This was followed by Marvel's Ironman 3, directed by Shane Black, which took in $124 million, some distance behind Chow's historical action epic. In third place was another local favorite, actress-turned-director Vicki Zhao’s directorial debut, So Young, which took in $117 million (710 million yuan).

The other big Hollywood moves in the top 10 were Pacific Rim, which grossed $114.7 million (694 million yuan), a fourth-place finish, and Gravity, which pulled in $72.7 million (440 million yuan), good for 10th in the list.

Fifth place went to Tsui Hark's action movie Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon, which notched $99.15 million (600 million yuan), while Feng Xiaogang's comedy Personal Tailor, which is still showing in the cinemas, came in sixth place with $96.2 million (582 million yuan).

Peter Chan's American Dreams in China, a comedy drama seen as a Chinese version of The Social Network and stars Huang Xiaoming, Deng Chao, Tong Dawei and supermodel Du Juan, came in seventh with $87.6 million (530 million yuan).

In eighth was Xue Xiaolu's romantic comedy Finding Mr. Right, which took in $84.28 million (510 million yuan), despite being made for just $5 million.

Guo Jingming's Tiny Times came in ninth place with $79.32 million (480 million yuan).

During the first half of 2013, Chinese films did better than expected, especially small productions like Tiny Times, So Young and Finding Mr. Right.

[GeneChing]

Doris Pfardrescher on Importing Asian Films (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1143) Ms. Pfardrescher is President and Head of Acquisitions for Well Go USA.

[GeneChing]

Hopefully, Hollywood will reciprocate by distributing Chinese blockbusters. Of course, there aren't too many Chinese blockbusters that will translate well for the U.S. audience right now. :o


China Mulls Upping Film Quota by 10 (Exclusive) (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-mulls-upping-film-quota-678697)
9:15 AM PST 2/9/2014 by Clifford Coonan

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2014/02/china.jpg

The decision to allow 44 foreign releases into the massive market could come as early next month.

The Film Bureau in Beijing looks set to raise the quota of foreign movies allowed into China by 10 movies to 44 films, a sign of growing openness in the world's second-biggest box-office market.

"We are examining raising the quota of foreign movies right now, probably by around 10 films. It's being discussed but we haven't made a decision yet," a source tells THR.

Raising the quota could do much to improve relations between Hollywood and China, which have been tense in the past few months over difficulties regarding payment and a screening scheduling that favors local products.

While no deadline for the increase could be confirmed, the quota could be raised as soon as March, when China's annual parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC) gathers in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

In February 2012, China raised the number of overseas movies allowed to screen in China by 14 to 34 on a revenue-sharing basis, making way for more 3D and Imax titles.

That deal was announced by China's President Xi Jinping, said to be a bit of a Hollywood movie fan, during a visit to the United States, in tandem with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

Hollywood has lobbied hard for the import quota to be lifted completely, saying it breaches rules on trade imposed by China's membership in the World Trade Organization.

The source said that, as it stands, most Hollywood movies that try to get a screening tend to make it unless they don't meet censorship standards.

"Censorship is not going to change, so in some ways it doesn't really matter because if your film doesn't meet censorship requirements, then it wont' get in," said the source.

U.S. releases account for the lion's share of the movies that are released in China. Sources said that Italy and France have been lobbying the Chinese government hard to have their films exempted from the quota.

There is also growing flexibility. Last year the quota filled around one month before the end of the year, and some big movies such as Ender's Game and The Great Gatsby looked set to miss out on a China showing, but space was found for the films -- Gatsby got in as an Australian film.

[GeneChing]

Posting this here just because it's the Beijing Film Academy


Girl protests with Kung Fu outside of Beijing school after failing entrance exam
(http://shanghaiist.com/2014/02/17/girl-protests-with-kung-fu.php)
http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/katienelson/kungfu-2.jpg

A girl from Shandong who failed an entrance exam at the Beijing Film Academy let everybody know what that school was missing on when she protested outside of the building on February 15 by showing off her badass Kung Fu skills. Because failure is for the WEAK.
http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/katienelson/kungfu.jpg

The girl said that she didn't have enough opportunity to show her talents during the exam's first round, which a total of 797 students passed on Saturday.
http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/katienelson/kungfu-3.jpg

[GeneChing]

As this is reported in THR, it can go here.


Jackie Chan, Yao Ming Attend China's Annual Congressional Meeting (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jackie-chan-yao-ming-attend-685889)
11:33 PM PST 3/4/2014 by Clifford Coonan

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/news_landscape/2013/03/jackie.jpg
Jackie Chan in Beijing
The Communist Party's legislative conference is expected to approve reforms by President Xi Jinping and was visited by Chinese directors and actors serving in a symbolic advisory role.

Leading Chinese filmmakers Jackie Chan, Feng Xiaogang and Chen Kaige were among delegates gathered in the Great Hall of the People for China’s annual rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress and its advisory body.

Wednesday, March 5 marks the start of the strictly choreographed parliament meeting in the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing, which is expected to approve efforts to keep President Xi Jinping’s economic reform plans on track.

The event is actually two political meetings, the ‘liang hui’, which combines the annual sessions of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a debating chamber that began on Monday, and the National People's Congress (NPC).

The NPC gives rubber-stamp approval to policy drafts that have already been hammered out and approved by the Communist Party’s senior leadership in closed-door meetings.

The NPC will be closely watched to see what changes it might introduce to help the entertainment industry. There has been much speculation about the possibility of the quota for foreign movies allowed into China being raised, although the Film Bureau has denied the reports.

However, the strong performance of Chinese movies in recent months, plus pressure on Beijing to remove quotas to meet World Trade Organization rules, has some insiders speculating that change might soon be afoot.

The NPC is likely to include some reference to efforts to promote the culture industries, and industry members will be closely watching to see what this means for censorship and attempts to sell Chinese movies overseas.

The celebrities are attending the CPPCC, which is an advisory body to the NPC and has no political power.

However, it does offer a platform. Feng, who has directed movies such as Assembly and Back to 1942, has in previous years used the CPPCC to slam censorship in China.

And it is a high-profile body too. Five people were stripped of their CPPCC membership over the past year, reportedly for corruption offenses, including Liu Yingxia, one of China's richest women.

Other celebrities taking part include the Nobel literature laureate Mo Yan, former NBA star Yao Ming, actors Pu Cunxi, Zhao Benshan and Zhang Guoli, and popular entertainer Huang Hong.

The annual session of the CPPCC opened with a moment of silence for the victims of a deadly knife attack in the Kunming train station in southwest China on March 1.

President Xi marks his first year as president this week, and the NPC will focus on pushing through the package of reforms decided at the Third Plenum meeting in November.

The event is characterized by synchronized rounds of applause and lots of promises to “unswervingly” follow Marxist Leninist diktats and promote the party.

The parliamentary gathering is also one of the wealthiest in the world -- there are over 80 billionaires among its 5,000 delegates.

The Chinese government is cracking down on corruption, which has translated into an austerity campaign. This means no luxury dishes on the menu at the NPC, and only one bottle of water per participant, with no seconds until you finish the first bottle.

Gone are the days when restaurants geared up their special menus for the visiting delegates, including shark fin soup and abalone.

[GeneChing]

It's about censorship. :cool:


Jackie Chan, artists launch tirade against film censorship during CPPCC meeting (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1441938/jackie-chan-artists-launch-tirade-against-film-censorship-during-cppcc)
Authorities urged to allow artistic freedom after delegates spot censorship clause in work report
Keira Lu Huang keira.huang@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 06 March, 2014, 6:29pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 06 March, 2014, 6:50pm

http://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486x302/public/2014/03/06/china_politics_cppcc_usma0.jpg?itok=YKM9sRd3
CPPCC member Jackie Chan (centre) is escorted to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for parliamentary talks. Photo: EPA

What was meant to be a run-of-the-mill panel discussion on the government’s work report among art experts in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference’s (CPPCC) turned into a grumbling session this week, as personalities like actor Jackie Chan and award-winning filmmaker Feng Xiaogang criticised censorship in the country.

Feng urged the authorities to give directors more freedom, saying: “Don’t make directors tremble with fear every day like [they’re] walking on thin ice.”
Is their [censors'] patriotism, political judgment and artistic taste better than ours, the directors?
Feng Xiaogang, filmmaker

Feng quoted a section of the central government’s work report – delivered by Premier Li Keqiang – as “clearly” saying, “We will cancel or delegate to lower-level governments an additional 200-plus items requiring State Council review and approval.”

“Who do you think this message is for?” Feng said at the meeting at Beijing International Hotel. “For the State Film Administration and those who conduct censorship as well.”

“We don’t have a ‘film censorship law’; to kill a film or not depends on examiners. Is their patriotism, political judgment and artistic taste better than ours, the directors?" he said.

“We, as directors, on one hand have to rack our brains to cope with the authorities. On the other hand, we also need to ingratiate ourselves with [the] consensus. Exhausted!”

Jackie Chan, a Hong Kong delegate to the CPPCC and a good friend of Feng, said: “I know there’s a risk to saying this, but I don’t care now, because it seems normal that I speak inappropriately.”

https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/236w/public/2014/03/06/tpbje20140305445.jpg?itok=xrkmhUH4
Director Feng Xiaogang gives an impassioned plea for less censorship at the CPPCC panel meeting on Wednesday. Photo: Xinhua

If a movie is heavily censored, cutting all the “sharp edges and corners”, its box-office performance will suffer drastically, Chan said, adding that it had disastrous results for its investors and producers.

“I have a couple of director friends [who went] bankrupt because of poor box-office results,” said Chan.

“Last year, China box office earnings reached 21.7 billion yuan (HK$27.5 billion), in which 17.1 billion [yuan] was from domestic movies.

"Within five to six years, China will be the biggest market. However, if Chinese films don’t take marketisation seriously, it will hardly have the chance to surpass Hollywood.”

Feng mentioned his films Assembly (2007) and Aftershock (2010) as examples of work that had to be modified to suit the censors’ wishes.

Assembly was almost banned as authorities thought it aggrandised war sacrifice, while Aftershock was criticised as capitalising on the 1976 earthquake tragedy in Tangshan city, Hebei province.

The discussion on Wednesday was recorded by a reporter for Japan’s Kyodo News Agency and published on his personal blog.

Encouraged by Feng’s outburst, comedian and TV star Song Dandan also set aside political considerations and attacked the declining quality of Chinese television shows as studios focused more on ratings.

“China has around 2,000 TV channels. To get a higher rating, many produce shoddy shows. Some even fake the ratings,” Song said. “If this continues, Chinese TV production will be worthless.”

Actor Zhang Guoli tried to shift the attention back to the report and started talking about Premier Li Keqiang mentioning the importance of “cultural construction”.

But Feng interrupted Zhang, calling for a “big loosening” of the state’s grip.

https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/236w/public/2014/03/06/tpbje201403032ee.jpg?itok=AU_VUYW6
Zhang Guoli tried to steer the discussion back to the work report but was stopped by director Feng Xiaogang's tirade against censorship. Photo: Xinhua

“So what Guoli means is that blasting the White House, having bad guys among the police – these are all acceptable to authorities because capitalism is chaotic,” the director said.

“However, Chinese movies can’t follow it because we don’t have violence and absolutely no bad guys among police. Chinese directors can’t bring shame on China,” said Feng, eliciting laughter from the delegates.

However, if directors are to work within the government’s parameters, the filmmaker suggested eliminating one of two steps in the censorship process, by simply screening the final cut instead of vetting the scripts as well.

He also called for close monitoring of the progress of the premier’s work report. “We can’t just appraise how good this report is. The key is to see whether it can be implemented,” Feng said.

[GeneChing]

Excellent FAQ-style article.

China Cinema 101 (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/china-cinema-101)
By Stephen Cremin
Mon, 24 March 2014, 07:00 AM (HKT)
http://www.filmbiz.asia/media/BAhbB1sHOgZmSSIvMjAxNC8wMy8yMy8xNS8xNy81MS8yOTgvY2 hpbmFfZmlsbV8xMDEuanBnBjoGRVRbCDoGcDoKdGh1bWJJIg01 MDB4MTAwMAY7BlQ?suffix=.jpg&sha=54c5adca

At the start of Hong Kong FilMart, which positions itself as a gateway to China, Film Business Asia dispels some misconceptions about the Mainland film business, including its quota, its censorship and its love of 3-D.

Why are only 34 foreign films released in China each year?
In 2013, approximately 60 foreign films were released in China, representing just under a quarter of all theatrical films. In the first three months of 2014, 20 out of 69 releases are foreign. This is using a narrow definition of foreign films: excluding co-productions and titles from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The oft-referenced 34 releases is a flexible quota for foreign films distributed on a profit-sharing basis. There is no limit to the number of flat fee deal films.

Will China's film industry be the world's biggest in 2018?
Maybe. With ticket sales of US$3.57 billion, China was the world's number two theatrical market in 2013. For the past three years, China's box office has grown at an average rate of 28%. If that can be sustained, then China's box office will cross US$12 billion in 2018. The US box office was has been just under US$11 billion for two years in a row. Cinemas are still being built at a rapid pace in China. The country had 18,195 screens at the start of 2014, 27.9% of which were added in 2013.

But don't Chinese audiences want to watch Hollywood films?
Sometimes. Local films had a 71% market share in 2013, up from 48% in 2012 and 54% in 2011. The strength of local films is a broader, regional trend. In Japan and South Korea, local films had a market share over 60% last year. In India, local films sustained a market share over 90%. There's a dangerous assumption that audiences around the world primarily want to watch Hollywood films and that it's trade barriers that are preventing that.

Why do Chinese audience's love 3-D films so much?
In China, 3-D films are released exclusively in 3-D. There is no 2-D option. RoboCop was converted to 3-D exclusively for its China release. Because of this lack of choice, cinemas can charge a 50% surcharge on 3-D tickets in what is already one of the most expensive countries in the world to watch movies. If audiences in China are less price-sensitive, it's because going to the cinema is already a luxury. Eight of the ten all-time highest grossing films in China were released in 3-D, of which four are Chinese-language films.

Why are horror films banned in China?
Some superstitious and supernatural elements such as ghosts are forbidden in local films (although demons transformed from animal spirits are permitted), but horror films are not banned. In fact, there's been a boom in horror films in China in recent years, including a number of surprisingly violent slasher horrors. In China, there is currently no ratings system that can restrict selected films to adult viewers.

So what is censored in China?
Violence was cut from Pacific Rim. Nudity was cut from Titanic (1997). The Taiwan flag was cut from You Are the Apple of My Eye 那些年，我們一起追的女孩。 (2011). Local producers have shown that with determination they can explore sensitive subjects in their films. For example, a series of films by director WANG Jing 王競 and producer XIE Xiaodong 謝曉東 have touched on the hot topics of migrant workers (The End of Year 一年到頭 (2007)), Internet vigilantism (Invisible Killer 無形殺 (2009)) and corruption in the pharmaceuticals industry (Vegetate 我是植物人 (2010)).

Why are American animations treated unfairly in China?
You're talking about The Croods and Despicable Me 2, right? The two films made US$117 million in China. The Croods had its theatrical run extended in China, not cut short. (To be precice, its extension was shortened.) It made RMB394 million (US$64.3 million) in seven weeks, its biggest international gross. Despicable Me 2 was never banned in China as widely reported. Universal had a business disagreement with their local partner, set up their own office and released the film this year. It made RMB323 million (US$52.7 million) in China, second only to the UK outside North America.

[GeneChing]

So the rest is worth $320 mil?


IMAX sells 20% of China operations (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/imax-sells-20-of-china-operations)
By Kevin Ma
Fri, 11 April 2014, 13:40 PM (HKT)
Industry News

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IMAX Corporation announced this week that it has sold 20% of its stake in IMAX China (Hong Kong) Limited to China Media Capital (CMC) 華人文化產業投資基金 and equity firm FountainVest Partners.

According to a statement released by IMAX, the transaction price was approximately US$80 million. CMC is led by LI Ruigang 黎瑞剛, also the president of Shanghai Media Group (SMG) 上海東方傳媒集團有限公司.

IMAX says that bringing Chinese ownership into IMAX China is likely to lead to an eventual IPO for the subsidiary company. One of the top film brands in the world, IMAX currently operates 173 screens across Mainland China, with an additional 237 screens planned.

[GeneChing]

I love that. I'm so going to use that. Cultural fish bone can refer not only to Chinese film. It plays a huge part in Chinese martial arts.


Chinese cinema on the world map (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/chinese-cinema-on-the-world-map)
By Kevin Ma
Tue, 22 April 2014, 09:30 AM (HKT)
Sales Feature

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While co-productions have been on the tip of everyone's tongues at this year's Beijing Film Market 北京國際電影節電影市場, local industry insiders took part in a seminar organised by local media sina.com 北京新浪互聯信息服務有限公司 to explore why Chinese films have yet to make a dent on the world cinema map and whether there are new ways to bring Chinese cinema to the world.

Hollywood films have been a great financial success over the world. However, China, the world's second biggest territory for films, has yet to see its homegrown products receive the same treatment around the world. Revenue from foreign sales of Chinese films saw a decrease in 2013, while domestic hits like Lost in Thailand 人再囧途之泰囧 (2012) and Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 西游　降魔篇 failed to make much box office abroad.

However, Bona Film Group Co Ltd 博納影業集團有限公司 Chairman YU Dong 于冬 remains optimistic about the situation, believing that Chinese cinema is in a decade of transition and that the industry needs to take three steps to reach the world: 1) Cultivate buyers' taste for Chinese films by selling them in bulk at a low price; 2) Send talents overseas by participating in international co-productions ("Even if they're just cameos"); and 3) Bring international production teams to work on Chinese films and tell Chinese stories.

The first two steps have already been taken — Yu said Iron Man 3 turned WANG Xueqi 王學圻 into one of the most widely seen faces in the world, despite being in just one scene — and the third step is already in progress with Jean-Jacques ANNAUD's Wolf Totem 狼圖騰.

Producer WANG Weimin 王為民 revealed that the 3-D drama has sold very well overseas, including an US$8 million minimum guarantee in Europe. Wang credits China Film Group Corporation 中國電影集團公司 for not only choosing to adapt a story that audiences are familiar with, but also boldly stepping out and invite an international team to tell a Chinese story.

However, Wang and other guests acknowledge the difficulties in getting international audiences to accept Chinese films.

Wang offered a very simple answer to the problem: "Film is a consumer product. As filmmakers, we have to make consumer products that audiences will accept. Why can't Chinese films go to the world? Chinese films-makers don't know enough about the world. Your products have to inspire audiences' desire to see it."

"The problem with Chinese stories is that Chinese society is a sentimental society, a society of acquaintances. We're always telling human stories, but our stories don't explore human nature," China Film Promotion International 中國電影海外推廣中心 general manage ZHOU Tiedong 周鐵東 said.

Zhou introduced the idea of "cultural fish bone", referring to the fact that foreigners have trouble eating Chinese fish dishes because the bones are not picked out. "We must take out the things that make our films difficult for audiences to swallow. This is how Hollywood films succeed. They tell global, universal stories. Their films basically have no 'cultural fish bones'. They connect to audiences of any culture, any age," Zhou said.

However, Wanda Media Co Ltd 萬達影視傳媒有限公司's Jerry YE 葉寧 expressed doubts about stripping cultural specificity for the sake of reaching a wide audience. "We can't just step out for the sake of stepping out. We have to do it while confident about our culture," Ye said.

Yu added that the biggest issue facing China now is deciding which genres have a better chance at selling abroad. He used to opportunity to reveal that Bona is planning to produce an international version of Alan MAK 麥兆輝 and Felix CHONG 莊文強's Overheard 竊聽風雲 (2009) series. Instead of selling remake rights, Bona wants to co-produce an English-language remake with a Hollywood company. The film, about shady dealings in the financial world, would be set on Wall Street and feature mostly American actors as well as several Chinese actors.

"In foreigners' eyes, we may have good stories, but they were not well told. Infernal Affairs 無間道 (2002) had a great story, so Hollywood bought it and made it universal," Zhou responded, "It's a good idea for Bona to lead the Overheard remake project, but the Chinese side cannot lead the story and the script. We may have a good story that Hollywood wants, but the story must become universal."

Ye concluded the forum by pointing out that in terms of export potential, Chinese animation is one of the healthiest genres in the industry because of the possibilities in branding, making it very different from other types of films. "Animated films don't necessarily have to make a profit at the box office as long as they can help build a brand," said Ye.

[GeneChing]

I hadn't put this together so, but Ma is spot on with this.

Remake Fever: West to East (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/remake-fever-west-to-east)
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By Kevin Ma

Sun, 18 May 2014, 16:30 PM (HKT)
Production Feature

Inspiration can flow both ways. Asian films have been remade in the west over the decades, from The Magnificent Seven (1960, based on KUROSAWA Akira 黒澤明's Seven Samurai 七人の侍 (1954) to Martin SCORSESE's The Departed (2006) (based on Hong Kong's Infernal Affairs 無間道 (2002) to Spike Lee's recent Oldboy based on PARK Chan-wook 박찬욱 | 朴贊郁's Cannes competition thriller. In recent years, Asian film-makers have turned the table by retooling western stories for local audiences as remakes. With one of them, The Target 표적 by South Korea's CHANG 창 (based on French classic Point Blank), landing at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Film Business Asia maps out the recent history of western stories retold by Asian film-makers.

Greater China
Billing itself as the first official Chinese remake of a Hollywood film, Benny CHAN 陳木勝's action thriller Connected 保持通話 (2008) is based on the 2004 Hollywood thriller Cellular. Co-produced by Emperor Motion Pictures 英皇電影 and Warner China Film HG Corporation 中影華納橫店影視有限公司, the HK$45 million (US$5.8 million) production kept the original's basic premise — a man receives a call from a kidnapped woman and races against time to rescue her – but changes the background of the hero (played by Chris EVANS in the original and Louis KOO 古天樂 in the remake), increases the role of the villain, and plays to Chan's strength as an action director with large-scale set-pieces including an extended car chase through the streets of Hong Kong.

In 2010, Emperor also co-produced What Women Want 我知女人心 (2011), the official Chinese remake of Nancy Meyer's film. Starring Mel GIBSON and Helen HUNT, the 2000 romantic comedy was about an ad executive who gains the power to hear women's thoughts after experiencing a freak accident. Putting the luxurious upper-class lifestyle of young Chinese executives on display, CHEN Daming 陳大明's Chinese remake, co-produced by Bona Film Group Co Ltd 博納影業集團有限公司 and China Film Group Corporation 中國電影集團公司, showed that China is also capable of producing a film with Hollywood's gloss and polish. It also retained the star wattage of the original by casting Chinese superstars Andy LAU 劉德華 and GONG Li 鞏俐 in the lead roles. Released during the Lunar New Year holiday in 2011, the film made RMB68.9 million (US$8.89 million) at the China box office.

Unlike Connected and What Women Want, ZHANG Yimou 張藝謀's A Simple Noodle Story 三槍拍案驚奇 (2009) (aka A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop) is a considerable departure from its source material, transporting the Texas locations of the The Coen Brothers' noir Blood Simple to the desolated desert of Gansu Province. The film marked a significant change of pace for the renowned film-maker with its mixture of over-the-top screwball comedy and suspense thriller. Starring popular comedian Xiao Shen Yang 小瀋陽 and YAN Ni 閆妮 opposite SUN Honglei 孫紅雷, Noodle Story divided critics and audiences, but proved one of the director's biggest hits, grossing RMB261 million (US$33.7 million) in China.

Five years on, Noodle Story remains the highest-grossing Chinese remake of a western film, though its record may not last long. Huayi Brothers Media Corporation 華誼兄弟傳媒股份有限公司 recently announced that it is remaking Italian comedies Men vs. Women and Women vs. Men. Bona Film Group is planning a remake of Hollywood comedy Bride Wars. Its script was recently approved by State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) 國家新聞出版廣電總局.

Japan & South Korea
Co-produced by Nippon Television Network Corp 日本テレビ, Paramount Pictures Japan パラマウント, Shochiku Co Ltd 松竹 and CJ Entertainment Inc ＣＪ엔터테인먼트, Ghost ゴースト　もういちど抱きしめたい (2010) aimed to cash in on the popularity of the original film as well as the latest wave of South Korean pop culture that swept Japan that included pop music and television dramas. Directed by OTANI Taro 大谷太郎, the remake featured popular South Korean actor SONG Seung-heon 송승헌 | 宋承憲 as the male lead but switched the roles around so that the female lead, played by MATSUSHIMA Nanako 松嶋菜々子, is the ghost. Otherwise, the new version adheres fairly close to the original, even recreating the classic sculpting scene in the first act of the film.

Before it turned its attention to China, Fox International also tried its hand in the Japan market. In 2009, Fuji Television Network Inc フジテレビジョン approached the company with the idea for a local remake of Alexander PAYNE's Academy Award-nominated comedy Sideways. Instead of bringing the story to Japan, the remake by Cellin Gluck — an American who grew up in Japan and directed the English-language portion of several Japanese films — brings the Japanese characters to the United States and changes the setting from Santa Barbara to Napa Valley. Unlike the Ghost remake, Fuji and Fox had hoped that the relatively low awareness of the original film in Japan would help attract new audiences that would appreciate the remake on its own terms. However, the US$3 million Sideways サイドウェイズ (2009) grossed only ¥135 million (US$1.32 million) during its modest 185-screen release in Japan.

Similarly, South Korea's Taewon Entertainment Inc 태원엔터테인먼트 took a lesser known western film to retool for the South Korean market with Everybody Has Secrets 누구나 비밀은 있다 (2004), a remake of Ireland's About Adam. Seemingly aiming to capitalise on the sex appeal of LEE Byeong-heon 이병헌 | 李炳憲, the romantic comedy stars the local heartthrob as a playboy who successfully seduces three sisters. It was not considered a huge success in South Korea with 896,000 admissions. However, as part of the first "Korean wave" in Japan, the JANG Hyun-su 장현수 film became one of the highest grossing South Korean films in Japan due to Lee's popularity there.

Remaking Asia
Aside from Hollywood, Asian film-makers have also borrowed ideas from each other by remaking films from other Asian countries.

Directors CHO Ui-seok 조의석 and KIM Byung-seo 김병서 | 金丙書 brings the gripping story of a Hong Kong police surveillance team to Seoul in Cold Eyes 감시자들, the official remake of YAU Nai-hoi 游乃海's Eye in the Sky 跟蹤 (2007). Staying faithful to the original story while significantly amplifying the action elements, the hit remake even included a cameo by original star Simon YAM 任達華.

With director John WOO 吳宇森 on board as executive producer, SONG Hae-sung 송해성 | 宋海星's remake of his Hong Kong crime classic A Better Tomorrow 英雄本色 (1986) retains the film's original premise – a former gang boss trying to rekindle his relationship with his estranged policeman brother – but retools the story to fit South Korean culture. In the Korean-language A Better Tomorrow 무적자 (2010) the two brothers are now defectors from North Korea, and the original film's sole female character was removed.

Reversing direction once again, director HAN Yan 韓延 remade low-key South Korean drama ...ing ．．．ｉｎｇ［아이앤지］ (2003) into Mainland production First Time 第一次 (2012), a polished romantic melodrama. The Edko Films Ltd 安樂影片有限公司 co-production changed the structure of the original by telling the story from dual perspectives. It was also an impressive showcase for its young stars Angelababy 楊穎 and Mark CHAO 趙又廷.

A true Pan-Asian production, Edko's live-action remake of Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) is co-produced by a Hong Kong company, written by Hong Kong writers, directed by a French director and features a cast of actors from South Korea, Japan and the United States. The English-language film featured a strong performance by South Korean star Gianna JUN 전지현 | 全智賢 in her first English-language role, but like many remakes the film failed to make an impact at the box office.

[GeneChing]

There's a vid report if you follow the link

China Box Office Predicted To Hit $4.5B In 2014 Based On Latest Figures (http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/china-box-office-predicted-to-hit-4-5b-in-2014-based-on-latest-figures-report/)
By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday, 23 May 2014 11:48 UKTags: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, China, International Box Office, The Monkey King, X-Men: Days Of Future Past

China Box Office On Track For 24.7% Growth To $4.49 Billion

Hollywood investment in China is surging, along with record box office takes in the Middle Kingdom. Dominic Patten reports.

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In the first five months of 2014, Chinese box office hit 10.2B yuan, or about $1.63B, with local movies dominating the market at 56% through May 21. Watchdog SAPPRFT released the figures today via state news agency Xinhua. Those numbers have led analysts to predict total 2014 box office could top out at a staggering 28B yuan, or around $4.49B. That would rep a 24.7% change from 2013 which ended with $3.6B. I say staggering because the numbers really do look wild, but a 24.7% increase would be slightly lower than the 27.5% jump from 2012 to 2013.

It’s difficult to make an apples-to-apples comparison with 2013 based on the figures released today given that last year the authority provided half-year numbers in July. However, it’s worth noting that it took six months in 2013 for box office to cross the 10B yuan mark. This year, it was less than five. In the first six months of 2013, Chinese films also ruled the box office at about 61%, grossing $1.1B in the semester which had total takings of $1.79B. This was a reversal from the whole of 2012 when, much to the chagrin of SAPPRFT (then SARFT), market share had fallen to under 50% for the first time in four years.

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But U.S. movies are still doing big business in the world’s No. 2 box office territory thus far this year with five of the Top 10 hailing from Hollywood. The No. 1 movie in China to date in 2014 is the Cheang Pou-soi directed The Monkey King. The 3D and IMAX fantasy film that stars Donnie Yen opened with a record breaking first day of $20M back in January. It has grossed about $166.8M. In the No. 2 slot is Captain America: The Winter Soldier with a gross through this weekend of $116.3M. Next up is Dad, Where Are We Going?, based on the popular local reality show, with about $111.5M. The Man From Macau, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, My Old Classmate, Need For Speed, Beijing Love Story and Despicable Me 2 round out the Top 10.

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Today sees the release of X-Men: Days Of Future Past which is expected to do strong business in China, aided by having local star Fan Bingbing in the cast. Last year’s The Wolverine, the first of the X-Men movies to enter the market, did $40.2M in box office making it the film’s strongest overseas territory. Godzilla stomps in on June 13 with about 145 IMAX 3D runs, and a likely monstrous opening.

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[GeneChing]

Maybe I should interview her (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1143) again.


Well Go USA Promotes Doris Pfardrescher To CEO, Ups Dennis Walker To CFO/COO (http://www.deadline.com/2014/06/well-go-usa-ceo-doris-pfardrescher/)
By JEN YAMATO | Tuesday June 10, 2014 @ 5:19pm

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EXCLUSIVE: Indie action and genre distributor Well Go USA has promoted a new executive duo to its top ranks as the company expands. Doris Pfardrescher will serve as Well Go’s CEO after serving the company for 20 years, most recently as President. In recent years the Texas, Taiwan, and China-based distributor has widened its original focus on Asian and martial arts films to include U.S. and foreign independent films, while launching production arm Caspian Media Capital. Aiding Pfardrescher at the helm of Well Go will be Dennis Walker who moves from VP of Finance and Operations to Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Family-owned Well Go was previously helmed by outgoing CEO Annie Walker and CFO/COO Charlie Walker, who will still remain involved with the company.

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“Doris and Dennis have been working diligently to evolve the Well Go brand, in terms of high-quality films, brand recognition, and finding the correct ventures for future opportunities,” said Annie Walker. “They have consistently provided a bold level of strategic planning for our growth, while remaining committed to daily operational excellence, allowing us to expand into exciting new avenues for years to come.” Pfardrescher and Walker will focus on acquisitions, production, and global expansion following the Cannes acquisition of Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen’s Ip Man 3, Chinese action epic Kundo: Age of the Rampant, and Korean swashbuckler The Pirates as well as Aussie apocalypse thriller These Final Hours.

[GeneChing]

What is it with Asia going to war over movies (http://www.chron.com/news/article/North-Korea-s-take-on-new-US-movie-Act-of-war-5577500.php) lately? :confused: Some one needs to make a movie about that.


China Film Bureau Boss Urges Local Industry to 'Prepare for War With Hollywood'
12:22 AM PST 06/27/2014 by Clifford Coonan

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The powerful government regulator urged theater owners to lessen the screen time for "Transformers: Age of Extinction" when it comes out next month, to benefit local productions.

China Film Bureau chief Zhang Hongsen said the country's film business is at war with Hollywood and needs to dramatically up its game if it is to survive when the quota for foreign film imports is raised in four years’ time.

“This is the year when the battle between Hollywood and China really begins. Chinese films are encountering serious challenges and 2014 is a crucial year to decide who the winner will be,” Zhang, a director at the powerful regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), told a forum on the domestic film industry.

His comments are the highest profile acknowledgment yet of the need for the Chinese industry to raise its game to face down a growing threat from Hollywood.

This is shaping up to be a big year for Hollywood in China, the world’s second largest market.

Chinese movies came out just ahead of foreign films in box office last year, largely boosted by Stephen Chow’s Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, which grossed $215 million. Donnie Yen's The Monkey King and reality TV adaptation Dad, Where Are We Going? did well during the Lunar New Year holiday in February, but since then Hollywood tentpoles have put in strong performances -- Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past, has taken $116.49 million so far, and many believe Transformers 4: Age of Extinction could do even better than Avatar’s $221.9 million all-time China box office record.

“With the release of Transformers 4: Age of Extinction, domestic film’s market share will fall below 50 percent,” said Zhang.

He called on theater chain owners not to give Age of Extinction 100 percent of the screening time and encouraged them to help boost locally made product.

“The Chinese film industry has grown 34.57 percent annually from 1 billion yuan in 2003 ($160 million) to 21.7 billion yuan ($3.48 billion) in 2013 -- just 10 years. But this is just the initial stage, not a mature stage and also not a final stage. And at a stage like this, we face serious challenges,” said Zhang.

Hollywood has long pushed for free trade in the booming Chinese film market, and Zhang said restricting foreign movie imports to 34 titles a year will be lifted in 2017 as Beijing honors a memorandum of understanding agreement on its current quota system with the World Trade Organization in 2012, valid for five years.

With Hollywood constantly adapting to the Chinese market, the Chinese film sector will be hurt badly, he said, so the industry has just four years to face up to challenges.

The pressure was on Chinese films to be more diverse and of better quality. Theaters were of much higher quality now but film production levels had not kept up, he added.

The success of Lost in Thailand, which took $200 million in Chinese theaters in 2012, inspired domestic movies and released their collective force.

This made Hollywood think carefully about its China strategy, Zhang said. Among the cunning measures Hollywood is taking to boost its presence in China is adding Chinese elements to the movie.

Transformers: Age of Extinction used popular Li Bingbing and heartthrob Han Geng, and young actors in the fourth installment were chosen via a Chinese reality TV show.

Hollywood studios are also doing major promotions by sending directors and stars over to China to push the movies.

Recent months have seen big names such as Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Andrew Garfield and Johnny Depp come to China to promote Hollywood fare.

Zhang said that if Hollywood films keep coming to China without any restrictions, the Chinese government will no longer be able to provide favorable conditions for the domestic industry. Also American distributors will hold all the power in terms of distribution, taking away power from domestic distributors, leading to a focus on U.S. profitability rather than domestic concerns.

“The main point is that we need to defend and fight for our cultural territory. On the economic aspect we will have to see if we will be forced to surrender,” said Zhang.

[GeneChing]

Hollywood dominates Greater China in H1 2014
By Kevin Ma
Thu, 03 July 2014, 18:30 PM (HKT)
Box Office News

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Hollywood once again dominated the Hong Kong box office in the first half of 2014.

According to Hong Kong's Motion Picture Industry Association Ltd (MPIA) 香港電影協會, six out of the top ten films for the year are from Hollywood, with Captain America: The Winter Soldier taking the lead with HK$56.5 million (US$7.30 million).

The top local film in the territory for the year so far is Matt CHOW 鄒凱光's Lunar New Year comedy Golden Chickensss 金雞ｓｓｓ, which is fifth-placed with HK$41.3 million (US$5.33 million). The other Chinese-language films on the list are From Vegas to Macau 賭城風雲 (HK$33.6 million, US$4.33 million), The Monkey King 西遊記之大鬧天宮 (HK$25.6 million, US$3.31 million) and Overh3ard 竊聽風雲３ (HK$23.6 million, US$3.04 million).

Total box office for the first six months was HK$856 million (US$110 million), a year-on-year increase of 11.8% from HK$766 million (US$98.8 million) in the same period last year. A total of 159 films have been released, including just 25 local films.

In China, thanks to Lunar New Year holiday hits The Monkey King, Where Are We Going, Dad? 爸爸去哪兒 and From Vegas to Macau, domestic films had a comfortable lead for the first four months of the year. However, Hollywood films had a major resurgence in May and June with X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Godzilla.

The Monkey King remains the top grossing film with RMB1.05 billion (US$169 million). However, it is expected to be dethroned by Transformers: Age of Extinction, which has become the second-highest grossing film of the year in just four days.

Overall, Hollywood films – all released in 3-D — take up six out of the top ten slots. All six films are part of existing franchises. In comparison, three out of the four top local films were released in 2-D.

Early estimates puts total box office revenue for the first six months at RMB13 billion (US$2.09 billion), with foreign films taking back the majority of the market with a 53% share. Official numbers from State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) 國家新聞出版廣電總局 are expected to be released later this month.

In Taiwan, Hollywood continues to dominate the box office with the exception of Umin Boya 馬志翔's KANO ＫＡＮＯ and Lunar New Year comedy Twa-tiu-tiann 大稻埕. The former, a three-hour baseball film, is the second highest-grossing film of the year securing NT$110 million in Taipei; the latter is tenth-placed securing NT$56.4 million in Taipei.

The other eight spots in the top ten are occupied by Hollywood films, led by Captain America: The Winter Soldier with NT$113 million (US$3.79 million). At fifth place, Edge of Tomorrow is the most successful non-franchise Hollywood film in the top ten.

Official and reliable nationwide figures are not available.


CHINA'S TOP 10 FILMS (UP TO 30 JUN)

The Monkey King (RMB1.05b, US$169m)
Transformers: Age of Extinction (RMB742m, US$119m) *
X-Men: Days of Future Past (RMB721m, US$116m)
Captain America: Winter Soldier (RMB719m, US$116m)
Where Are We Going, Dad (RMB695m, US$112m)
The Amazing Spider-man 2 (RMB585m, US$94.1m)
From Vegas to Macau (RMB525m, US$84.5m)
Godzilla (RMB475m, US$76.4m) *
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug (RMB463m, US$74.5m)
My Old Classmate 同桌的妳 (RMB456m US$73.4m)


HONG KONG'S TOP TEN FILMS 2014 (UP TO 30 JUN)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (HK$56.5m, US$7.30m)
The Amazing Spider-man 2 (HK$54.7m, US$7.06m)
X-Men: Days of Future Past (HK$50.5m, US$6.52m)*
Transformers: Age of Extinction (HK$43.8m, US$5.66m)*
Golden Chickensss (HK$41.3m, US$5.33m)
Maleficent (HK$37.8m, US$4.88m)*
From Vegas to Macau (HK$33.6m, US$4.33m)
The Wolf of Wall Street (HK$31.1m, US$4.01m)
The Monkey King (HK$25.6m, US$3.31m)
Overh3ard (HK$23.6m, US$3.04m)*
the gap narrows...

[GeneChing]

If you don't know who Jack Ma is, we've been following him on our Jet-Li-s-TaijiZen-International-Cultural-Development-Company (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65314-Jet-Li-s-TaijiZen-International-Cultural-Development-Company&p=1225507#post1225507) thread.


Jack Ma, Jet Li look to become Chinese 'Warner Brothers' (http://www.ecns.cn/cns-wire/2014/10-23/139730.shtml)
2014-10-23 15:50 Ecns.cn Web Editor: Si Huan

http://www.ecns.cn/cns-wire/2014/10-23/U541P886T1D139730F12DT20141023160707.jpg
Photo taken on May, 2013 shows Jack Ma (right) and Jet Li (left) show up at an activity. (Photo: xinhua.net)

(ECNS) -- Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is looking to increase cooperation with Hollywood, according to Chinese media.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma will reportedly lead a team of company executives, accompanied by Kungfu star Jet Li, to Los Angeles at the end of this month.

Ma will meet with numbers of studios, including Lions Gate, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney, Universal, and Sony Corp. to seek deals that could give Alibaba the right to distribute US movies and TV shows in China, or invest in studio stakes, according to Bloomberg.

Alibaba, who obtained the world's biggest initial public offering in September, is looking to diversify its investments into areas such as the culture and entertainment industry.

Earlier in July, the giant cooperated with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. to launch subscription-based video streaming services in China, China Daily reported.

In April, it bought an 18.5 percent stake in Chinese video streaming website Youku Tudou Inc. in partnership with a private equity firm. The company also bought a controlling stake in content and media company ChinaVision Media Group Ltd. in March.

[GeneChing]

A new player in the Chollywood game.


Meet Alibaba's Woman of Mystery in Los Angeles (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/meet-alibabas-woman-mystery-los-749872)
5:00 AM PST 11/20/2014 by Clifford Coonan, Kim Masters

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/news_portrait/2014/11/alibabas_woman_of_mystery_main.jpg
Ji Guoqiang
Zhang (pictured in 2003) is rarely photographed, but that could change when she arrives in Los Angeles.

Zhang Wei, a Harvard MBA and former talk-show host (she's interested in "Megan Ellison-type" films, says an insider) seems poised to head the China power's push into Hollywood

This story first appeared in the Nov. 28 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

She wanted to be the Oprah Winfrey of China. Instead, sources say American-educated Zhang Wei is relocating from Shanghai to Los Angeles to head an office for e-commerce giant Alibaba as it makes a much-watched incursion into Hollywood.

In October, Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma described his firm — the Amazon of China, only with more money after its IPO raised $25 billion — as "the world's biggest entertainment company." He is known to be interested in purchasing American content to stream and possibly investing in American movies. But some observers believe his ambitions also include buying a stake in a U.S. studio or even acquiring one outright.

If that's the case, Zhang, who carved out a career as a top talk show host in China before focusing on her career as an executive, appears set to be a vital part of Alibaba's plans. The company declined to respond to questions about Zhang or her L.A. move, and those who have worked with her declined to speak on the record for fear of angering the Chinese giant.

But sources paint a portrait of Zhang as a seasoned and savvy executive. She has worked at Alibaba in various capacities since 2008, serving before that as COO in charge of TV power Star's operations in China. Though she's only in her early 40s, her résumé includes stints as managing director of CNBC China, a consultant to Bain & Co. and finance specialist for General Electric Co.

For a time after getting her MBA at Harvard in 1999, Zhang lived her dream, working at Star (then owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.) as host of Common Ground, a talk show on Beijing TV. With the slogan, "Building a bridge between China and the world," Zhang took on topics that were considered daring, including AIDS and drug abuse. In a segment on Internet dating, an American man proposed to a Chinese woman he'd met online.

At Harvard, Zhang was one of a dozen students from China who had left the country after the 1989 crackdown on dissidents, described in a Newsweek profile in 2000 as part of an influential "Tiananmen Generation" who had received American educations and were debating whether to accept lucrative offers from U.S. companies or return to help build the Chinese economy. Classmates included The Lego Movie producer Dan Lin as well as Media Rights Capital co-chairmen Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu. Then described as "a buoyant 29-year-old woman whose dream was to become China's answer to … Oprah Winfrey," Zhang urged her classmates to return to help their country.

Fifteen years later, she has come full circle as a part of the Alibaba team that met at the end of October with top Hollywood executives in what was described as a "getting to know you" visit. While it's unclear what specific plans Alibaba has for entertainment, the company formed Alibaba Pictures in March when it bought a majority stake in Hong Kong-based ChinaVision Media Group, which produces Chinese-language TV shows and movies. The company is headed by Zhang Qiang, a former senior executive in the state-run China Film Group.

Zhang Wei graduated from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa., with a bachelor's degree in international organizational management before getting her MBA from Harvard. She was described in her talk show era as a stylish dresser who enjoyed a hazelnut coffee from Starbucks. She hung a poster of her favorite television show, Friends, on the wall in her office. The talk show's producers were taking a risk working with her, she said then, because, "I've gotten a lot of my values from abroad." When they complained about her casual look and asked her to dress in a gray suit, she pleaded, "Please let me be me!"

In a 2010 appearance at Alifest, an annual conference organized by Ma in the company's hometown of Hangzhou, Zhang hosted key sessions at the event attended by then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, eBay CEO John Donahoe and former U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman.

Although her days as a TV host are over, Zhang still appears to be living by the show's motto, building bridges between China and the world. A top U.S. film executive who met with her in L.A. says she came across as interested in "Megan Ellison-type fare," alluding to the highbrow producer of films including Zero Dark Thirty, American Hustle and Foxcatcher.

One Chinese colleague who requested anonymity expressed confidence that Zhang is more than prepared for her U.S. foray. "Wei is a witty, capable woman," says this person. "She can freely shuttle between various roles and change, be that TV star or executive of a large multinational company."

ALIBABA BY THE NUMBERS

$25 billion: Amount raised in Alibaba's September IPO. (It has about $16 billion in cash for investments.)

54 percent: Jump in Alibaba's revenue, to $2.74 billion, in the second quarter of its fiscal year.

300 million: Chinese users of Alipay, the company's Paypal-like e-commerce system.

$1.2 billion: Price Alibaba and Jack Ma's Yunfeng Capital paid in April for a stake in the Chinese web video company Youku Tudou.

$1 billion: Cost of Alibaba's April deal for a 20 percent stake in Internet TV company Wasu.

[GeneChing]

..but still relevant.


Asian conglomerates seek starring role in Hollywood studios (http://nypost.com/2014/12/02/asian-conglomerates-seek-starring-role-in-hollywood-studios/)
By Richard Morgan December 2, 2014 | 2:10am
Modal Trigger

http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/film_netflix_s_gambit-e1417496466765.jpg?w=720&h=480&crop=1
Donnie Yen in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend," slated for an August 2015 release. Asian companies are screen testing their interest in Hollywood studios.
Photo: AP

Hollywood is prepping for the next wave of Asian invasion by companies hungry to own a piece of a studio.
“The markets are beginning to ignore these reports because we’ve heard so many of them,” said Steven Azarbad, whose New York-based Maglan Capital owns a piece of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. “At this point we need to see a deal to believe it.”
Tony Wible, an analyst at Janney Capital Markets, has no doubt we will.
“A lot of places around the world have seen how well the US has done exporting media,” he said. “Now they want to do it.”
The desire is so great among Asian conglomerates, Wible added, there’s even a phrase for it — “ambition for soft power.”
This ambition is most pronounced in China, which last year surpassed Japan as the largest film market outside the US.
You can count China’s Dalian Wanda Group as the latest Asian company screen testing its interest in a studio.
Like Hangzhou-based Alibaba and Shanghai-based Fosun before it, Beijing-based Wanda has Lionsgate squarely in its sights.
Only it won’t settle unless it obtains a majority interest in the studio behind “The Hunger Games,” as well as such TV productions as “Mad Men” and “Orange is the New Black.”
“We want control,” Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin said in a Bloomberg interview on Monday.
Wanda, which two years ago acquired AMC Entertainment in the US to become the world’s largest cinema owner, is already committed to investing $1.2 billion to build a Beverly Hills base.
Moreover, as part of its publicly declared ambition to control 20 percent of the global cinema market by 2020, it’s committed to building an $8.1 billion, 20-studio entertainment complex in eastern China.
Both of those projects, however, may be more feasible than wresting control of Lionsgate.
Mark Rachesky, Lionsgate’s chairman and largest shareholder, previously held discussions with Alibaba and Fosun to sell at least a part of his 37 percent stake.
But the lack of a deal — Alibaba’s interest remains alive, sources said, while Fosun invested $1 billion with former Warner Bros. head Jeff Robinov to form Studio 8 after ending its talks with Lionsgate — is making skeptics of some Hollywood investors.
That’s part of the reason Wanda insists its investment in any US studio gives it control. “They want to make sure whatever product it creates will also sell well in China,” Wible said.
Tokyo-based SoftBank doesn’t appear as control-oriented as its Chinese counterparts, having settled two months ago for a $250 million minority investment in Legendary Entertainment.
“They’re still learning the business,” said Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Harrigan, who noted SoftBank also demonstrated an ability to keep its ambitions in check by cutting off takeover talks with DreamWorks Animation SKG.

[PalmStriker]

:)Looks like they're positioned to breach the Western Wall.

[GeneChing]

And the growth continues...

China Surges 36% in Total Box Office Revenue (https://variety.com/2015/film/news/china-confirmed-as-global-number-two-after-36-box-office-surge-in-2014-1201392453/)

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/breakupbuddies.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
Breakup Buddies
January 4, 2015 | 10:03PM PT
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

HONG KONG — China’s box office surged ahead by 36% to hit $4.82 billion (RMB29.6 billion) in 2014.

That consolidated China’s position as the world’s second largest theatrical territory, with a total that was 47% of the North American cumulative, which slipped 5% in 2014 to $10.3 billion.

In 2013, China’s box office hit $3.57 billion or 4.6 billion yuan.

While “Transformers: Age of Extinction” was the year’s top film, for the second year in a row local films bettered the competition from Hollywood. Local films accounted for a combined $2.64 billion in 2014 (RMB16.2 billion) and a 55% market share.

That was a considerable achievement for Chinese cinema, considering that the import quotas were expanded in 2012 to allow more Hollywood imports. But the score might have been higher still had some of the most anticipated Chinese films performed better in the key December month, when local films are favoured and Hollywood effectively locked out.

Both John Woo’s “The Crossing” and Jiang Wen’s “Gone With The Bullets” underperformed in December, in a repeat of the lesson supposedly learned in December 2012 when the expected blockbusters by big name directors were trounced by low budget “Lost In Thailand.”

The biggest Chinese hits of 2014 were contemporary and youth-driven titles “Breakup Buddies,” “The Breakup Guru,” and “The Continent” with family entertainer “Dad Where Are We Going” in the top five, along with fantasy “The Monkey King” the most traditional. One late December success was “The Taking of Tiger Mountain,” a big budget, 3D war-adventure film, directed by well-established maverick Tsui Hark, which kicked off with a $51 million opening weekend.

According to data from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, a total of 618 Chinese films were produced in 2014, compared with 638 were made in 2013. That was the second year that production dropped slightly. The number of Chinese films achieving theatrical release, however, is likely to have been less than half that total.

Data from SAPPRFT show cinema admissions rising to 830 million, up 34.5% compared with 617 million in 2013. That implies minimal inflation in the mean national ticket price, a figure which is constantly being pulled lower as more cinemas open in second, third and fourth tier cities where prices are lower than the three major metropolises.

Some 1,015 cinema complexes were opened in 2014, delivering 5,397 new screens – an average of 15 new screens per day — and bringing the total number of screens to 23,600.

Chinese films combined overseas gross hit $305 million (RMB1.87 billion), up 32%, according to SAPPRFT.

[GeneChing]

China's rising box office is putting Hollywood to shame (http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-rising-box-office-is-putting-hollywood-to-shame-2015-3?utm_content=bufferb0b3f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer)
Todd Cunningham, The Wrap
Mar. 3, 2015, 10:36 AM

http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/54f5d2d969bedddc56d23755-1466-582/dragon-blade-adrien-brody.png
Adrien Brody currently stars in China's number one box-office film, "Dragon Blade."

Five Chinese movies put on an explosive fireworks show at China’s domestic box office over that country’s New Year’s holiday weekend, one that is resonating with the global film industry and beating anything Hollywood has done in almost two years.

All five ranked among the top 10 movies at the worldwide box office last weekend. The $282 million five-day stretch at the box office showed that at least on occasion, homegrown Chinese hits can match the grosses of American blockbusters.

The No. 1 movie was the Jackie Chan-produced “Dragon Blade,” which stars John Cusack and Academy Award winner Adrien Brody as Roman soldiers lost in China, with a $56 million four-day haul (top photo).

The drama “The Man from Macau” brought in $43 million and was followed by the fantasy tale “Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal” and French director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Wolf Totem,” at around $31 million each. Even a documentary about a TV reality show, “Where Are We Going Dad?” topped $21 million.

To put those numbers in perspective, there hasn’t been a weekend that strong in the U.S. since “Fast & Furious 6” drove a record Memorial Day weekend in 2013.

“The growth of the Chinese film industry, and the box office, is definitely happening faster than we expected,” said Ying Ye, managing director of Eastern Light. The company is the Asian arm of Arclight Films, which is opening “Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal” (photo above) in limited release in the U.S. this weekend.

“Where just three years ago, making $20 million over the course of a movie’s run was good, today success can mean $100 million or even $200 million,” she said.

What’s behind the unprecedented clout shown recently by Chinese films at the box office?

Bigger budgets – “Dragon Blade” cost $65 million to make – have helped increase production values with improved post-production and special-effects work, along with the strategic use of Hollywood actors.

http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/54f5d2d9ecad04cb0938ff49-1200-522/jackie-chan-dragon-blade.png
Jackie Chan and John Cusack also star with Brody in "Dragon Blade."

The Chinese government, in addition to maintaining its iron-clad limits on foreign releases, has aggressively backed the film industry with grants, and stoked continued exhibition sector growth by loosening regulations that include restrictions on movie merchandise sales.

China’s box office hit $2.7 billion last year and will overtake that of the U.S. by as early as 2017, some analysts have suggested. While acknowledging that China’s movie biz will inevitably approach that of the U.S. in terms of financial scope and influence, most Hollywood studio executives are skeptical it will happen that quickly.

“Those numbers out of the holiday are incredible” said Craig Dehmel, Twentieth Century Fox’s executive vice-president of international distribution. It’s worth noting that Chinese distributors stacked their New Year’s holiday with high-profile releases, much as Hollywood studios do in the summer or at the holidays, and that there was no competition from Hollywood movies.

Fox has had a front-row seat for China’s box office boom, and has bet big on its future.

Last year, “X-Men: Days of Future Past” took in $116 million and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” grossed $115 million there. “Avatar” is No. 2 behind “Transformers: Age of Extinction on China’s all-time box office list, and Jim Cameron has three more of them coming, with the first to arrive in 2017.

Fox International Productions, the Sanford Panitch-led unit that makes local-language films in foreign countries, just signed a $130 million deal to make films and TV programs in the region.

With budgets growing and production values rising, it seems inevitable that Chinese producers will aggressively try to connect with American moviegoers at some point.

http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/54f5d016ecad04450438ff4a-708-354/zhang-crouching-tiger-china-3.png
A still from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

So far, the only two Chinese movies to score in the United States have been the 2000 Oscar-winning “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which grossed $128 million for Sony Classics, and the 2002 martial arts epic “Hero,” which brought in $54 million when Miramax released it stateside in 2004.

“To compete and get a share of the American pie is the ultimate goal for many in China, but the way to do that is by partnering with Hollywood on true co-productions,” said Wayne Lin, a marketing executive with China Lion, which is developing and shopping partnerships in six Chinese projects.

Christian Bale and Nicholas Cage have appeared in Chinese films recently, but ahat’s behind the unprecedented clout shown recently by Chinese films at the box office?

American stars including Christian Bale and Nicholas Cage have appeared in Chinese films recently, but those roles were mainly for Chinese audiences anxious to see their favorites alongside Hollywood stars.

Will the day ever come with Chinese movies can battle toe-to-toe with American-made movies in the United States?

“I think you could pair Kevin Hart with just about any Chinese actor in a buddy movie and have a hit right now,” said BoxOffice.com senior analyst Phil Contrino.

That's a brilliant statement about Hart by Contrino. He's totally spot on.

[GeneChing]

The Kevin Hart comment above reminded me of this.


Sohu to Launch ‘Saturday Night Live China’ (http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/sohu-to-launch-saturday-night-live-china-1201444857/)
March 2, 2015 | 10:44PM PT
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

“Saturday Night Live,” the long running satirical sketch show from New York, is to be revamped as a series from Beijing, China.

The development follows a deal between Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video Entertainment and Sohu, one of China’s leading Internet portals.

Sohu currently streams the U.S. version of “SNL” in conjunction with BVE. This groundbreaking show will have international appeal while still being tailored for Chinese audiences.

The company says that it has begun recruiting comedians ahead of a launch later this year. It says the show “will have international appeal” while still being tailored for Chinese audiences.
“SNL, which combines the best elements of live music and sketch comedy, will be a refreshing new option for Chinese viewers,” the company said in a statement.

Sohu, which is listed on NASDAQ, is involved in a range of Chinese language web properties, stretching from search, news and portal activities, online games (changyou.com) and online video (tv.sohu.com).

[GeneChing]

I don't really know Valiant but it looks like they just cashed in big time.


Chinese Film Company DMG Bets on Superheroes (http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-film-company-dmg-bets-on-superheroes-1425866991)
DMG Entertainment, Valiant Entertainment to develop films, toys and theme parks

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-HH502_dmg030_J_20150308214948.jpg
This comic book cover released by Valiant Comics shows the cover of "Shadowman" No. 5. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
By LAURIE BURKITT
March 8, 2015 10:09 p.m. ET

BEIJING—Chinese film company DMG Entertainment is striking a deal with independent comic book publisher Valiant Entertainment in a move to develop films, toys and theme parks for China’s superhero-crazed consumers.

Beijing-based DMG is investing an undisclosed amount in Valiant to expand publishing, film, television and licensing of Valiant’s comic characters, it said in a statement on Monday. DMG said that it invested “eight figures” in U.S. dollars toward the expansion and another “nine figures” toward producing films and television programs based on Valiant characters, without releasing further details. A spokesman didn’t immediately provide further financial details.

The statement said the companies will focus on Chinese language content to build iconic characters in China and the Asia-Pacific.

DMG is betting on China’s strong appetite for action films and superheroes. In 2013, the Chinese company co-produced with Walt Disney Co. “Iron Man 3,” which pulled in $121 million from China’s box offices, more than a quarter of the movie’s $409 million global ticket revenue, according to film database Box Office Mojo. The top 10 grossing films in China last year included “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” at No. 6 with $116.5 million in ticket sales, and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” at No. 7 with $115.6 million.

Film studios in recent years have produced hits based on superheroes from major comic-book publishers. They include Batman and Superman, owned by Time Warner Inc.’s DC Entertainment, and Spider-Man and the Avengers, from Disney’s Marvel.

Valiant, an independent publisher, has a stable of characters that includes X-O Manowar, Shadowman and Harbinger.

DMG and Valiant, formed in 1989 and based in New York, want to build a franchise business that looks more like the one in the U.S., where film characters generate revenue far beyond the screen. The companies will create toys, games, live events and theme parks, the statement said.

Companies like Chinese entertainment giant Dalian Wanda Group Co. are attempting the same thing, creating films and characters and opening parks in China. Universal Parks & Resorts announced in October plans to open a $3.26 billion park in Beijing in the future.

“Audiences in China and the rest of the world are hungry for heroic stories they can more easily relate to,” said DMG President Wu Bing in the statement.

Write to Laurie Burkitt at laurie.burkitt@wsj.com

[GeneChing]

This is like saying musicals are the most popular Indian movies overseas...:rolleyes:



Kung Fu Movies Remain Most Popular to Overseas Viewers, Chinese Actors and Directors Still Ignored (http://en.yibada.com/articles/24768/20150406/kung-fu-movies-remains-popular-overseas-viewers-chinese-actors-directors.htm)
Dianne Therese Sencil | Apr 06, 2015 08:10 AM EDT

http://data.en.yibada.com/data/images/full/28274/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragons-cast-the-film-is-considered-as-the-highest-grossing-foreign-language-film-in-the-history-of-hollywood.jpg?w=685
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's" cast. The film is considered as the highest-grossing foreign language film in the history of Hollywood. (Photo : Reuters)

The latest results of a survey led by the Academy for International Communications of Chinese Culture (AICCC) show that kung fu movies remain to be the most popular among foreign viewers, but Chinese actors and directors still lack recognition worldwide.

The foreign viewers' love for kung fu can be represented by the success of Ang Lee's hit movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which grossed up to $128 million in the U.S., becoming the highest-grossing foreign language film in the history of Hollywood.

According to China Daily, the raw representation of martial arts combined with Chinese characters, settings and costumes satisfied the audience's "orientalistic interest" without challenging their underlying perceptions about China.

AICCC stated that since the launching of the project in 2011, kung fu has been the top choice of the viewers.

"We started this project because we want to find out how Chinese culture is being received internationally, and films are the most visually effective way to show our cultures. There are studies on the impact of foreign films in China but not the other way around. Hopefully our study could shed some light on this," Huang Huilin, director of AICCC, told China Daily.

The results of the survey have moved Chinese filmmakers to improve their works, and some believe that it is just one of the solutions to the problem of China's film industry.

"It is one way of assessing the influence of the market of Chinese films. It's not the only way. And I think it works better in evalutating the awareness rather than the penetration of Chinese film products. One needs to look at different results to get the whole picture. But this one is surely valuable," China Daily's columnist Raymond Zhou said.

Interest in China and its culture is growing as more Chinese elements have been shown in some foreign films despite the problems Chinese filmmakers are facing on promoting on the big screen. This increasing international interest on Chinese culture has a great influence on China's flourishing economy.

The success of small screens, with the combination of Hollywood's professionalism and cultural skill of Chinese cinema, could be a breaking point for the success of the big screen.

Improving the delivery and finding fresh ideas will surely be a hard test for Chinese producers and filmmakers.

[GeneChing]

Chinese Movies Still Struggle Overseas Despite Kung Fu's Global Appeal, Survey Shows (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chinese-movies-still-struggle-overseas-786770)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/675x380/2014/04/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon-wo-hu-cang-long-2000-fight-sequence-movie-still.png
'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'

by Clifford Coonan
4/7/2015 12:45am PDT

Chinese movies are still falling short in foreign markets, with low recognition of directors and actors overseas, even though martial arts films remain popular, according to a survey by a government think tank.

Making a movie that works in both China and the United States has become a kind of Holy Grail for producers in both countries, but it remains an elusive goal.

The Academy for International Communications of Chinese Culture conducted the study in nine countries to find out how Chinese movies were received overseas.

While Chinese box office totaled nearly $4.8 billion last year, providing a big boon for Hollywood films, and with the number of link-ups between overseas and Chinese film companies burgeoning, the overseas market for movies from the world's second largest film business was less spectacular.

Read More China Box Office: Theater Takings Rise 40 Percent in First Quarter (Report)

"What we've found is that people tend to watch Chinese films through free channels instead of going to theaters," said Huang Huilin, director of the AICCC.

"Most of the participants watch Chinese films online. The Internet offers fertile and challenging ground for Chinese filmmakers to exploit. And also kung-fu and comedy are still the most popular types of Chinese films among overseas viewers."

The Xinhua report singled out Taiwanese director Ang Lee's kung-fu movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as an example of how movies imbued with Chinese culture could be a success overseas – the movies grossed $128 million in the United States and became the highest-grossing foreign language film in Hollywood history.

"The raw spectacle of martial arts combined with Chinese characters, settings and costumes satisfied the audiences 'orientalistic interest', without challenging their underlying perceptions about China," the Xinhua report said.

However, little has come close to emulating its success ever since, although there are high hopes for the Legendary/China Film Group co-production Great Wall, currently shooting outside Beijing with Zhang Yimou directing and starring a host of Chinese and international stars, including Matt Damon,Willem Dafoe,Pedro Pascal,Andy Lau, Jing Tian and Zhang Hanyu.

Read More China Box Office: 'Wolf Warriors' Edges Ahead of 'Kingsman' Over Holiday Weekend

The AICCC said this has been a prevailing trend since they started the project in 2011.

"We started this project because we want to find out how Chinese culture is being received internationally, and films are the most visually effective way to show our cultures. There are studies on the impact of foreign films in China but not the other way around. Hopefully our study could shed some light on this," Huang said.

One recurring theme in the report is that filmmakers needed to be willing to challenge traditional channels of production and distribution if they want to find success on the international market.

The AICCC's deputy director Luo Jun said there were more and more Chinese elements appearing in overseas dramas, in shows such as Netflix's recent drama Marco Polo.

"For me it's a westernized narrative of Chinese culture. It's like Chinese food in America, it's not just Chinese food, it's their interpretation and imagination about Chinese culture," said Luo.

Twitter: @cliffordcoonan

If China ever does figure out how to make that global hit, just like if they ever figure out how to establish a global brand, then that ominous sleeping dragon awakens...

[GeneChing]

This speaks to the essence of this thread right now.


Wanda Cinema's earnings surge in 2014 (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/wanda-cinemas-earnings-surge-in-2014)

http://www.filmbiz.asia/media/BAhbB1sHOgZmSSIsMjAxNS8wNC8xMi8xOC80NC8xNy8xMDQvd2 FuZGFfcGxhemEuanBnBjoGRVRbCDoGcDoKdGh1bWJJIg01MDB4 MTAwMAY7BlQ?suffix=.jpg&sha=a9040cdd

By Kevin Ma

Mon, 13 April 2015, 09:45 AM (HKT)
Exhibition News

Wanda Media Co Ltd 萬達影視傳媒有限公司's cinema chain reported a huge surge in earnings in 2014, according to an earnings report released on Friday.

In 2014, Wanda Cinema Line Corporation 萬達電影院線股份有限公司 earned RMB5.34 billion (US$860 million) in operating revenue, representing a year-on-year rise of 32.7%. Net profits was up by 32.9%, from RMB602 million (US$97.0 million) in 2013 to RMB801 million (US$129 million) in 2014.

With a market share of 14.2%, Wanda Cinemas is the biggest cinema chain in China. With 369 new screens in 40 new cinemas in 2014, Wanda now operates 1,616 screens in 182 cinemas across the nation.

Wanda is also the first cinema chain in China to be publicly listed. Guangzhou Jinyi Cinemas 廣州金逸電影 also applied to be listed earlier this year, but was disqualified. Shanghai Film Group Corp 上海電影集團公司 and China Film Group Corporation 中國電影集團公司 are also preparing IPOs.

[GeneChing]

Anyone seen Man From Macau II?


China’s Bona Film Doubles Profits in First Quarter (http://variety.com/2015/biz/asia/bona-film-doubles-profits-1201490738/)

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/fromvegastomacau.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
MAY 8, 2015 | 05:48AM PT
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief
Bona Film Group saw net profits reach $4.9 million in the first quarter, outpacing revenues, which doubled to $118 million. The performance was driven by the blockbuster success of “Man From Macau II,” which was the biggest hit in China over the key Chinese New Year period.

“Macau II” grossed RMB974 million. Other films distributed by Bona in the quarter included “The Grandmaster 3D” earning RMB62.9 million “Tales of Mystery,” which earned RMB7.6 million and “Emperor’s Holidays” for RMB114.4 million. Including holdovers of “The Taking of Tiger Mountain” Bona enjoyed gross theatrical revenue of RMB1.6 billion from January to end of March.

Films currently in production include “The Phantom of Shanghai” (previously “The Shadow of the Devil City”), “Sword Master,” “Secret Treasure.” Ang Lee’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” in which Bona is a partner alongside Studio 8 and TriStar, began shooting in April.

“We expect the Chinese film industry to generate strong box office returns in 2015, and believe that Bona’s solid slate of films and vertically integrated business model will make us well positioned to capitalize on the growth in the market,” said company founder Yu Dong in a statement. But with fewer big releases in the second quarter the company will only barely stay profitable. It forecasts non-GAAP net income for the second quarter of 2015 of US$0.5 million to US$1.0 million.

[GeneChing]

China box office has record July (http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/china-box-office-has-record-july)
http://res-5.cloudinary.com/htyz9sr25/image/private/t_show_retina_fit/8c13qhrrrzioa7ppkbkl.jpg
By Kevin Ma

Tue, 11 August 2015, 10:30 AM (HKT)
Box Office News

China box office had a record month in July, according to figures released by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) 國家新聞出版廣電總局.

Total box office revenue for the month was RMB5.49 billion (US$884 million), making it the biggest monthly revenue of all time in China. According to local media, that number is even higher than the yearly box office revenues of 2002 to 2005 combined.

The success primarily came from the record-breaking runs of fantasy adventure Monster Hunt 捉妖記, animated fantasy Monkey King: Hero is Back 西遊記之大聖歸來 and superhero spoof Jianbing Man 煎餅俠.

Monster Hunt became the highest-grossing Chinese film of all time, and Monkey King became the highest grossing animated film of all time. The three films alone have already earned RMB3.36 billion (US$541 million) combined – representing more than 60% of the July box office.

During the unofficial "blackout month", domestic films had a market share of 95.6%. While foreign films imported under the revenue sharing model were blocked from release, foreign titles imported under flat-fee deals were able to open.

Despite the blackout period remaining in effect until late August, high-profile domestic releases in late July and early August such as Lady of the Dynasty 王朝的女人　楊貴妃 and To the Fore 破風 had weaker-than-expected openings.


Here's Monkey King: Hero is Back 西遊記之大聖歸來 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68844-Monkey-King-Hero-Is-Back)

Monster Hunt 捉妖記 & Jianbing Man 煎餅俠 may need their own threads here soon.

[GeneChing]

...the coverage has shifted more to TV. But now, I think I'll stick with it. :cool:


China Has Hollywood’s Attention. It Wants More (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-04/china-has-hollywood-s-attention-it-wants-more)
Alibaba and other Chinese players see more than stars in Tinseltown
Anousha Sakoui
September 4, 2015 — 9:46 AM PDT

http://assets.bwbx.io/images/id.NUrHnhkEw/v1/750x-1.jpg
An impossible mission partially funded by Alibaba. Photographer: Bo Bridges/Paramount Pictures

Alibaba’s Jack Ma, China’s second-richest person, made headlines last year when he visited Hollywood looking for deals. He met with studio executives such as Sony Pictures’ Michael Lynton and sat courtside at a Los Angeles Lakers game with superagent Ari Emanuel and actor Jet Li. One memento of the trip surfaced this summer in the form of the Paramount Pictures hit Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation. Alibaba Pictures Group invested in the feature, which generated $479 million in global box office through Aug. 30, and got the rights to sell merchandise and tickets to its 367 million customers in China when the film opens there on Sept. 8.

The deal with Viacom’s Paramount is one of more than a half-dozen in the past year between U.S. studios and Chinese companies that are quickly putting down roots in Hollywood. Alibaba, Dalian Wanda Group, Huayi Brothers Media, and others want to funnel films through their media outlets at home, as well as deepen their understanding of the lucrative business. “China is trying to learn why Hollywood is so successful,” says Stanley Rosen, a University of Southern California political science professor who studies the relationship between the mainland and the U.S. film industry. China, he says, wants to master the business “from the bottom up.”

http://assets.bwbx.io/images/in2kkH3rsd4k/v1/-1x-1.jpg

Hollywood is happy to help. It needs the cash plus access to theaters in China, where the government limits the number of imported movies and controls how they are released. Such connections are crucial since China, projected to overtake the U.S. in box-office receipts by 2020, accounted for most of the growth in global movie ticket sales last year.

China’s would-be moguls hope to use stronger Hollywood ties as a way to make even more money off entertainment. When Mission: Impossible opens there, Alibaba will sell tickets online through its Taobao Movie unit, one of the country’s major ticketing platforms, which offers advance seat selection. People can pay using Alipay, Alibaba’s version of PayPal. The company also is planning to build China’s answer to Netflix and HBO, via a new service called Tmall Box Office.

Alibaba acquired a company called ChinaVision Media Group in 2014 to help it enter the business and renamed it Alibaba Pictures. The company sold HK$12.2 billion ($1.6 billion) in stock in June. Alibaba Pictures shouldered an undisclosed portion of the $150 million cost of making Mission: Impossible and said it’s looking for more ways to invest in Hollywood. (Paramount, which declined to comment for this story, said in June it hoped the deal was “the first of many collaborations” with Alibaba.)

State-backed China Movie Channel also invested in the spy flick, saying it would promote the film and sell tickets online. In a first for U.S. audiences, the names of both Chinese companies were displayed in the opening credits of the movie, following the century-old practice of studios like Paramount.

Last year, China’s theaters brought in $4.8b

People close to Alibaba say Ma’s strategy is to invest in specific films, rather than in studios. But real estate mogul Wang Jianlin, China’s richest man, is making bigger bets on infrastructure. Wang’s Dalian Wanda Group operates the world’s largest chain of movie theaters and is building the planet’s biggest studio theme park, Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis, on the coast of Shandong province. Wanda controls the No. 2 U.S. theater chain, AMC Entertainment Holdings, and last year bought land in Beverly Hills, where it plans to erect a $1.2 billion complex it calls its “first important step into Hollywood.”

Wanda, which footed the entire production cost of Southpaw, the summer release from Weinstein Co., also donated $20 million to a museum being built in Los Angeles by the motion picture academy that awards the Oscars; its film history gallery will be named after Wanda. Wang, who’s talked of buying stakes in studios Lionsgate and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, wants to control 20 percent of the global film market by 2020.

Over the past year, U.S. studios “are going to these big companies with single pictures and saying, ‘Would you like to invest?’ ” says Robert Cain, a partner at Pacific Bridge Pictures, a film producer and consultant. “They’re investing because the opportunity is now being presented, and that’s only a recent phenomenon.”

Huayi Brothers Media, a Beijing-based moviemaker and distributor, raised about $560 million in August from investors including Ma’s venture capital outfit and Tencent Holdings, as well as Shanghai-based Fosun International, which has put $200 million into the Studio 8 production company on Sony’s Hollywood lot. Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital is among the backers of STX Entertainment, run by Robert Simonds, producer of films such as The Pink Panther and The Wedding Singer.

“China is trying to learn why Hollywood is so successful”—Stanley Rosen, University of Southern California

Even the Chinese government is getting in on the action. Besides Mission: Impossible, state-run China Movie Channel, the country’s No. 3 TV network, invested in Paramount’s Terminator: Genisys. China Film Group, the government-run distributor of all foreign movies, took about a 10 percent stake in Universal Pictures’ car-heist thriller Furious 7, which cost $190 million to make and grossed $1.5 billion globally—a quarter of that within China. There are risks, of course. China Film also invested in Sony’s Adam Sandler box office disappointment Pixels.

Cain says China’s government is able to use its control over its lucrative home market to influence U.S. studios and exert soft power—the kind of cultural influence that’s made Hollywood a global ambassador for America. China Film invested in The Great Wall, a thriller starring Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe about an elite force making a last stand for humanity on China’s snaking barrier. It’s targeted for a November 2016 release by Universal. Says Cain: “On a broad scale, China is steadily gaining more and more influence in Hollywood, and you won’t see a Chinese villain probably ever again in a Hollywood movie.”

—With Lulu Chen and Haixing Jin

The bottom line: More than a half-dozen Chinese companies have struck deals with Hollywood in the past year.

[GeneChing]

...from a different perspective. :)


Chinese pour big bucks into blockbusters (http://www.todayonline.com/chinaindia/china/chinese-pour-big-bucks-blockbusters)
Would-be movie moguls are investing in Hollywood in a bid to grow the industry at home

PUBLISHED: 4:16 AM, SEPTEMBER 7, 2015
LOS ANGELES — Alibaba’s Jack Ma, China’s second-richest person, made headlines last year when he visited Hollywood looking for deals. He met with studio executives such as Sony Pictures’ Michael Lynton and sat courtside at a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game with super agent Ari Emanuel and actor Jet Li.

One memento of the trip surfaced this summer in the form of the Paramount Pictures hit Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation. Alibaba Pictures Group invested in the feature film, which generated US$479 million (S$682.10 million) in global box office through Aug 30, and got the rights to sell merchandise and tickets to its 367 million customers in China when the film opens there this week.

The deal with Viacom’s Paramount is one of more than half a dozen in the past year between American studios and Chinese companies that are quickly putting down roots in Hollywood. Alibaba, Dalian Wanda Group, Huayi Brothers Media, and others want to funnel films through their media outlets at home, as well as deepen their understanding of the lucrative business.

“China is trying to learn why Hollywood is so successful,” says Mr Stanley Rosen, a University of Southern California political science professor who studies the relationship between the mainland and the US film industry. China, he says, wants to master the business “from the bottom up.”

Hollywood is happy to help. It needs the cash and access to theatres in China, where the government limits the number of imported movies and controls how they are released. Such connections are crucial since China, projected to overtake the US in box-office receipts by 2020, accounted for most of the growth in global movie ticket sales last year.

China’s would-be moguls hope to use stronger Hollywood ties as a way to make even more money off entertainment. When Mission: Impossible opens there, Alibaba will sell tickets online through its Taobao Movie unit, one of the country’s major ticketing platforms. People can pay using Alipay, Alibaba’s version of PayPal. The company also plans to build China’s answer to Netflix and HBO, via a new service called Tmall Box Office.

Alibaba acquired a company called ChinaVision Media Group in 2014 to help it enter the business and renamed it Alibaba Pictures. The company sold US$1.6 billion in stock in June. Alibaba Pictures shouldered an undisclosed portion of the US$150 million cost of Mission: Impossible and said it’s seeking more ways to invest in Hollywood.

State-backed China Movie Channel also invested in the spy flick, saying it would promote the film and sell tickets online. In a first for US audiences, the names of both Chinese companies were displayed in the opening credits, following the century-old practice of studios such as Paramount.

In the past year, US studios “are going to these big companies with single pictures and saying, ‘Would you like to invest?’ ” says Mr Robert Cain, a film producer, consultant and Pacific Bridge Pictures partner. “They’re investing because the opportunity is now being presented, and that’s only a recent phenomenon.” BLOOMBERG

[GeneChing]

Another international film co-op with China.



China's Huace Group signs $300-million film financing deal with Arclight Films (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-china-arclight-deal-20150923-story.html)

Chinese entertainment conglomerate Huace Group is partnering with Australia's Arclight Films to co-finance a $300-million slate of movies.

Arclight Films, an international sales company (unaffiliated with the L.A.-based ArcLight Cinemas theater chain), said it had formed a joint venture with Huace to produce a dozen action and science fiction movies over three years.

The movies will be English-language co-productions featuring American, Australian and Chinese actors. Budgeted at $20 million to $60 million, the movies will target international as well as Chinese audiences, said Gary Hamilton, chairman of Arclight Films.

"We are exporting Chinese culture and Chinese actors and maybe changing some of the stereotypes where Chinese actors are not necessarily cast in the lead roles," Hamilton said. "We're trying to cross a bridge between both markets."

The deal is the latest tie-up between Chinese and Western film companies eager to expand into the world's second-largest film market. Earlier this week Warner Bros. signed a joint-venture deal with China Media Capital to co-produce a slate of Chinese-language films. Chinese digital studio Original Force, backed by Tencent Holdings, last month launched a new animation studio in Culver City run by former DreamWorks Animation executives.

Huace and Arclight already have three films in the works, an action thriller called "Lights Out"; "Safecracker," a crime film directed by Gregor Jordan; and an unidentified movie being developed with Thunder Road.

Arclight, which also owns the Darclight and Easternlight film labels, was established in 2002. The company has sold over 300 movies, including the Oscar-winning "Crash"; "Lord of War," starring Nicolas Cage, Jared Leto and Ethan Hawke; and "Forbidden Kingdom," starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The company's films also include worldwide horror hits "Wolf Creek" and "Bait 3D."

Arclight is based in Sydney, Australia, and also has offices in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing and Toronto. Huace, which was launched in 2005, produces and distributes movies and TV shows in China.

[GeneChing]

I thought this was interesting because the bulk of the Chinese film market represented here is NOT stuff that we would usually discuss on this forum.


Busan: Chinese Producers Share Secrets of Their Blockbuster Success (http://variety.com/2015/film/asia/busan-chinese-producers-share-secrets-of-their-blockbuster-success-1201611253/)

http://i2.wp.com/pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/chinabo.jpg?crop=0px%2C172px%2C2128px%2C1185px&resize=670%2C377
Sasha Don/Variety
October 6, 2015 | 03:24AM PT
Naman Ramachandran

Producers of some of the biggest Chinese blockbusters of recent years revealed the secrets of their success. They were speaking on Tuesday at an event within the Busan Film Festival’s Asian Film Market.

For Du Yang (“My Old Classmate,” “Police Story 2013”) the young demographic is her main target, so finding out what they like is key. “I am interested in economy and social issues because everything that is happening there is relevant to cinema,” she said. She cited the example of her 2009 production “Sophie’s Revenge” a rom-com released in the Chinese market when the genre was not in vogue. She took a gamble on the fact that global economics were in turmoil and the frustrated audience needed light relief. She was rewarded with 20 million admissions.

Apple is the company that Jiao Aimin (“Somewhere Only We Know,” “The Chef, The Actor, The Scoundrel”) holds up as an example of how to find future direction. Future proofing as much as possible is what he tries to do. “It is important to understand the psychological changes in the audience. We also have to create new demands and trends,” he says.

Jacky Y.H. Liu specializes in China-Korea co-productions and according to him, adapting content to suit local tastes is a recipe for success. He gave Korean film “Miss Granny,” that was remade in China as an example.

Veteran independent producer, Fang Li (“Ever Since We Loved”, “Double Xposure”) said “compared to other companies, I don’t make films that try to be hits. Art comes first. I make them for viewers. Impress viewers and make them emotional. Emotion is the secret for success. Commercial success will naturally follow.”

In his keynote presentation Jiao Aimin talked up the “crazy” explosion of the Chinese market and compared it to the U.S. In 2010 China had 526 releases on 6,200 screens, with 250 million admissions generating $1.4 billion at the box office. At that time, with box office receipts of $10.5 billion, the North American industry was seven times bigger than China’s.

In figures up to September 2015, Jiao said that 618 films have been released so far this year, generating 870 million admissions worth more than $4 billion. There are now over 26,000 screens in operation. At $7.8 billion so far, North America is now only 1.6 times bigger than China. Jiao predicted that China will take overtake by 2017.

Amidst the China flag waving, Du Yang struck a note of concern when she said that only 30% of Chinese films produced get a theatrical release.
Wonder what happens to that other 70% :confused:

[GeneChing]

No ghosts? Wait, what about A Chinese Ghost Story (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?61011-A-Chinese-Ghost-Story-2011)? Maybe it's just no Western ghosts. This gives a whole new perspective to gweilo. ;)


China’s No-Ghost Protocol Is Hampering Movie Flops (http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/no-ghosts-allowed/411940/)
Crimson Peak is hoping to make up for its poor U.S. box office overseas—but it has to get around the country’s censorship of supernatural elements.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/mt/2015/10/crimson-2/lead_960.jpg?1445529581

DAVID SIMS OCT 22, 2015 CULTURE
“Ghosts are real, that much I know,” is the first line spoken in Guillermo del Toro’s swooning Gothic thriller Crimson Peak, which opened to solid reviews but a tepid box office last weekend. In today’s global film economy, sub-par earnings in America don’t necessarily doom a film: Del Toro’s last effort, Pacific Rim, made up for its mediocre domestic performance by being a big hit overseas, especially in China. Producers are hoping the same will happen for Crimson Peak, but there’s one big problem. China’s Film Bureau doesn’t allow movies with ghosts in them, and certainly not movies that assert they’re “real.”

The intricacies of getting a film approved by the China Film Bureau, an executive branch of the country’s Communist government, are largely unknown to Western audiences. Sometimes it can take months or years to secure a release; many major films have run afoul of unforeseen diplomatic pressures. In 2008, The Dark Knight’s planned rollout in China was cancelled because of “cultural sensitivities” (likely to do with scenes set in Hong Kong involving a money-laundering character), which significantly hampered the film’s worldwide box-office take. But Crimson Peak’s problem is an even bigger one. The Film Bureau objects to films with distinctly spiritual content, because they “promote cults or superstition” in violation of the Communist Party’s secular principles—a major problem for a movie chock-full of ghosts.

There are, apparently, ways around the “no ghosts!” rule. One easy way is to explain that the people seeing visions of the dead were crazy, perhaps, or on drugs. The second Pirates of the Caribbean film, Dead Man’s Chest, was banned in China because it had spirits swarming around, but Disney accordingly made cuts to the Chinese version of the series’ third film, At World’s End, to make it acceptable. Crimson Peak, though, is set in a haunted house literally teeming with ghosts—ghost babies, ghost brides, old lady ghosts, even main-character ghosts. The film can’t simply shake that off as a bad dream, and so, even though the film has been hyped by two of China’s most popular film websites (according to The Hollywood Reporter), it may never get a legitimate release there.

This wouldn’t have been a problem even 10 years ago, when even the most successful Chinese releases only earned tens of millions of dollars—not much by Hollywood standards. But as the China Film Bureau started allowing more U.S. productions into theaters, more movie theaters were built around the country, and its annual box-office numbers exploded. In 2007, the highest grossing film in China was Transformers, which made $37 million. This year, it was Furious 7, which took $390 million. Del Toro’s Pacific Rim made $101 million in the United States in 2013 on a $190 million budget. But it took $111 million in China, nudging it into profitable territory. That kind of haul can rescue a film, even if it’s seen as a box-office failure in its home country.

Part of the reason for Pacific Rim’s success overseas was its inclusion of Chinese characters. Some blockbusters have started filming scenes that are inserted only in Chinese cuts, like Iron Man 3, which had a whole subplot that American audiences will never see. Reaction to the China-specific scenes, which were apparently inserted rather awkwardly, were reportedly mixed. But it helped carry the Marvel movie to an impressive $121 million take in the country. Other recent films, like Gravity, 2012, and Transformers: Age of Extinction, have benefited from including scenes that depict cooperation with Chinese characters.

Within a few years, the Chinese film market may overtake America as the world’s biggest, and such story tweaks might become more and more noticeable. It’s also possible the China Film Bureau will continue to relax its standards to keep up with changing trends and stay ahead of piracy within its borders. A more concerning trend to watch for will be whether Hollywood becomes reluctant to produce big-budget films that won’t sell overseas. As Birth Movies Death’s Devin Faraci points out, Marvel has Doctor Strange on its docket in 2016, which will be full of ghosts—maybe in a few years, that’ll be a harder sell for a big studio. Then again, they can always splice in a scene explaining that it was all a dream.

[Jimbo]

It's ridiculous that American movies cannot portray any Chinese character as a 'bad guy' for fear of upsetting the Chinese, yet the Chinese filmmakers are free to demonize characters of any nationality that they want to in their movies. China is using the almighty $$ to dictate what filmmakers in the rest of the world can and can't show in their movies anymore. And now I suppose filmmakers won't be making many more paranormal-themed movies for fear of losing their beloved Chinese market.

That said, I've been mixed about Guillermo del Toro's works. I've never found his horror movies to be the least bit creepy at all. Too much reliance on CGI and the like, and IMO the stories are so-so.

[GeneChing]

Most movie merch is 'Made in China (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?66168-Made-in-China)' anyway... :rolleyes:


Hollywood Execs Flock to Mtime's China Merchandising Expo (Exclusive)
(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disneys-andy-bird-pitches-star-848356)

http://cdn2.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/675x380/2015/12/mcon11.jpeg
From left: Mtime CEO, Kelvin Hou: DreamWorks Animation CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg; Raman Hui; Alessandro Carloni, director of "Kung Fu Panda 3"; Zeng Maojun, president of Wanda Theater Group
Mtime

by Patrick Brzeski 12/14/2015 1:35am PST

DreamWorks' Jeffery Katzenberg pitches 'Kung Fu Panda 3' and Disney's Andy Bird touts 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' to some 800 cinema-chain managers at an event devoted to China's surging movie merchandising sector.

The rapid emergence of movie merchandising in China — what many are calling the next great boom sector of the country's entertainment industry — was on full display in Sanya over the weekend, as DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffery Katzenberg and executives from Disney and Legendary Pictures flocked to the southern Chinese resort town to pitch their latest pictures and related consumer goods directly to Chinese movie theater owners.

The occasion was the second edition of MCon, an annual film-industry convention hosted by digital media group Mtime, the company behind one of China's leading movie websites and mobile ticketing platforms. Founded by former Microsoft executive Kelvin Hou, Mtime has been described as Fandango, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Entertainment Tonight all rolled into one.

As host of the two-day event, Mtime booked a sprawling Shangri-La luxury resort and flew in over 800 Chinese theater managers — collectively controlling a majority of the country's 31,000 movie screens — along with a roster of Hollywood power players, including Katzenberg, Walt Disney's international president Andy Bird, Legendary Pictures vp Jamie Kampel, and execs from Sony Pictures Entertainment, Mattel and the Motion Picture Association.

Over the past year, Mtime has made a bold bet that China's intellectual-property protection and consumer market have both reached the crucial stage where the country's moviegoing masses are ready to open their wallets for high-quality, licensed goods associated with their favorite film franchises.

In 2014, global retail sales of licensed merchandise hit $241.5 billion, with 44 percent of those sales coming from the character and entertainment category. But North America accounted for nearly 60 percent of the worldwide total, with Asia contributing under 10 percent — this, despite the tremendous gains of the Chinese box office, which is expected to surpass North America as the world's largest film market over the next three years.

"China has enjoyed explosive box office growth, but 80 to 90 percent of film revenue still comes from ticket sales," said William Feng, the Motion Picture Association's general manager in China, during opening remarks at MCom. "The industry is in its infancy, but I believe merchandise will be a key focus of China's movie market over the next several years."

Over the past 11 months, Mtime has launched 55 brick-and-mortar stores in cinemas in 10 cities, laying the groundwork for a cross-country online-to-offline merchandise service. On Thursday, the company released the final piece, Mtime PRO, a B-to-B mobile app that facilitates one-stop merchandising sales between Hollywood studios and Chinese movie theaters — made possible by an industrial chain of design, production, logistics and customer-service systems developed by Mtime over the past two and a half years. Mtime also has quietly signed a range of merchandise deals with all of the big six Hollywood studios. Mtime declined to share terms or details of its agreements, but it said some are ongoing and others are on a per-picture basis.

During MCon, the participating studios each gave an in-depth presentation on their latest tentpoles — including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Kung Fu Panda 3 and World of Warcraft — along with an introduction to the myriad consumer products they have developed with Mtime for each title, which the cinema chain reps could then buy directly from the new Mtime PRO app.

Disney placed life-size stormtrooper figures throughout the venue, attracting constant crowds of selfie-snapping theater-chain staff. Katzenberg and Kung Fu Panda 3 director Alessandro Carloni made a surprise appearance at a banquet lunch to personally serve Chinese steamed buns, the preferred snack of Po, star of the Kung Fu Panda franchise.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/custom/Abid/Patrick/Mcon14.jpg
DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg serving dumplings to Chinese guests at Mcom.

Opening Jan. 29 in North America and China, Kung Fu Panda 3 will be the first release from Oriental DreamWorks, the joint venture established by DreamWorks Animation, Shanghai Media Group and China Media Capital.

Introducing the film to a room full of several hundred theater-chain heads during the DreamWorks session, Katzenberg stressed the authentically Chinese elements of both the story and production process (Disney's Star Wars talks were closed to the press).

"For me personally, it is exciting to see how this movie is a big part of the journey of DreamWorks itself," Katzenberg said, adding: "The first film was made in Los Angeles and dubbed from English into Chinese. We were thrilled that it was embraced by the Chinese people ... but the third film is a truly Chinese movie on every level."

Kung Fu Panda 3 will be released in both English and Mandarin-language versions. Katzenberg said a Chinese team was consulted at each stage of the pic's production, ensuring that the Mandarin-language script's humor and slang were precisely calibrated to local sensibilities.

"This is the most technologically advanced film in the history of our studio," he said. "Never before has a film been animated in two languages," he added, explaining that not just the character's mouths but also their body language and facial expressions were created separately for the English and Mandarin-language versions of the film.

Oriental DreamWorks vp Kitty Xu later took the stage, saying, "We are confident that Kung Fu Panda 3 will surpass Monster Hunt to become the highest-grossing Chinese film ever."

She then launched into a detailed overview of the exhaustive range of Chinese products that Oriental DreamWorks has developed for Kung Fu Panda 3's rollout, spanning toys, house wears, footwear, jewelry, apparel, electronics and much more.

As is customary at industry conventions nowadays, at least a third of the assembled guests were looking down and thumbing smartphones. This time, however, many may have been placing merchandise orders on Mtime PRO.

[GeneChing]

Wanda now owns Legendary and AMC. Fascinating.


Tue Jan 12, 2016 11:22am EST Related: ENTERTAINMENT, DEALS, CHINA
Wanda goes to Hollywood: China tycoon's firm buys film studio Legendary for $3.5 billion (http://www.reuters.com/article/2016/01/12/us-china-wanda-cinema-m-a-idUSKCN0UQ08F20160112?utm_source=applenews)
BEIJING | BY SHU ZHANG AND MATTHEW MILLER

Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group has bought U.S. film studio Legendary Entertainment for about $3.5 billion, turning its chairman into a Hollywood movie mogul as China's richest man steps up a drive to diversify his business empire overseas.

At a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday, Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin said he plans to package Legendary, behind hits like "Jurassic World", with existing movie production assets in China and sell shares in the merged operation in an initial public offering (IPO).

The move makes Wanda the first Chinese firm to own a major Hollywood studio - a sign of the country's growing power in the global movie world, industry watchers said.

The executive gave no further details on the IPO plan, but said was acquiring Legendary Entertainment for both intellectual property reasons and the studio's movies. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this month a deal to secure a majority stake in Legendary had been agreed.

"Wanda Cinema already has made tremendous development in China, but it isn't enough," said Wang, whose personal wealth is estimated by Forbes magazine to be about $27 billion. "Movies are global, and our company certainly wants to add our voice to the world film market."

The deal is Wanda's biggest overseas acquisition ever and comes as Wang accelerates a drive to diversify a giant with 2015 revenue of $44 billion away from its core, but slowing domestic property operations. With deals to buy into everything from financial services to Spanish soccer club Atletico Madrid, Wanda said on Monday revenue rose 19 percent last year.

Under the deal announced on Tuesday, Wanda said it will buy an unspecified majority stake in Legendary. As part of the transaction, Legendary's founder and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Tull will continue to head up the movie maker.

Founded in Dalian, a city on China's northeast coast, and now based in Beijing, Wanda is already the world's biggest movie theater operator, having bought AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc, North America's second-largest cinema chain, for $2.6 billion in 2012. It also owns Australian movie theater company Hoyt's Group, and Wanda Cinema Line Corp, the group's domestically listed firm, is the biggest theater operator in China.

"The deal reflects the emergence of China as the next generation of Hollywood investors and represents a shift from Japan," said Dan Clivner, co-managing partner and media M&A attorney at Sidley Austin in Los Angeles.

Wang said that the Legendary's intellectual property - with prospects for movie tie-in promotions - would add value to its motion picture and television production business. That would lead to greater opportunities for joint production, he said, while bolstering its tourism and cultural businesses also.

China's booming movie industry, fueled by the country's growing urban middle class, saw box office revenue increase 49 percent last year and exceeded 40 billion yuan ($6.1 billion) for the first time, according to data from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

In 2013, Wang, flanked by Hollywood A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman, broke ground on a 50 billion yuan "motion-picture city" project in the eastern city of Qingdao, demonstrating his ambition to build China's own version of Hollywood.

Attending Tuesday's Beijing news conference, Legendary's Tull told reporters that he would continue to run daily operations, and that Wang had been "insistent we run operations and continue to run things the way we always have."

Founded in 2000, Legendary has made hits such as "The Dark Knight" and "Man of Steel", as well as "The Hangover" film franchise.

Legendary generally provides half the financing for movies whose budgets can run up to $200 million or more. It also has an agreement with China Film Co, the largest and most influential film company in China, to co-produce movies.

Both Wang and Tull dismissed concerns that Wanda's investment would lead to censorship or alter the content of its motion pictures.

"I'm a businessman," said Wang. "I buy things to make money, so I don't really think about government priorities. My main consideration is commercial interest."

Tull said that Legendary had already built up a brand in China with its blockbusters and wasn't looking to change its content.

"Frankly, we make movies that we want to see and thankfully they work here in China."

(Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

http://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20160112&t=2&i=1108814844&w=644&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&sq=&r=LYNXNPEC0B05W
Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, gestures as he speaks ahead of a signing ceremony with Spanish soccer champions Atletico Madrid in Beijing, January 21, 2015.
REUTERS/JASON LEE

[GeneChing]

https://thenanfang.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/monster-hunt-01.jpg
China Artificially Inflating Box Office Figures, But Vows a Crackdown (https://thenanfang.com/china-to-crackdown-on-box-office-fraud/)
Last year, China broke box office records... or did it?
Charles Liu, January 22, 2016 11:37am

The State Committee on Films and Broadcast Media (formerly known as SARFT) has announced a campaign to crack down on Chinese box office fraud. The plan will subject film distributors and cinemas to provincial and national inspections in order to verify their figures.

Film bureau head Zhang Hongsen said box office cheating twists the market and damages both the producers and cinemas, especially for producers since their profits rely heavily on the box office. Artificially inflated figures help attract larger audiences, act as leverage when courting investors for future projects and can even increase the stock prices of movie production companies.

Authorities have long since believed that inflated box office receipts are common in China, however suspicions were further raised upon review of the 2015 box office numbers. Over the course of last year, Chinese films took in 44 billion yuan ($6.7 billion), an astonishing 49 percent increase from the year before.

Guangzhou Daily reported last October that producers for the Chinese hit film, Lost in Hong Kong, held “phantom screenings” late at night in which no audience members were present as a way to increase the film’s box office. Reports also claim that Edko Film, producer of Monster Hunt, China’s highest grossing domestic film of all-time, scheduled screenings of the movie some 15 minutes apart in theaters it owned or had a stake in as a way to artificially inflate the movie’s earnings. This helped the film push its earning ahead of Hollywood blockbuster, Furious 7.

The Hollywood Reporter has alleged that Communist Party officials were responsible for artificially inflating the box office last month for the nationalist film, The Hundred Regiments Offensive, at the expense of Hollywood blockbuster Terminator: Genysis, which is said to have lost around $11 million as a result.

Perhaps most ****ing, an Enlight Pictures executive was reported by China Daily to have posted on Weibo that it was not to blame for box office tampering, because everyone was doing it. The post has since been deleted.

Source: China Daily, China Daily, China Daily, Weibo, The Epoch Times, The Guardian
Photos: The Telegraph


More on Monster Hunt (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68878-Monster-Hunt), which opens in U.S. theaters today. I couldn't find a review on Lost in Hong Kong, but I think I posted one on Lost in Thailand here somewhere. :confused:

[GeneChing]

Good for Dolby. For years, one of my biggest complaints about China was that they had terrible sound systems. That was more with festivals and concerts as I don't recall ever seeing a movie in a theater there - at least not a normal one. I saw some films at Shaolin, but that was quite different. There was a great 360 degree theater there once, and then there was the rollercoaster simulator, plus I saw a few movies shown to the wushuguan kids shown on hung blankets in the training fields at night.


Dolby Plans 100 Theaters In China, Courtesy Of Wanda Cinemas (http://deadline.com/2016/01/dolby-plans-100-theaters-in-china-courtesy-of-wanda-cinemas-1201691364/)
by Anita Busch
January 27, 2016 9:02am

https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/wanda-cinema.jpg?w=446&h=299&crop=1
Ed Jones/AFP/GettyImages

https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/dolby-cinema.jpg?w=239&h=239

The exhibition arm of Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group, the Wanda Cinema Line, has opened the door for San Francisco-based Dolby Laboratories to establish their system into 100 theaters over the next five years with the first location scheduled to open this spring. The theaters will be equipped with both what the company calls Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos which combines both image and sound technologies. By doing this, Wanda becomes the first cinema chain in China to do so. For Dolby, it continues their goal of global expansion.

RelatedChina's Largest Theater Group Enters Movie Merchandising Market
In just over a year, the company already has commitments to install their equipment in about 200 theaters overseas. Most recently, it opened two theaters with the digital equipment installed in The Netherlands and another in Spain. There are plans to open six locations via Cineplexx in Austria. In the states, AMC (owned by Wanda) said it will add 50 more Dolby Cinemas (as they are known) by year’s end with a total of 100 by 2024.

“We are thrilled to become the first cinema chain to bring the Dolby Cinema premium experience to moviegoers in China,” said John Zeng, President, Wanda Cinema Line in making the announcement. “I believe that Dolby Cinema, with its award-winning sound and imaging technologies and inspired design, will provide Wanda Cinema patrons a moviegoing experience that is unlike any other in China.”

“Dolby’s collaboration with Wanda Cinema Line marks a significant step in delivering the next-generation cinema experience on a global scale,” said Kevin Yeaman, President and CEO, Dolby Laboratories.

[GeneChing]

China's Wanda Deal for Legendary Gets U.S. Regulatory Approval (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wanda-legendary-deal-us-approval-861270)

http://cdn5.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/675x380/2012/06/wang_a.jpg
Wanda chairman Wang Jianlin

by Patrick Brzeski 2/2/2016 2:58am PST

Last month, the Chinese conglomorate announced plans to acquire the U.S. co-producer of 'Godzilla' and 'Jurassic World' for $3.5 billion, which would be the largest Chinese buyout of a U.S. media company ever.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has given Chinese real estate and investment conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group the green light to go forward with its $3.5 billion acquisition of Thomas Tull's Legendary Entertainment.

The Chinese buyout of the U.S. film studio was announced by the two partners in January.

“It is quite a feat for an acquisition to be approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce in such a short time,” Wanda said in a statement on Tuesday. “This reflects the positive attitude that the U.S. government has towards Sino-U.S. cultural exchange."

The Legendary deal is Wanda's latest step toward its goal of becoming a global, vertically integrated film company. The Chinese conglomerate has been pushing to diversify from its core real estate business since August 2012, when it spent $2.6 billion to acquire AMC Entertainment, North America's second-largest cinema chain. Last year, Wanda paid more than $600 million for Hoyts, Australia’s second-largest multiplex group. Wanda also owns China's largest domestic exhibition circuit, Wanda Cinema Line, which has a market cap of $18.5 billion.

According to Wanda, once the Legendary deal goes through, it will be the highest-revenue-generating film company in the world (the Chinese giant is also rumored to be shopping for a pan-European movie theater network).

The Wanda-Legendary deal faces one final regulatory hurdle: approval by China's National Development and Reform Commission and the country's Ministry of Commerce. The agreement isn't expected to encounter any difficulty in receiving swift passage on the Chinese side, however, given the way the Chinese government has been supporting leading local businesses' efforts to go global.

Wanda's founder and chairman, Wang Jianlin, is one of China's wealthiest individuals, with a net worth estimated at $32.7 billion by Forbes.

The big budget, spectacle-heavy pictures Legendary specializes in have had a strong track record in China. Many of the titles the studio has co-produced — such as Godzilla, Inception, Jurassic World and Pacific Rim — have done particularly big business in the CGI-loving Chinese market, which is expected to surpass North America as the world's most valuable theatrical territory sometime next year.

At least this justifies our Pacific Rim (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1100) coverage a little more. ;)

[GeneChing]

China Box Office: Revenue Soars 47 Percent in Normally Quiet January (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-revenue-soars-861589)

http://cdn5.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/675x380/2016/01/screen_shot_2016-01-05_at_4.07.56_pm.png
'Detective Chinatown'
YouTube screengrab

by Patrick Brzeski 2/3/2016 7:31pm PST

The market share for Hollywood movies, however, slipped to 29 percent for the first month of 2016.

While China's stock markets recently gave economists plenty of cause for concern, the country's movie box office showed no signs of slowing its historic expansion in the first month of 2016.

Box office revenue reached $583.4 million (3.839 billion yuan) in January, usually a relatively slow month for movie-going in the country. The haul represents a 47.2 percent increase over January 2015. The performance is roughly in line with the astonishing 48.7 percent full-year growth rate the Chinese theatrical market achieved in 2015 (the January growth figures were released by Beijing-based box office monitor, Ent Group).

The overall box office expansion means that Hollywood studios are making more money from China than ever, but their market share in the country has been on the wane — in 2015, Hollywood's share fell to 38.4 percent from 45.5 percent in 2014. China's regulators continue to employ selective scheduling to promote local fare. The Chinese film industry's output is becoming more diverse and professionally polished, too.

In January, that trend continued, with Hollywood titles representing approximately 29 percent, or $169.2 million, of the month's overall total (British movies took a little over 4 percent, thanks to Sherlock: The Abominable Bride's $24.4 million run).

The big Hollywood entry of the month was Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which opened in China Jan. 9. Through Tuesday, Force Awakens had grossed $123 million, a little less than the $123.6 million earned to date by Detective Chinatown, a local action-comedy set in Thailand and produced by Wanda Media and Youku Tudou's Heyi Pictures. Force Awakens edged out Detective Chinatown as the highest-grossing movie of January, since the Chinese title opened on Dec. 31.

Other Western movies in the market for the first month of January were Vin Diesel's The Last Witch Hunter ($25.6 million), The Walk ($12.6 million), Solace ($5.3 million) and Alvin and the Chipmunks 4 ($5.7 million).

In February, Chinese films are expected to dominate more decisively, as local regulators institute a blackout period on foreign movie imports during the Chinese New Year holidays, spanning the first half of the month. Much anticipated Chinese titles — including Stephen Chow's Mermaid and From Vegas to Macau 2, starring Chow Yun-fat — are forecasted to make hay over the holidays.

Hollywood's big hope for February is Oriental DreamWork's Kung Fu Panda 3, which was allowed to open during the lucrative festive season thanks to its status as a co-production with China Film Group, and ODW's joint venture investment from China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group. The threequel opened in China on Jan. 29, earning a strong $73.6 million through Tuesday after scoring the largest debut of all time in China for an animated film. Since it's an official Chinese co-production, regulators count KFP3's grosses on the Chinese side of the revenue share equation.

The growth of China's movie industry has been fueled by the steady emergence of a modern consumerist lifestyle across the country's 1.3 billion population, and the concomitant expansion of movie exhibition infrastructure. In 2014, 8,035 movie screens were installed in China — a construction rate of 22 screens per day.

At the end of 2015, China's screen count sat at 31,627, according to state sources. North America is estimated to have about 39,000 movie screens. If the current rate of growth holds up, China will surpass North America as the world's largest movie market in early 2017.

This is sooner than earlier predictions. If this happens, I'll have to expand my Chollywood column in Kung Fu Tai Chi (http://www.martialartsmart.com/19341.html)again.

[GeneChing]

China Box Office Breaks World Record With $548M in One Week (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-breaks-world-865319)
4:07 AM PST 2/15/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

http://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/02/themonkeyking23filmko_-h_2016.jpg
"The Monkey King 2"
Courtesy Filmko Pictures Co., Ltd

The seven-day haul is more than the Chinese box office generated for the entire year a decade ago.

China's movie box office has smashed the world's seven-day revenue record for a single territory, racking up an astonishing $548 million in ticket sales over the Chinese New Year's holiday period, plus Valentine's Day on Sunday.

That eclipses the record set in North America six weeks ago, when Star Wars: The Force Awakens lifted the territory to $529.6 million from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1.

The record one-week haul also is considerably more than the Chinese box office generated for the entire year just one decade ago. In 2006, China's total box office was approximately $327.5 million.

Hong Kong hitmaker Stephen Chow's latest comedy Mermaid helped fuel the historic total, grossing $275.1 million for the week, according to data from Beijing-based box office monitor Ent Group.

Wong Jing and Andrew Lau's From Vegas to Macau III, starring Chow Yun Fat, came in second, pulling in $119.6 million in seven days. Fantasy blockbuster sequel The Monkey King 2, starring Aaron Kwok and Gong Li, also raced past the $100 million mark, earning $116.2 million.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?64710-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens)
Mermaid (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69162-The-Mermaid)
The Monkey King 2 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?67299-Monkey-King-2)

[GeneChing]

The Chinese yuan may be worrying Wall Street, but Hollywood is betting on China.


Universal Finalizes $500M Slate Deal With China's Perfect World (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/universal-finalizes-500m-slate-deal-866613)
6:26 AM PST 2/17/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

http://cdn2.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2014/11/jeff_shell_h.jpg
Jeff Shell, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group
Alex J. Berliner

The partnership that begins in 2016 will last five years or cover the co-financing of 50 films, making the Chinese video game and TV production company a major player in global entertainment.

Universal Pictures and Chinese multi-media company Perfect World Pictures have entered into multi-year financing agreement, which will cover films across the entire Universal slate.

The partnership will begin in 2016 and last five years or cover the co-financing of 50 films, making the Chinese video game and TV production company a major investor in one of Hollywood's hottest studios. Thanks to three hits (Jurassic World, Furious 7 and Minions) that made more than $1 billion at the box office, Universal had its most profitable year ever in 2015.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but sources close to the deal told The Hollywood Reporter in January that Perfect World would be making an investment of $500 million in Universal's slate, with the financing split evenly between debt and equity contributions. Perfect World is understood to be getting a 25 percent share of most, but not all, of the films released by Universal. Specific film titles included in the deal will be announced at a later date, the partners said in a statement Wednesday.

The agreement will not alter Legendary Entertainment's financing of select Universal titles, the two companies added. In another instance of China's growing market sway in Hollywood, Legendary was acquired by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group for $3.5 billion in December.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Perfect World and appreciate the confidence it has in our film slates going forward after a record-breaking 2015,” said Jeff Shell, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. “With Perfect World’s history of success in the Chinese market, we look forward to exploring other opportunities to work together.”

Although it's still a relatively new name to Hollywood, Perfect World has been active in film distribution, as well as Chinese TV production. For example, it was the Chinese co-distributor on Lionsgate's Divergent, Insurgent and Ender’s Game, as well as Universal's Rush. It also served as a producer-distributor on romantic comedy Sophie’s Revenge (2009), with Zhang Ziyi and Fan Bingbing. Perfect World Pictures currently has a market capitalization of $1.9 billion (12.5 billion Chinese yuan).

Michael Chi, chairman of Perfect World, added: “Building out our film business and expanding into international markets are two of the most important initiatives for Perfect World. Universal has had a stellar last few years, and with a slate that boasts many titles that we know will thrive in the marketplace, we are confident our partnership with them is a solid step in the right direction. Our partnership with Universal is not just about making movies together, but also about the opportunities that exist in the synergy across our multiple business lines to maximize strategic value for all involved.”

Perfect World was represented by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. Universal Pictures was advised on the transaction by The Raine Group and represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

[GeneChing]

...but still relevant here. Sorry the table format got all scrunched.


Chinese Hits Miss Out on the Global Box Office

http://i1.wp.com/chinafilminsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/GoodbyeMrLoser.jpg?resize=1024%2C511
“Goodbye Mr. Loser” (Courtesy of China Lion)

If he’d had the time after meeting American captains of industry in Seattle and Barack Obama at the White House, Chinese President Xi Jinping might have ducked out at the close of his United Nations appearance and into a New York movie theater to check on how China’s other soft power ambassadors—its movies, not its pandas—are playing to American audiences.

Struggling to get off the ground, as it turns out.

Though Hollywood studio films are making greater returns than ever at China’s box office—despite imports being limited to 34 each year—market forces pigeonhole screenings of Chinese-language films from the People’s Republic into a small but growing group of U.S. theaters that dedicate a few screens to serving an audience made up almost exclusively of diaspora Chinese and Chinese students studying abroad.

The number of Chinese Americans living in the U.S. was 3.9 million in 2014, according to The United States Census Bureau, up 4.23 percent from a year earlier and up 23 percent from 2009. Then there were roughly 300,000 students from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan studying in America in 2014, many of whom, at the graduate and post-graduate level, bring their spouses along with them.

A self-proclaimed movie fan whose opening remarks last month in Washington State twice nodded to Hollywood’s global influence—mentioning both Sleepless in Seattle and House of Cards—Xi didn’t go to see director Xu Zheng’s buddy comedy Lost in Hong Kong, which was released in the U.S. on September 25 in the midst of the Chinese leader’s state visit. In New York City, the film screened at the AMC Empire 25 in Times Square, the east coast flagship of a theater chain now owned by China’s richest man.

Lost in Hong Kong, distributed in the United States by Plano, Texas-based Well Go USA Entertainment, thus far has pulled in about $1.3 million in U.S. ticket sales at 34 screens nationwide and has cracked the top ten of the most commercially successful Chinese-language films to play in American cinemas [see Table I]. Yet its success is dwarfed by, for example, the tenth most-successful Hollywood film in China just this year: Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, which has raked in $137 million for its co-producers, Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, and the China Movie Channel, a unit of state-run broadcaster China Central Television.

TABLE I: MOVIEGOING IN THE U.S. AND CHINA IN 2014

SCREENS POPULATION BOX OFFICE % CHANGE
USA 39,956 319 million $10.3 billion -5.2
CHINA 23,592 1.3 billion $4.82 billion +36
Source: Artisan Gateway

For all the hype about boom times in China’s movie marketplace—the box office in the first half of this year soared nearly 50 percent over the first six months of 2014—China can’t seem to land a single hit in what is still the largest theatergoing movie market in the world: the U.S. of A.

Chinese films weren’t always so little seen in America. Think back to directors Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou. The first, an American from Taiwan, still holds the record as the top-grossing foreign-language film of all time. His Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon grossed $128 million in 2000, spawning a decade of lesser imitators, and dwarfing the record holder up to that point, the 1997 Italian film Life is Beautiful, which still holds second place today with only $58 million. The second highest-grossing Chinese language film of all time in the U.S. is Zhang’s Hero, which made $54 million in 2004, a few years after China entered the World Trade Organization and Hollywood set its sights on China in earnest [see Table II].

TABLE II: TEN HIGHEST-GROSSING CHINESE-LANGUAGE FILMS IN THE U.S.

FILM RELEASE DIRECTOR ORIGIN BOX OFFICE
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON 2000 Ang Lee Taiwan $128,000,000
HERO 2002 Zhang Yimou China $53,710,019
FEARLESS 2006 Ronny Yu China, Hong Kong $24,623,719
KUNG FU HUSTLE 2004 Stephen Chow Hong Kong $17,104,669
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS 2004 Zhang Yimou China $11,041,228
FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE 1993 Chen Kaige China $5,216,888
LUST, CAUTION 2007 Ang Lee USA, China, Taiwan $4,602,512
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE 2001 Wong Kar Wai Hong Kong $2,734,044
RAISE THE RED LANTERN 1992 Zhang Yimou China $2,603,061
LOST IN HONG KONG 2015 Xu Zheng China $1,302,281
Source: Box Office Mojo

It’s not that today’s Chinese filmmakers aren’t getting lots of attention and winning prizes at international film festivals; or that they’re not making mainstream movies that blow up big at home; or that Chinese audiences don’t know what they want—they are and they do. Consider recent high praise for Jia Zhangke at Cannes and the New York Film Festival for Mountains May Depart and, before that, A Touch of Sin, and the glowing reviews for Zhang Yimou’s latest picture, Coming Home. On the commercial front, Goodbye, Mr. Loser, the comedy currently at the top of the box office in China, grossed $189 million within the first three weeks of opening domestically on September 30.

In the United States, Goodbye, Mr. Loser, the first film from directors Yan Fei and Peng Damo, sold out five of the 14 screens on its October 9 opening night at AMC’s west coast flagship in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park, a Chinese enclave. It has since grossed $1.14 million in the U.S. and opened in limited release in the U.K. on October 23. The film is distributed outside China by China Lion, a Beijing- and Los Angeles-based company with four employees founded and majority owned by Jiang Yanming, founder of Technicolor Beijing, with investment from independent Chinese film companies Huayi Bros. and the Bona Film Group. China Lion’s U.K. release of Goodbye Mr. Loser is its first foray into Europe in three years and comes right on the heels of Xi Jinping’s state visit there.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ntLOGsggI

It may be a while before mainstream U.S. moviegoers on the coasts (let alone middle America, or the average Briton) flock to see films in Chinese with English subtitles, even if Chinese studios increasingly approximate slick Hollywood production values and fast-paced storytelling.

“When non-Chinese see Chinese films, they want something they can’t easily see in their home countries. Not, say, a romantic comedy, of which there’s an ample supply in the American marketplace,” said Janet Yang, a Los Angeles-based veteran go-between in the rising Pacific Rim movie trade and a producer of the modern urban fish-out-of-water comedy Shanghai Calling, a bilingual film that Yang said was “marginalized” by the U.S. market. “When audiences can’t entirely relate to the characters, what’s the point?”

Much as most of the 1,200 features produced in Bollywood in India last year exist in a bubble of domestic isolation, reaching out to the world mostly to concentrated diaspora communities, the audience for Chinese movies seems destined for now to remain disproportionately small considering the size of the country’s population, its people’s rich storytelling history, and China’s officially stated global cultural and soft power ambitions.

Some Chinese-language films are less about the language and more about the action, as Well Go USA’s success with the Yip Man franchise starring Donnie Yen attests. Though the films had modest runs in U.S. theaters, they have proven to have staying power in the home entertainment arena, according to Jason Pfardrescher, senior vice president of theatrical and digital distribution for Well Go USA.

“Our focus is to bring over films that appeal to the Chinese community and also provide an opportunity to go wider and speak to the African-American community, the Hispanic community and the action junkies who love to consume action films,” Pfardrescher said.

And those fans increasingly are found in middle America, around college campuses with large numbers of Chinese students, said China Lion’s chief operating officer Robert Lundberg, who grew up in one such college town, where he now sends his mom to check on the local Chinese-language releases for him.

“Lansing is where Michigan State University is and it’s easily one of our top ten locations. There’s a sliver of a local first-language-Chinese speaking population, and then the bigger thing is a very curious and interested Western audience who are beginning to say ‘Hey! What’s going on? We should know more about China and this is a great way to figure it out,'” said Lundberg.

Still, Hollywood producer Yang, who grew up in New York as the daughter of Chinese immigrants, says the cultural divide in the realm of the movies is growing in China, not shrinking, meaning it may be some time before movies from the People’s Republic have legs overseas.

“The tastes of Chinese in third- or fourth-tier cities in China is even more different from that of the West,” Yang said. “So there’s an increasing divergence. American films will still play in China because they’re fresh, but there’s obviously something else the Chinese audience craves, something closer to home.”

By Jonathan Landreth|October 26th, 2015

I did start a thread on Goodbye Mr Loser (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69015-Goodbye-Mr-Loser-%26%2322799%3B%26%2327931%3B%26%2329305%3B%26%2329 033%3B%26%2324817%3B).

[GeneChing]

China’s Film Industry: A Blockbuster In The Making (http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/02/chinas-film-industry/?all=1)
By Knowledge@Wharton on February 17, 2016 9:28 pm in Business

While stories about China’s economy centers on a slowdown, China’s passion for movies, at home and abroad, follows a much more optimistic plotline. Its growth has been phenomenal, outperforming China’s traditional industries, such as manufacturing. Many experts believe China is on track to have the largest film audience in the world –- and by one estimate as early as 2020.

“The entertainment industry is a sunrise industry in China, while the steel industry is a sunset industry. The growth potential for the entertainment industry is still huge, despite a high growth rate of 17% [per year] in the past five years,” says Z. John Zhang, Wharton marketing professor. Already, the media and entertainment industry is worth $180 billion in China, he adds, and the number is only expected to get larger.

“Many sectors of the Chinese entertainment industry are growing well into double digits on an annualized basis, despite the slowdown in the overall economy. China’s steel industry by contrast is operating at only 70% utilization, with roughly 400 million tons of excess capacity. Neither domestic nor international demand will fill that gap,” says Gordon Orr, senior advisor to McKinsey and Co. who is projecting that China’s film audience size will exceed that of the U.S. in four years.

Currently, China’s movie ticket sales is second only to the U.S. In 2015, box office revenue hit a record $6.8 billion, up 49% from the previous year, according to China’s regulator, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. That’s up from $1.51 billion a mere five years ago. North America also saw a record in 2015, hitting an estimated $11 billion for the first time even though it grew at a much slower rate of 7% year-over-year, reported media measurement and research firm Rentrak.

Moreover, China is expected to see a movie cross the $500 million threshold domestically in 2016, according to a McKinsey report. Some Chinese movies have already come close: Monster Hunt grossed $380 million to date while Lost in Hong Kong garnered more than $250 million. The record for an American film, Avatar, was $760 million on U.S. screens.

It wasn’t always this way. From 1979 to the early 1990s, Chinese movies were mainly propaganda films approved by the Communist government, according to an October 2015 report by the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission. As a result, the film market dwindled, with attendance falling by 79% from 1982 to 1991. To revive its movie business, China brought in its first foreign film in 1994 — Warner Bros.’ The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. The Chinese began importing more American films and today allows an annual quota of 34 a year.

Catalysts for Box Office Growth

At four times the size of the U.S., China’s population makes it the golden goose of the film industry. “China’s audience will one day be bigger than the U.S.,” predicts Qiaowei Shen, Wharton marketing professor. Moreover, the average Chinese citizen goes to the movies less than once a year while the average American goes almost four times a year. “There’s huge potential [for growth] if the average Chinese person [just] goes to the movies two times a year, then box office receipts will increase by two times,” she notes.

“Many sectors of the Chinese entertainment industry are growing well into double digits on an annualized basis, despite the slowdown in the overall economy. –Gordon Orr

Movies also are underpenetrated in China. Extending movie runs to second-, third- and fourth-tier cities should further propel box office receipts. “Big cities are very mature already, says Shen. “Now those smaller cities are becoming very important. [Studios are increasingly] marketing in those small cities. A few years ago, they would concentrate in Shanghai and Beijing,” Shen adds. Now they bring the movie stars to do promotional appearances in more than 20 cities, not just in major urban centers.

The infrastructure for movie-going is also on the rise. Adding movie screens and building cinemas, especially in the smaller cities, will spur growth of the entertainment industry in China, adds Shen. When a new shopping mall is built in China, it’s usually anchored by a theater.

China is building at a rapid rate of 15 new movie screens daily in new and existing cinemas, up from more than three screens a day in 2012, according to the U.S. commission’s report. China currently has 31,627 screens while North America has approximately 39,000 screens, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Orr predicts that the addition of screens will lead to growth of more than 20% in China’s box office in 2016. Bloomberg reports that China is expected to have 53,000 screens by 2017.

Rising disposable incomes among the growing ranks of the Chinese middle class also boosts the entertainment industry. According to EY, the disposable income per person jumped nearly five-fold to $3,440 from 2000 to 2011. Orr further adds, “The close to 50% year-on-year growth in the Chinese movie box office in 2015, continuing in 2016, indicates how, if you provide a higher quality service, the Chinese middle class will buy more of the service.”

As such, Hollywood studios with an eye to global box office gold know they cannot ignore the Chinese market — and have devised ways to get around the annual quotas set by the government. “There is not a big movie studio in the world that is not thinking about how to crack the China market from the start of making its movies,” says Zhang.

China Eyes Hollywood

China is also eyeing Hollywood to bolster its entertainment holdings and forge creative collaborations. “Many Chinese entertainment companies have a lot of capital; they may feel short of opportunities to deploy this capital in China and see easier opportunities to do so internationally,” notes Orr.

But China looks beyond financial reasons in inking deals. “There’s a concerted effort in China to move into the global entertainment and media industry to build China’s soft power,” adds Zhang. The cultural sector is one of the pillars of China’s Five-Year Plan, meaning the government makes an effort to support Chinese investment in entertainment. “Aside from being good business, it is a way to protect China’s influence in the world.”

“There’s a concerted effort in China to move into the global entertainment and media industry to build China’s soft power.” –Z. John Zhang

Recently, the Dalian Wanda Group, a Chinese conglomerate led by China’s richest man Wang Jianlan, paid $3.5 billion for Legendary Entertainment, a major Hollywood studio responsible for the Batman and Jurassic World franchises. It is the first Chinese company to buy a big U.S. studio; it is also Wanda’s largest foreign acquisition. According to Variety, Wang hasn’t ruled out more forays into entertainment, saying “we want to have a bigger position in the global movie industry.”

Wanda, the largest commercial real-estate developer in China, has become the largest movie theater operator in the world after acquiring AMC Entertainment Holdings in 2012 for $2.6 billion. Orr adds, “Chinese business leaders recognize that many elements of the entertainment business are fully global and if they are to maximize their revenues they need to be able to seamlessly access global markets. Making international acquisitions can accelerate their ability to do so.”

Wang is also developing one of the world’s largest movie-production facilities in Qingdao, China, which includes 30 soundstages, a permanent set featuring a New York City street, as well as a theme park and resort hotel to accommodate families and staff of cast and crew. The public announcement of the studio included appearances from actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman as well as movie studio executive Harvey Weinstein.

Zhang believes more deals will come. Orr concurs: “Early Chinese moves into investing in foreign entertainment are seen to be successful in China, encouraging more to follow.”

continued next post

[GeneChing]

Getting Around the Film Quota

Hollywood can enter the Chinese market in three ways: through revenue-sharing films, flat-fee movies and co-producing a movie with a Chinese company. The quota of 34 films applies to revenue-sharing films, which lets foreign studios take 25% of the box office receipts or about half the norm for other parts of the world. Flat-fee films, which have a different quota, are not a popular vehicle because Hollywood sells movies for a fraction of their worth, according to the U.S. commission’s report. With co-productions, Hollywood can bypass quotas and receive about half of ticket sales.

“Now those smaller cities are becoming very important [to movie openings]. … A few years ago, they would concentrate in Shanghai and Beijing.” –Qiaowei Shen

Once the Chinese government gains more confidence that Chinese films can compete with Hollywood imports, the 34-film quota might increase, Shen says. “Competition doesn’t kill local movies,” she asserts. “They don’t need protection.” Last year, most of the top 10 films in China were local ones. Hollywood movies grossed 38% of box office receipts in China, a decrease from 46% the previous year.

Meanwhile, Hollywood is actively co-producing movies to get around the restrictions. Legendary is already producing The Great Wall, starring Matt Damon and Andy Lau fending off aliens bent on invading China. Zhang Yimou is directing the $150 million English-language project, the largest co-production between the U.S. and China, due out in late 2016.

Another big deal involves Lionsgate, makers of the Hunger Games franchise, partnering with Hunan TV, the second-biggest broadcaster in China. The $1.5 billion deal with will see the Chinese firm paying 25% of production costs of at least 50 Lionsgate films in the next three years in exchange for 25% of all returns.

Even Jack Ma, executive chairman and founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, is getting into the game. He was an investor in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. He also poured $4.8 million into a video platform since online movies are also seeing massive growth, according to a McKinsey report.

Meanwhile, Huayi Bothers Media will co-produce 18 films with STX Entertainment, founded in 2014 by Hollywood veteran Robert Simonds. Disney has a deal with the Shanghai Media Group and Warner Bros. is working with China Media Capital, a private equity firm. China Film Group, a state-run production company that works with imported films, has invested in Hollywood films like Furious 7, which broke box-office records in China.

DreamWorks believed in the co-production strategy early on. In 2012, CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg saw the Chinese market’s potential and partnered with Chinese state-owned businesses to open Oriental DreamWorks in Shanghai. This co-owned studio is behind the third sequel to the hit Kung Fu Panda animated film. With Kung Fu Panda 3 considered a local Chinese film, it was allowed to be screened during the popular Chinese New Year holiday period. To qualify as a local film, one-third of the production must be shot in China and one-third of the lead actors must be Chinese.

In a first, the movie’s English and Mandarin Chinese versions were released simultaneously in the U.S. and China. American actor Jack Black played the English-speaking panda and Chinese actor Jackie Chan played his Chinese counterpart. It was a winning strategy. In January, Kung Fu Panda 3 opened to a smashing $57 million first box office weekend in China — a record for an animation there — beating the U.S. opening by $16 million. “Certainly, I believe we will see a considerable number of animated movies released in this fashion,” says Orr.

Zhang notes that “Hollywood looks for [opportunities to make] money and China looks for influence and soft power.” But whatever intentions the government has, the Chinese studio’s priority is the box office. “Almost all the outbound investment by China’s entertainment industry has been made by very successful private-sector entrepreneurs. While they are very aware of the ambitions of the Chinese government, they are absolutely looking to make investments that will earn an attractive return for them,” Orr adds

Interestingly, American movies are sometimes made with the Chinese audience mind, knowing they’ll be subject to Chinese government censors. That leads to strategic creative picks. “You will not see a Chinese communist as a villain in a Hollywood big budget movie anytime soon,” says Zhang.

A decent encapsulation of Chollywood trends. No one is using the term 'Chollywood' anymore, but I have yet to see a better one replace it.

[GeneChing]

This article hinges on CTHD (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?5071-Crouching-Tiger-Hidden-Dragon), which wasn't really a PRC film. It was more Taiwanese.


Oscars 2016: China Wants To Top The Box Office, But Oscar Nominations, Not So Much (http://www.ibtimes.com/oscars-2016-china-wants-top-box-office-oscar-nominations-not-so-much-2316528)
BY MATT PRESSBERG @MATTPRESSBERG ON 02/21/16 AT 6:10 PM

http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/lg/public/2016/02/21/ang-lee.jpg
“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” director Ang Lee holds his Oscar for best foreign-language film during the Academy Awards in Los Angeles in 2001.
PHOTO: HECTOR MATA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

LOS ANGELES — Chinese film kingpins want to make English-language movies that promote Chinese values worldwide. But impressing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apparently isn’t one of its goals.

Martial arts epic “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” won four Academy Awards in 2001, and was nominated for six more, including Best Picture. And as China is on track to become the world’s largest box-office market as soon as next year, it’s natural to expect the Chinese wave cresting over Hollywood to hit the Oscars sooner rather than later.

But repeating “Crouching Tiger’s” red-carpet success isn’t the blueprint Chinese studios and producers are following. Instead, they’re focused on English-language co-productions like animated comedy “Kung Fu Panda 3” and the recently pushed back to next year action-adventure “The Great Wall,” neither of which was made with the academy in mind.

Oscar nominees tend to be overrepresented by American or European historical dramas, which have little resonance in China, and movies that touch on contemporary political and social issues, which Chinese film censors have shown almost no interest in letting through. Also, movies with sexual themes, such as Oscar winner “Brokeback Mountain,” are generally a no-go in China, and not something its filmmakers would want to emulate.

And if that means Chinese-produced or co-produced movies walk away without many gold trophies, it may not matter much as long as they’re reeling in real gold at the ticket counter. With $128 million in receipts, “Crouching Tiger” is easily the highest-grossing foreign-language film of all time in the U.S. — by a cool $70 million. That reception from the masses seems to matter more to Chinese studios and production companies than the validation of academy voters, who have their own well-documented issues with recognizing films outside of their comfort zone.

There has been a flurry of activity over the past year, as Chinese movie companies have locked in co-production deals with Hollywood counterparts. The Chinese firms get financial exposure to a fully international slate of films, and the U.S. studios get coveted Chinese co-production status for some of their movies, allowing them to bypass China’s strict limits on the number — and timing — of foreign films it lets in.
Sky Moore, a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan and the lead attorney on a three-year, $375 million co-production deal between “Hunger Games” studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and China’s Hunan TV told International Business Times the “holy grail” is to develop English-language blockbusters that can travel worldwide and use the peerless soft power of cinema to promote Chinese culture. He fully expects those films to play it extremely safe on anything controversial, which may be perfect for international mass appeal — but anathema to Oscar voters.

“They’ll certainly stay away from politics,” he said.

That’s not to say any movie with a message is a nonstarter for Chinese producers. While the superhero film “Deadpool” overshadowed everything else this past weekend, the second-biggest movie worldwide was “Mei Ren Yu (The Mermaid),” which set a first-day record when it was released Feb. 8 and has since become the biggest-ever movie in China.

“Mermaid” is about a marine-life destroying real estate developer who falls in love with a mermaid sent to kill him. It has an unapologetic pro-environment message, which would probably be controversial in parts of the United States, but not to the Chinese censors. But most importantly, it sells. So while “Mermaid” might not get any Oscar love, that’s not what its producers care about. The movie opened Friday in the U.S. at 35 theaters and brought in $1 million, a sizable $29,000-per-theater average. To Chinese producers, that’s a brighter sign than a gold statuette.

http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?60650-Kung-Fu-Panda-3
Deadpool (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1282)
Mermaid (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69162-The-Mermaid)

[GeneChing]

I copied all the posts about Wanda into its own indie thread: Wanda & AMC (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69324-Wanda-amp-AMC). That'll make them redundant but there were 35 and I didn't feel like going through and sorting them out. From now on, I'll post Wanda news there.


China Could Beat Hollywood by 2017 (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-25/china-could-beat-hollywood-by-2017?bcomANews=true)
The country’s box-office sales are growing an average of 34 percent a year.
Anousha Sakoui Bloomberg Businessweek Reprints
February 24, 2016 — 5:00 PM PST

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Zhu Bajie, a half-man, half-pig character from the hit Chinese film The Monkey King 2. Source: China Lion Film Distribution

To celebrate the Lunar New Year, Fei Li did what tens of millions of other Chinese did: She went to the movies. The 29-year-old finance professional and six family members, from her 91-year-old grandmother to her 6-year-old niece, went to see The Mermaid at the Capital Cinema in Beijing’s Xicheng district. “We all love it,” says Li, who paid about 35 yuan ($5) to see the movie a second time.
Buoyed by holiday audiences, The Mermaid, a quirky comedy from director Stephen Chow about a mermaid who falls in love with a real estate tycoon she’s sent to assassinate, is the highest-grossing film of all time in China. It’s rung up more than $440 million in ticket sales since opening on Feb. 8, according to box-office researcher EntGroup, overtaking local hit Monster Hunt and Hollywood’s Furious 7.
“What we are finding is that the technical expertise is getting far better than it was, and the Chinese audience is responding,” says Marc Ganis, co-founder of Jiaflix Enterprises, which helps market and distribute films in China. “The Hollywood blockbusters were just so far superior, many Chinese would go and watch those and live with subtitles and voice-overs,” he says. “Now they don’t have to.”

http://assets.bwbx.io/images/itqW_5lvy4.k/v1/-1x-1.png

The latest box-office success signals a shift in the movie industry’s balance of power. Facing a quickly growing and maturing Chinese market—average growth in recent years has been 34 percent—Hollywood is looking to deepen its relationship with China in mutually beneficial ways.
Chinese moviegoers “now have big-budget, action-packed domestic films that can compete with Hollywood in terms of both special effects and far more interesting stories for the local populace,” says Jonathan Papish, an analyst with researcher BoxOffice.com.
In February, China broke the global box-office record for a single week—$557 million from Feb. 8-14, EntGroup says, all for local productions, because imports aren’t shown during the holiday period. The country surpassed a $534.7 million record set in the U.S. in late December, after the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. At this rate, China could overtake the U.S. in annual ticket sales as early as 2017, industry watchers say.
China has been a focus for Hollywood studios in recent years as the U.S. film market has stagnated. In 2015, China’s box office totaled $6.8 billion, up 49 percent from the previous year, says consulting firm Artisan Gateway. The North American (U.S. and Canada) box office had its biggest year ever in 2015 at $11.1 billion, thanks to several franchise releases, including Star Wars. But it dropped almost 2 percent from 2010 through 2014, to $10.4 billion, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Since 2012, Hollywood’s share of the Chinese market has fallen from 49 percent to 32 percent, says EntGroup.
China limits U.S. movie imports to 34 annually. The industry is closely managed by two government-controlled entities, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film & Television (SAPPRFT) and China Film Group, which select the films that will enter the market, set opening dates, and determine the number of screens.
Hollywood is seeking to strengthen its foothold in China to take advantage of the fast pace of growth. Studios including Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. have struck partnerships with Chinese film and media companies to gain bigger audiences at more venues. (The country has about 31,630 movie screens; it added 8,035 last year.) The deals “give U.S. producers someone with relationships at the regulatory level in China to call on” to increase access to the market, says Rance Pow, founder and president of Artisan Gateway. And that China now boasts more accomplished filmmakers only adds to the interest.
Amount of revenue from local Chinese films in 2015: 62%
Since 2014, Paramount Pictures, working with SAPPRFT, has invited several Chinese directors to training programs in Los Angeles. The project benefits all parties, says Rob Moore, Paramount’s vice chairman: “The real upside for us is being able to spend time and get to know a number of these top Chinese filmmakers and get their perspective on the Chinese market, which has been paying dividends for us in terms of the success of Mission: Impossible and The Terminator.”
Chinese companies also have boosted their investments in Hollywood. China-based studio Perfect World Pictures said in mid-February it would spend more than $250 million on 50 movies produced over the next five years by Comcast’s Universal Pictures, whose Furious 7 has brought in $390.9 million in China ticket sales since opening there last April. In January, Wang Jianlin, chairman of conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, became the first Chinese person to control a Hollywood film company after buying Legendary Entertainment, the co-producer of Jurassic World, for $3.5 billion. “The Legendary deal is a puzzle piece” for Wanda, Pow says. “It’s a component of a bigger and grander strategy to become globally integrated in the film business.”
Hollywood and China are growing more comfortable with each other. In the future, says Jonah Greenberg, head of the China operation for Creative Artists Agency, Chinese directors will make big-budget movies in English for a global audience. In February, Universal Pictures plans to release director Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall with Matt Damon in the largest production ever shot entirely in China.
Many in Hollywood say China’s thriving industry could ease the curbs on imported films. A U.S.-China memorandum of understanding setting the film quota expires next year, and new terms will be needed.
“We believe it is in the long-term best interests of the U.S. studios if there is a thriving Chinese marketplace that will both lead to the Chinese movie business continuing to expand, as well as hopefully more opportunity for U.S. movies and U.S. studios,” says Paramount’s Moore.

—With Stephen Tan and Grace Huang
The bottom line: Box-office sales are growing 34 percent a year in China, which could overtake North America as the biggest movie market in 2017.

More on The Mermaid here (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69162-The-Mermaid).

[GeneChing]

...and reiterates the 2017 prediction. Man, I'm going to have to expand my column in our print mag (http://www.martialartsmart.com/19341.html). :D


China Box Office Pulls in Massive $1B in February, Topping North America (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-pulls-massive-871688)
3:11 AM PST 3/1/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

http://cdn2.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/02/mermaid-staroverseas.jpg
'The Mermaid'
Courtesy of Star Overseas

If the current rates of growth keep up in China, the country will surpass North America as the world's largest film market in early 2017.

Fueled by a raft of local blockbuster hits over the Lunar New Year holiday, monthly box office in China reached a record high in February, surpassing North America for the second time in history.

Already the world's second-biggest theatrical market, China is rapidly closing the gap with North America, still the world's largest.

Chinese cinemas took in $1.05 billion (6.87 billion yuan) in February, the official Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday (March 1), citing the country's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. The haul was a 50 percent increase over the same period last year, when China beat the full-month U.S. gross for the first time ever. The total also easily eclipsed last July's record monthly gross of 5.5 billion yuan.

Thanks to the breakout blockbuster performance of 20th Century Fox's Deadpool ($285.2 million domestically, and counting), North America's box office total for February is expected to come in just shy of $800 million, a substantial jump over last year's $765.9 million.

Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow's literal fish-out-of-water rom-com The Mermaid contributed nearly half of the huge Chinese haul, pulling in a historic $485 million from Feb. 8 to Feb. 29. Having already crushed Monster Hunt's former all-time record of $385.2 million, the film is expected to become China's first movie to cross the half-billion mark.

Further buoying the huge monthly numbers was fantasy sequel The Monkey King 2, starring Aaron Kwok and Gong Li, which earned $178.1 million over 22 days in February. Meanwhile, the latest installment in director Wong Jin's comedy-action gambling franchise, From Vegas to Macau 3, pulled in $167 million. Hollywood's contributions toward the historic gross were comprised by Kung Fu Panda 3, which has earned $149.5 million since its debut on Jan. 29 (a new record for animation in the territory), and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon II: The Green Destiny, which has grossed a healthy $36.8 million in the Chinese market, despite withering local reviews.

China's total for 2016 thus far sits at $1.6 billion (10.71 billion yuan), representing a surge of 57 percent over the first two months of 2015. If the current rate of growth keeps up, China will reach $9.2 billion for the full year. In 2015, total box office revenue in North America was $11.1 billion.

China is currently on course to overtake North America in the first half of 2017.

We've discussed almost all of these films here:
Deadpool (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1282)
The Mermaid (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69162-The-Mermaid)
The Monkey King 2 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?67299-Monkey-King-2)
Kung Fu Panda 3 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?60650-Kung-Fu-Panda-3)
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon II: The Green Destiny (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1284)

Someone here needs to see From Vegas to Macau 3, start a thread and review it here. :cool:

[GeneChing]

The 'anti-Netflix' is worth $125 million and moving into China to capitalize on the booming film market (http://www.businessinsider.com/mubi-indie-movie-streaming-startup-worth-125-million-as-it-moves-into-china)
Nathan McAlone
23h

http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/56d72e202e526556008bad8b-1090-818/f85686e2-c8f3-4116-8671-332a82565eb0.jpg
Mubi

Since 2007, London-based Mubi has quietly built a reputation as a stellar streaming service for serious film lovers.

While Netflix has grabbed the headlines, Mubi has survived and thrived, snagging a recent valuation of $125 million and sweeping into China ahead of its much-larger rival.

Last year, Paul Thomas Anderson, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker and indie heavyweight, chose to give Mubi the exclusive streaming rights to his new film, "Junun." For reference, Mubi has 100,000 subscribers, while Netflix has 75 million.

So how has Mubi found success in a Netflix world? In part, it's because Mubi thinks of films as something distinct from "video" or "content," CEO Efe Cakarel tells Business Insider.

"We used to have this all-you-can-eat buffet, similar to Netflix but for independent films," Cakarel says.

But a few years ago, Cakarel realized that people don't consume movies the same way they do TV shows. Searching Netflix for a new show might be annoying, but once you've found it, you can settle into hours of binge-watching before you go back into research. With movies, it's more painful, since you have to start that search again every two hours. In other words, too much choice can be a burden.

That's when Cakarel decided to shift Mubi's $4.99-per-month service to a heavily curated model.

"We have the rights to thousands of films per country," he says.

But as a Mubi subscriber, each country's curatorial team picks 30 films every month that you can watch — one is added and one removed every day. This makes the process of picking easier, he says.

You trust that you'll enjoy any of the 30, though you have to enjoy movies of a particular type — indie, no Michael Bay.

Man, since Chinese New Year (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69208-Chinese-New-Year-2016-Year-of-the-MONKEY), our MM&PC subforum here has just been all cray cray.

Here's a little more (but we knew this already). Odd that the author singles out Bollywood stars when he's talking mostly about the Chinese Box Office, but we'll let that slide. And I've seen PK. It's awesome.


You’ve Never Heard of the World’s Biggest Movies and Stars (http://www.mademan.com/youve-never-heard-of-the-worlds-biggest-movies-and-stars/)
By Sean Cunningham | 03/02/2016 |

http://cdn.mademan.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/the-mermaid.jpg

In February, China’s box office topped North America’s for the first time ever. Wait, “topped” is too weak a word—the U.S. and Canada combined for just under $800 million while China raked in over $1 billion, meaning they could have spotted us the domestic gross of 007’s Spectre and still won.

And it’s not just China. Quick, which of these men wasn’t one of the 10 highest paid film actors in Forbes 2015 rankings?

A. Amitabh Bachchan
B. Salman Khan
C. Akshay Kumar
D. Leonard DiCaprio

The answer, of course, is D.

Yes, Leo’s mere $29 million over the 12-month ranking period wasn’t enough to push him ahead of three Indian megastars. Bachchan ($33.5 million) is semi-known to Americans thanks to The Great Gatsby—sharing the screen with Oscar-winning pauper DiCaprio—and a shout-out in Slumdog Millionaire when our young hero literally crawls through **** to meet him. Khan and Kumar haven’t received any mainstream attention on these shores, but it didn’t stop them from earning $33.5 and $32.5 million, respectively.

So, if you’re looking for a bit more international flavor with your blockbusters, here are five massive films that mostly missed us. As the debate rages over Hollywood’s extreme whiteness, consider this your opportunity to embrace diversity and profits.

PK (2014)
World Box Office: Roughly $120 million
Individual Bollywood films don’t tend to make much by Hollywood standards—it’s hard to rake it in when your ticket prices range from under a dollar to maybe four bucks—so it’s notable that PK became the first Indian flick to crack the $100 million barrier. Watch star Aamir Khan in the un-subtitled trailer of this comedy about an alien learning to live on Earth that enraged religious groups… and find yourself absolutely baffled by a movie that plays like Billy Madison with more musical numbers. Incidentally, PK earned over $10 million in the U.S.—more than the most recent films by Paul Thomas Anderson, Sofia Coppola and Woody Allen.

Dragon Blade (2015)
World Box Office: Over $120 million
Jackie Chan’s American conquest began with the 1996 release of Rumble in the Bronx, followed by 1998’s Rush Hour, which became a franchise that has earned over $500 million in the U.S. You probably haven’t seen too much of Jackie recently, but don’t worry: He stays busy across the Pacific making movies like this one. Set on the ancient Silk Road—if you’ve longed to see John Cusack as a Roman general, behold—Dragon Blade was essentially unreleased in the U.S., collecting $74,068. It did slightly better in China ($116.8 million), a big reason Chan was second to only Robert Downey Jr. in the last Forbes rankings, as he earned $50 million and has a net worth estimated as high as $350 million.

Red Cliff: Part 1 and 2 (2008 and 2009)
World Box Office: Nearly $250 million
In 2003, I interviewed John Woo while he edited the Ben Affleck film Paycheck and asked if he’d ever return to Hong Kong, where he directed classics The Killer and Bullet in the Head. He said no. We were both wrong: Woo left L.A. but went to the mainland. The recreation of a war fought 1,800 years ago showed China could make epics to rival Hollywood’s. (Further confession: I watched both parts at a screening on the Fourth of July—don’t tell President Trump, anybody.) While Woo’s Face/Off and Mission: Impossible II made a combined $327 million in America, a version condensing the two Cliffs into a single film earned just $627,047 here, as he joined Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat, Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh in finding American success, then deciding they’d be fine without it.

The Intouchables (2011)
World Box Office: $426.6 million
Intouchables, not Untouchables. Anyone expecting to see Sean Connery take down Capone is in for a jolt, as it’s a French movie about a super-rich white paraplegic who decides his caretaker should be a young black “street guy.” [INSERT COMEDY HERE.] Proving Asia isn’t the only continent capable of making non-Hollywood hits, The Intouchables became a massive, critically acclaimed success across Europe and additional lands other than ours. (Japan quite liked it.) One way that it differs from American films: Our trailers are less likely to include characters bonding over a Hitler mustache.

The Mermaid (2016)
World Box Office: $500 million and counting
American audiences know actor/writer/director Stephen Chow for comedies Shaolin Soccer (2001) and the Golden Globe-nominated Kung Fu Hustle (2004). Chow has since cut back on acting, which leaves more time to serve on China’s “top political advisory board” (you know, as one does). The Mermaid offers more of what fans of Chow’s earlier work adored: deeply strange jokes that are often very funny, such as a man’s attempt to describe a mermaid to a police sketch artist who can’t quite get that human/fish ratio right. While Chow’s 2008 E.T.-esque CJ7 squashed his American career and The Mermaid shows limited signs of reviving it, with the money this one’s raking in, one has to wonder if he even really gives a ****.



Dragon Blade (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?67531-Dragon-Blade)
Red Cliff (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?46417-Red-Cliff)
The Mermaid (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69162-The-Mermaid)
SPECTRE (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69334-SPECTRE-(James-Bond))

[GeneChing]

I thought we had more on this film.


Hong Kong Filmart: China Film Group Files Lawsuit Over 'Wolf Totem' Streaming (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hong-kong-filmart-china-film-783601)
3:26 AM PDT 3/23/2015 by Clifford Coonan

http://cdn5.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2015/02/wolf-totem.jpg
UniFrance

The state colossus is suing web firms Youku Tudou, Baidu and Sina Weibo for copyright theft.

Chinese state-owned film company China Film Group has filed a lawsuit against online streaming services Youku Tudou, Baidu and Sina Weibo for copyright infringement of the movie Wolf Totem.

The $40 million Sino-French epic from Jean-Jacques Annaud had grossed $107.46 million in China by last week. But China Film Group claims that the online streaming services had infringed copyright by allowing their sites to be used for illegal downloads of the film and is seeking damages of $410,000 (2.54 million yuan), with most of the claim levied against against Youku Tudou.

A court in Beijing has now accepted the case. The plaintiff stated that China Film Group was the copyright owner for Wolf Totem in mainland China, and that the three companies had caused significant losses during the film's theatrical release.

After the movie bowed, China Film Group discovered a number of links through the Baidu search engine. The company sent a letter on Feb. 28 asking for their removal, but alleged that Baidu had not complied.

Sina Weibo deleted similar links when requested, although others are said to have later appeared. China Film Group also alleges that Youku Tudou provided online movie-on-demand services for the film without payment.

Oh well. It could have been worse (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65170-Crouching-Tiger-Hidden-Dragon-2-Sword-of-Destiny&p=1291656#post1291656). :rolleyes:

[GeneChing]

More like Hollywood caters to Chinese culture to capture its market.


ENTERTAINMENT 20 hours
China enlists Hollywood to spread its culture with blockbusters (http://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment/china-teams-with-hollywood-to-spread-culture-with-blockbusters/)

https://suntimesmedia.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/china-hollywood_ambitions_59859671.jpg?w=670
"The Great Wall" star Matt Damon (left) and director Zhang Yimou discuss the film during a 2015 press conference in Beijing. | Andy Wong/AP
By Ryan Nakashima | Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — China has a new ally in its campaign to turn itself into a global cultural superpower: Matt Damon. And, behind him, a good chunk of Hollywood as well.

Chinese leaders have long sought international cultural influence, aka “soft power,” commensurate with the nation’s economic might. That’s brought us official Confucian institutes scattered across the world, billions of dollars in development aid and awe-inspiring Olympic ceremonies. But China’s own film industry remains a mere flicker on the global screen.


Which is where Damon comes in. Early next year, the star of “The Martian” will headline “The Great Wall,” a historical epic filmed in China with Chinese and American stars, a famous Chinese director, a cast and crew of roughly 1,300, a $150 million budget and some nasty monsters. (Not to mention the support of the Chinese government.) If all goes according to plan, the film could be China’s first international blockbuster — one that might presage a wave of similar films intended to present a new face of China to the world.

That’s a lot to expect from a decidedly unusual action flick. In “The Great Wall,” Damon plays a wandering European mercenary in the pre-gunpowder era who stumbles across the titular structure and learns what it’s really for. (Hint: Those monsters might be involved.)

But film-industry types on both sides of the Pacific believe this kind of joint venture could open huge new opportunities for all sides. For Hollywood, it’s about expanding markets and investment; for the Chinese government and private companies alike, it’s about harnessing American stars and storytelling to help movies based on Chinese history, myths and cultural icons break out onto a global stage.

Chinese authorities “have not made any secret of their desire to spread and to encourage and to develop soft power,” says Rance Pow, president of Artisan Gateway, a Shanghai-based research firm that tracks the Chinese box office. Regaling the world with made-in-China blockbusters, he says, is one way to do so.

Hollywood naturally welcomes Chinese investment to help fuel its voracious movie-making machine. One Chinese company — conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group — snapped up an entire Hollywood studio, Legendary Entertainment, for $3.5 billion. Legendary just happens to be the studio behind “The Great Wall.”

Working with Chinese partners also offers a shortcut past rules that limit the distribution of foreign movies in China’s booming film market. That could open up a vast new territory to U.S. studios — at least so long as they play by China’s rules.

“For U.S. industry, these concessions are really about market access,” says Thilo Hanemann, an economist with Rhodium Group, a research firm focused on global trade flows and government policies.

Of course, plenty could still go wrong. There’s no guarantee that either “The Great Wall” or another half-dozen or so would-be Chinese blockbusters will wow either Chinese or global audiences. Some previous efforts along these lines have been global flops.

https://suntimesmedia.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/china-hollywood_ambitions_59860531.jpg?w=509&h=300
“Kung Fu Panda 3” | Dreamworks Animation

This time, both Chinese and American movie executives think they’ve got the formula right. The most successful attempt so far is “Kung Fu Panda 3,” which has pulled in $314 million, including an outsized $149 million in China. Unlike its predecessors, the third movie in the series was produced by a joint venture between the series’ original studio, DreamWorks Animation and Chinese investors, including state-backed China Media Capital.

The biggest draw for Tinseltown is China’s huge and expanding film market. Cinema attendance in the U.S. and Canada has been flat for a decade, but Chinese moviegoers are on a tear, snapping up tickets worth $6.8 billion in 2015, up nearly 50 percent from a year earlier. At that pace, China could eclipse the U.S. as the world’s largest film market as early as next year.

But tapping that market has been a challenge. Chinese regulators allow no more than 34 foreign films to screen in China every year — far fewer than filmmakers release in the U.S. every month — and impose multiple “blackout” periods during which none at all can be shown. Regulators vary the length of the blackouts so that Chinese-made films eke out a majority of the market every year, Artisan Gateway’s Pow says.

Films like “Kung Fu Panda 3” and “The Great Wall,” however, get ushered to the front of the line. Because of their Chinese backers, the films qualify for prime release dates. Their backers also get to keep a bigger share of the box office than they ordinarily would.

So Hollywood has eagerly welcomed Chinese partners. From 2000 to 2015, Chinese direct investment in U.S. entertainment firms amounted to $4 billion, according to Rhodium Group. That pace then skyrocketed in January with Wanda’s purchase of Legendary, which almost doubled that total by itself.

Chinese studios and investors have pledged another several hundred million dollars for Hollywood film slates. Warner Bros., DreamWorks Animation and Universal have linked up with state-owned enterprises and private companies such as electronics maker LeEco and Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent.

That flood of Chinese cash makes possible epic films like “The Great Wall,” helmed by internationally acclaimed director Zhang Yimou and filmed at a multi-billion-dollar production facility still under construction in Qingdao on China’s eastern seaboard. Legendary plans eight more Chinese-themed projects with similar budgets, says Peter Loehr, CEO of Legendary’s wholly owned subsidiary Legendary East.

“We’re hoping this is a model that works and that we can recreate it often,” he says.

But the Western appetite for China-centric films remains uncertain. Consider “The Flowers of War,” a 2011 film about the Japanese army’s vicious 1937 sack of Nanking. Despite star Christian Bale and a $94 million budget, the movie pulled in less than $500,000 in the U.S., according to Box Office Mojo.

The brutality portrayed in the film turned off foreign audiences as a “kind of propaganda,” says Peter Li, managing director of CMC Capital Partners, a unit of China Media Capital.

Foreign co-productions could suffer a similar fate if they grow too heavy handed in an attempt to satisfy Chinese censors, who oversee all films released domestically. “If you promote socialist core values, you’re not going to succeed overseas,” says Stan Rosen, a University of Southern California political scientist.

[GeneChing]

We knew this, of course.


Chinese movie market aims to become No. 1 (http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2016/0322/Chinese-movie-market-aims-to-become-No.-1)
During the month of February, the box office revenue in China outgrossed that of North America for the first time. Will China become the biggest market for movies?
By Molly Driscoll, Staff writer MARCH 22, 2016

http://images.csmonitor.com/csm/2016/03/0328-L2MIX-chinese-film.jpg?alias=standard_600x400
FilmRise/Edko Films Ltd./AP
A scene from 'Monster Hunt,' one of the top 10 highest-grossing films in China in 2015.

The power of the Chinese moviegoer continues to grow. During the month of February, the box office revenue in China outgrossed that of North America for the first time.

The achievement comes as the international box office has become increasingly important to Hollywood over the past several years. Remember the 2012 remake of “Red Dawn”? In the new version, the invaders were digitally changed from Chinese to North Korean during post-production to appease Chinese audiences. In addition, more movie theaters are being built in China, and experts are predicting the Chinese movie market could completely outpace North America’s by 2017.

So what happened in February? Before you think Hollywood is about to lay down a walk of fame in Beijing, there are some cultural differences to consider. Aynne Kokas, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia who specializes in Chinese media, points out that the comparison is not a perfect one because February includes the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday when more people are going to the movies in China, not unlike December in North America.

In addition, one hit film played a big part in China’s record turnout. The Chinese film “The Mermaid,” released on Feb. 8, is now the highest-grossing movie ever in China.

An interesting movie to watch going forward, however, says Ms. Kokas, will be the upcoming film “The Great Wall,” from Chinese director Zhang Yimou and featuring big-name Hollywood actors (Matt Damon, Willem Dafoe) alongside successful Chinese actors (Andy Lau, Tian Jing). “The Great Wall” is scheduled for an early 2017 release by Legendary Entertainment, which was recently purchased by Chinese company Dalian Wanda Group.

These new developments on the cinema landscape show that we can expect more Hollywood and China partnerships to come.

For reference:
Monster Hunt (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68878-Monster-Hunt)
Red Dawn (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1072)
The Mermaid (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69162-The-Mermaid)
The Great Wall (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?64980-The-Great-Wall)

[GeneChing]

I suppose this is better than ghost screenings (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?57165-Ip-Man-3&p=1291767#post1291767)...:rolleyes:


China to Reward Cinemas for Favoring Local Films Over Hollywood Imports (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-reward-cinemas-favoring-local-878541)
10:55 PM PDT 3/27/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

http://cdn5.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/02/themonkeyking22filmko_-_h_2016.jpg
'The Monkey King 2'
Courtesy Filmko Pictures Co., Ltd

Movie theater chains in China that ensure Hollywood films take no more than one-third of total box office will be granted a sizable tax rebate.

China is introducing another layer of protectionism to give its domestically produced movies an edge over Hollywood imports.

Last week, state regulators announced that Chinese theater chains that generate at least two-thirds of their box office receipts from local Chinese films will be able to keep half of a five percent tax they usually pay on ticket sales.

The China Film Bureau normally collects a five percent tax on all box-office revenue. The funds are channeled towards various government grants and initiatives designed to aid the development of the Chinese film sector.

Under the new rules, to qualify for the rebate Chinese theater groups must ensure that imported movies take no more than one-third of the box office for the full year, and the exhibitor must have a clean regulatory record, with no history of box office under-reporting or fraud. Throughout its recent, historic expansion, the Chinese film industry has been dogged by cases of box office embezzlement and manipulation, and Chinese regulators have repeatedly vowed to crack down on offenders.

China employs various measures to protect its fast-growing domestic film industry. The country's notorious quota system restricts foreign film imports to just 34 titles per year on revenue-sharing terms. The quota was raised from 20 titles to 34 in 2012, in a landmark deal that temporarily resolved a bitter dispute that had led the United States to file an official complaint with the World Trade Organization alleging that China was unfairly restricting access to its market.

In addition to the quota, Chinese regulators have employed subtler protectionist tactics, such as blackout periods on foreign film releases during popular summertime and holiday moviegoing periods, as well as strategic scheduling of release dates, whereby top local titles are given the best weekend opening windows.

It's not clear how much of an immediate effect the new tax break will have on exhibition patterns, given how successful the existing methods have already been. Over the past two years, Chinese blockbusters have made impressive gains. Stephen Chow's Hong Kong-China co-production The Mermaid, for example, grossed a record $520 million since its debut in mid February.

In 2015, Chinese films claimed 61.6 percent of the $6.78 billion box office total. So far this year, their share has climbed to about 70 percent, while Hollywood has dipped to a record low. As recently as 2014, Hollywood claimed some 45.5 percent of the Chinese theatrical market.

Nonetheless, China remains a rapidly growing market for the U.S. studios, due to the explosive growth of the Chinese box office overall, which expanded by 48 percent last year. The country is on course to surpass North America as the world's largest theatrical territory in 2017.

[Jimbo]

When I first went to Taiwan, a local in-law of the family I initially stayed with told me that Taiwan limited the number of Japanese movies allowed to screen in theatres to no more than 2 or 3 per year (I can't remember which). He said it was because Japanese movies were so popular there that they outperformed the local movies. I don't know if this was true or not. This was back in 1984.

[GeneChing]

I thought the Taiwanese bore a lot of resentment towards the Japanese after WWII.

[Jimbo]

I thought the Taiwanese bore a lot of resentment towards the Japanese after WWII.

Oh, no doubt there's that. But my heritage is Japanese-American, and I personally experienced very little anti-Japanese attitude there, including from those who knew what I am. The Taiwanese family who opened their home to me certainly knew, and they treated me very well, with respect. Interestingly enough, their youngest daughter treated me like an older brother.

A lot of younger people liked many of the young Japanese actors/actresses/idols, and Chinese translations of Japanese manga were extremely popular. In all my years in Taiwan, I saw Japanese movies in theaters a total of 3 times, and each time they were pretty packed, even if the movie was crap.

The amount of resentment will vary with the individual, just like anywhere else. It might be a generational thing, too. Although, some older Taiwanese I've spoken to could still speak fluent Japanese as well as Taiwanese, but claimed their Mandarin was so-so. Some of them claimed to have preferred the Japanese to when the Nationalists took over. Since I don't speak Japanese or Taiwanese, we spoke in Mandarin.

There are tons of people right here in the U.S. who still hate/blame all Japanese people for WWII. And some idiots even still believe that Japan is trying to take over the U.S. :rolleyes: The 1970s called and wants its misplaced paranoia back.

[GeneChing]

China’s Money Is Flooding Hollywood, But Its Films Are Sputtering In The US (http://www.ibtimes.com/chinas-money-flooding-hollywood-its-films-are-sputtering-us-2344488)
BY MATT PRESSBERG @MATTPRESSBERG ON 03/28/16 AT 5:43 PM

http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/lg/public/2016/03/28/kung-fu-hustle.jpg
Stephen Chow’s “Kung Fu Hustle” did very well in the U.S. His “The Mermaid,” not so much. Pictured: Chow (right) poses with Sony Pictures Classics Co-President Michael Barker at the premiere afterparty for “Kung Fu Hustle” at Oceana in New York, March 31, 2005.
PHOTO: EVAN AGOSTINI/GETTY IMAGES

LOS ANGELES — Even as a deluge of Chinese cash flows into Hollywood, Chinese movies are sputtering with American audiences. And despite presiding over the world’s fastest-growing movie market — and one that may be bigger than the U.S.’s as soon as next year — China’s Hollywood ambitions apparently aren’t happening fast enough.

At the March 25 China-U.S. Film Summit in Beijing, which featured keynote addresses from showbiz luminaries such as “Gravity” director Alfonso Cuarón and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs and panels full of executives from both sides of the Pacific, there was plenty of venting about China’s inability to crack the code with American moviegoers, despite more money being pumped into its homegrown industry than ever — and those films packing local theaters.

In her recap of the summit, ScreenDaily’s Liz Shackleton chronicled a laundry list of complaints on the topic. And it’s not just homegrown films’ seeming inability to travel that’s to blame. Despite a flurry of co-production deals between Chinese and American studios, such as China’s second-largest broadcaster, Hunan TV, ponying up $375 million to invest in a slate of films from Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and Perfect World Pictures’ $250 million arrangement with Universal Pictures, a true co-produced hit remains frustratingly elusive.

Rance Pow, the chief executive of film consulting firm Artisan Gateway, said co-productions “haven’t hit their stride yet,” and that’s a major issue. David Lee, the chief executive of marketer and distributor Leeding Media, blamed subtitles. “One thing we’ve got to think about is the fact that American audiences are not used to reading subtitles in the way that other marketplaces are,” he said.

And adding insult to injury, after a stretch where homegrown films dominated, U.S. studio films currently occupy the top two spots on China’s box-office charts. Chinese movies packed theaters during the Chinese New Year season, when its cinemas are closed to imports, but Hollywood has taken advantage of the window reopening. Disney’s “Zootopia” has made more than $173 million in China since opening March 4, and Warner Bros.’ “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” opened with a $57 million weekend, which fell short of expectations but still put it comfortably in the lead.

http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/embed/public/2016/03/28/zootopia.jpg
“Zootopia” dominated in China, but Chinese movies haven’t done much in the U.S. lately. Pictured, from left: Singer Shakira and actors Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman pose with the Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde characters at the Los Angeles premiere of the film in Hollywood, California, Feb. 17, 2016.
PHOTO: CHARLEY GALLAY/GETTY IMAGES FOR DISNEY

Chinese films haven’t traveled as well as one might think for a variety of reasons, including the fact that its domestic audience trends much younger than almost everywhere else, but blaming subtitles seems to miss the mark. Sure, they can clutter the screen and jokes often land at different times for the listening and reading audiences, but plenty of subtitled movies have made tons of money in the United States.

Ang Lee’s Mandarin-language 2000 martial arts epic “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” was a surprise smash hit, making $128 million at the U.S. box office — and picking up an Academy Award for best foreign-language film. Another Chinese martial arts adventure, Zhang Yimou’s “Hero,” made nearly $54 million at American theaters despite being released in the U.S. nearly two years after the movie premiered in China in late 2002. And more recently, Mexican dramedy “Instructions Not Included” reeled in more than $44 million in the U.S.

All those films resonated with American audiences despite forcing them to read words on a screen. But they also got plenty of promotion and buzz once the movies opened here — something China’s biggest-ever film, Stephen Chow’s delightfully insane comedy “Mei Ren Yu (The Mermaid)” didn’t. And maybe there’s something to giving Chinese movies some of the same hype in the U.S. that American films such as “Batman v Superman” get in China — where stars Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill traveled to promote the film.

“The Mermaid” made $522 million in China and only about $3.1 million in the U.S, even though it had the highest per-theater average of any movie the first two weeks it was released here. But despite that obvious demand sign, its extremely limited footprint and lack of any kind of advertising or buzz never seemed to give it much of a chance to catch on. It maxed out at 106 theaters on March 4 — when “Zootopia” premiered and cannibalized much of its would-be audience.

While “The Mermaid” clearly did not need American dollars to pay huge dividends, its complete lack of hype, even in Los Angeles, seems curious given China’s clear desire to be relevant in American theaters. The country’s richest man, Dalian Wanda Group founder Wang Jianlin, owns many of them — his firm owns AMC Theatres, which agreed to acquire Carmike Cinemas. And besides, the movie had an estimated $60 million production budget and a director who’s a known quantity internationally. Chow’s 2005 “Kung Fu Hustle” made $20 million in China, $8 million in Hong Kong — and $17 million in the U.S. And spending some marketing cash to give “The Mermaid’s” Mandarin-speaking megastars Deng Chao, Kris Wu, Zhang Yuqi and Show Luo a higher profile in the U.S. would seem to make sense for all parties.

Maybe Cuarón can help crack the code. At the summit, he said he would like to make a movie in Chinese. That’s certain to get plenty of buzz on both sides of the Pacific.

I really wanted to like The Mermaid (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69162-The-Mermaid&p=1291460#post1291460). I love Chow's work. But it wasn't a 'delightfully insane comedy'. It was a disappointment. Anyone else here see it beyond me and RenDaHai?

[GeneChing]

Of course, we're guilty of the same old thing.


http://www.thebeijinger.com/sites/default/files/thebeijinger/blog-images/313215/bride_wars_remake.jpg
Hackneyed Hollywood Titles to Reappear in China With Chinese Characteristics (http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2016/03/22/old-hollywood-titles-reappear-china-chinese-characteristics)
Fergus Ryan | Mar 22, 2016 10:00 am

It’s been clear for a while now that Hollywood has run out of ideas. Pick your favourite death knell. For some it was when they decided it would be a good idea to make a movie based on the board game Battleship. For others, it was when Sony acquired the Emoji Movie last year.
And it’s not going to stop. On the horizon are reboots, remakes and spinoffs for Big Trouble in Little China, Heathers, Ghostbusters, Top Gun, Indiana Jones and Blade Runner among others. In fact, according to Den of Geek, there are currently 107 remakes or reboots in the works.
Now Hollywood has decided to reach into their back catalogues, dust off some old ideas, and remake them for Chinese audiences.
Last week, Beijing-based film production company Desen International Media, announced it’s remaking the 2006 hit comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the project has already been approved for production by SAPPRFT, but curiously, Desen couldn’t confirm if it actually has the movie rights to the original Lauren Weisberger novel.
It’s not clear who will reprise Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep’s roles, but we do know that New York City will be replaced by Shanghai for the Chinese version.
Flagship Entertainment, the joint venture formed last September between Warner Bros, China Media Capital, and TVB, also announced it would be giving a spit and polish to the 2000 Sandra Bullock hit Miss Congeniality, as well as the woefully received 2014 Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore comedy Blended.
Other, totally original movies Flagship intend to make this year include the super-non-derivative-sounding Chinese Wall Street and When Larry Met Mary.
Also on it’s way this year is a remake of the 1997 Julia Roberts romantic comedy My Best Friend’s Wedding with Shu Qi taking Robert’s role.
The second-bite-of-the-cherry strategy isn’t new. Last year's Only You (命中注定), starring Tang Wei and Liao Fan, was a remake of the same name 1994 romantic comedy starring Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr.
Here are some earlier examples of foreign fare that have been given some Chinese characteristics:

http://www.thebeijinger.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/12_angry_men.jpg?itok=WrsjEkgk
12 Angry Men 《十二公民》
Xu Ang's 12 Citizens adapts 12 Angry Men, setting the story in a Chinese law school.

http://www.thebeijinger.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/www_c_bw.jpg?itok=rSwm25bk
What Women Want 《我知女人心》
Chen Daming’s 2011 saw Andy Lau and Gong Li replace Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.
Cellular 《保持通话》
2008 remake of David R. Ellis’ 2004 action crime thriller Cellular sees Louis Koo take over Jason Statham’s role.
Bride Wars 《新娘大作战》
Directed by Tony Chan, and starring Angelababy and Ni Ni in the roles originally played by Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway in 2009.

http://www.thebeijinger.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/high_school_musical_remake.jpg?itok=_IX_b-GB
High School Musical 《中国版歌舞青春》
This attempt to transplant the glee-club phenomena fell flat on its face.

A Simple Noodle Story 《三槍拍案驚奇》(Also known as A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop)
Zhang Yimou’s remake of Blood Simple, the 1984 debut of the Coen brothers. Zhang switched the scene from a Texan town to a noodle shop in Gansu.
Photos: Mtime

[GeneChing]

https://thenanfang.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/chinese-audience-01-1000x600.jpeg
Chinese Films Struggling To Find An Audience Abroad (https://thenanfang.com/chinese-films-not-finding-audience-abroad-no-one-likes-understands/)
A story of censorship, corruption, and bad subtitles
Charles Liu, March 31, 2016 12:34pm

Despite the astronomical growth of Chinese films at the domestic box office, Chinese cinema is struggling to find an audience in foreign markets.

According to a survey conducted by the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture (AICCC), 30 percent of respondents considered “the thoughts and logic of Chinese films difficult to understand”, while less than 40 percent identified with the “values” expressed in the films. A third of respondents simply said they weren’t interested in Chinese films.

The survey included 1,800 respondents from 46 different countries across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

One argument as to why Chinese films are struggling abroad is a lack of marketing. Less than eight percent of surveyed respondents noticed Chinese film advertisements in their home countries, while 36 percent claim they’ve never seen any marketing for Chinese films at all.

According to Sha Dan, with the China Film Archive, one solution to the marketing issue is more Chinese films that are co-produced with foreign production companies: “Commercial packaging is necessary for Chinese films if they want to be better accepted, no matter what genre it is,” said Sha.

Another issue is subtitles. 70 percent of respondents said they were unsatisfied with subtitles, which often amount to nothing more than literal translations without reflecting the scene’s context. “To have quality subtitles, one will need to understand both Chinese culture and the culture of the foreign country,” said Luo Jun, deputy head of the AICCC. “We need Chinese who know foreign cultures well and expats who have an abundant knowledge of Chinese culture.”

Feng Xiaogang, a director and actor who starred in the recent box office hit Mr Six, offers another explanation. Feng believes that Chinese films fail abroad because they are poorly made and hindered by domestic censorship regulations. Feng also questions the industry’s hiring practices: “Most of the people working in the lighting department are from Henan province,” said Feng at the recent Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). “They are not trained professionally – they got the job simply because they happen to know someone who works on the film crew.”

Feng had previously accused the Chinese film industry of sacrificing quality for box office success. According to Feng, hit movies are actually making the Chinese film industry worse:


They are a tremendously bad influence upon the development and production of the Chinese film industry. They cause producers to be less willing to invest in serious films that won’t make large profits.

There is also the issue of censorship. TV screenwriter, Gao Mantang, said TV producers lean toward comedies and historical dramas to avoid state approval for their scripts. “If your script is based on reality, and if you touch [even] a little bit on social issues, or you want to talk about things in-depth, the censorship will be very, very difficult,” said Gao.

But even without all of these disparate problems, there still remains the issue of corruption. The distributor for the recent Donnie Yen-Mike Tyson action film, Ip Man 3, had its license revoked after it was revealed the company artificially inflated the movie’s box office receipts. Claiming to have raked in 500 million yuan (77.3 million U.S. dollars) in just four days, Beijing Max Screens eventually admitted to buying 56 million yuan worth of Ip Man 3 tickets. Meanwhile, theaters colluding with Beijing Max Screens, fabricated more than 7,600 screenings of the film, falsely generating some 32 million yuan in ticket sales.

So what does the future of Chinese cinema look like? According to Feng, it’s films that sell: “Costume dramas, and shows involving fairies and gods” he says. “Dramas made by people like me do not sell well anymore.”

Source: China Daily, China Daily, LA Times
Photos: News Locker

Charles Liu
The Nanfang's Senior Editor



It's funny when you compare this to how Bollywood does around the world. China is so desperate for international face that they would bend over backwards to get that global hit, sacrificing all the uniqueness that makes Chollywood films so special. India don't care. They make the kind of films they like. They don't care as much what the world thinks of their cinema. If they do well internationally, that's a bonus.

[GeneChing]

China's Film Carnival: 5 Things to Know About **** Cook's $500M Financier (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chinas-film-carnival-5-things-879661)
5:00 AM PDT 4/1/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

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**** Cook
Getty Images

Meet the deep-pocketed Hangzhou-based company bank-rolling the former Disney Pictures chairman's new film and TV venture.

**** Cook Studios, the upstart production company founded by former Walt Disney Studios chairman **** Cook, got a financial boost to the tune of $500 million from China's Film Carnival earlier this week.

Under the terms of the deal, which was announced Tuesday, Film Carnival will finance 100 percent of Cook's movie projects, with an option to give "other Chinese investors [an] opportunity to invest in **** Cook Studios motion pictures on an individual basis," the companies said in a statement.

The first film to be produced under the fund is an adaptation of Australian author John Flanagan's best-selling book series Ranger's Apprentice, which will be directed by Oscar-winner Paul Haggis from a screenplay written by Haggis and his daughter, Alissa Sullivan Haggis.

The agreement deepens Cook's ties with Chinese money. He launched **** Cook Studios in 2015 with a $150 million investment from Citic Guoan Group Co. Ltd., a division of the state-owned Chinese conglomerate Citic Group.

The landmark deal is the latest in a barrage of eye-popping Chinese cash injections into Hollywood film slates and production outfits. It follows Chinese real estate and investment conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group's $3.5 billion acquisition of Thomas Tull's Legendary Entertainment, Beijing-based Perfect World Pictures's $250 million investment into Universal's slate and Bona Film Group's $235 million investment into six tentpoles from 20th Century Fox, among others.

Cook is a true Hollywood veteran. He spent four decades at Disney, rising up through the ranks to serve as chairman from 2002 to 2009, overseeing the release of films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure and Finding Nemo.

Film Carnival is far less known to Hollywood — even in China, many high-level industry players have told THR they are unfamiliar with the company.

Here are five things to know about Cook's new half-billion-dollar backers.

1. The Lou Brothers Are in Charge

Based in Hangzhou in China's eastern Zhejiang province, Film Carnival is headed by two brothers: Lou Xiaolou is the company's chairman, while his younger brother, Lou Xiaodong, serves as president. Both are coming to the film business from financial backgrounds. The elder Lou began his career as a trader in the Shanghai Futures exchange in the 1990s, and later served as a director at Hong Kong Lianfa Securities. He is said to be enamored with the film business. Film Carnival partnered with DCS and Citic Guoan on the inaugural China-U.S. Motion Picture Summit held near Beijing last Friday. The one-day event featured panel discussions designed to encourage deeper ties between the world's two largest film industries. At one of the event's gatherings, Lou was overheard telling Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuaron, a keynote speaker at the event, that he loved Cuaron's work and would be willing to finance his next film "for any price."

2. Film Carnival Is Also Known As...

The company is also occasionally referred to as JSNH, which are the initials for its corporate name in Chinese — 嘉视年华 — which reads Jia Shi Nian Hua, literally meaning "the Golden Times of Fine Viewing/Entertainment."

3. They Are Producing a Diverse Trio of Chinese-language Films

Film Carnival has yet to release a film of its own. According to official documents, the company was established in 2006 with registered capital of 200 million Chinese yuan (about $31 million at today's exchange rates), but it remained relatively silent until 2015, when it signed agreements to finance and produce a film each from veteran Hong Kong commercial directors Jeffery Lau (A Chinese Odyssey (as director) and Kung Fu Hustle (as producer)) and Tony Ching (The Sorcerer and the White Snake), as well as the big-budget Chinese-language debut of South Korean arthouse star Kim Ki Duk. The Kim project caught both the Korean and Chinese industries by surprise, given that the auteur is know for producing risqué arthouse pictures that occasionally run into censorship trouble even in Korea, where the regulatory regime takes a much lighter hand than in China (His Venice Golden Lion winner, for example, featured several characteristic scenes of sexual violence). Titled Who Is God, and produced from a budget of $23.6 million (150 million yuan), the film is said to be about a fictional kingdom's wars with five foreign tribes set against a Buddhist backdrop. When the film was announced at the Busan Film Festival last October, Kim said it will be about "how politics manipulates religion" — two very taboo topics with China's censors.

"A general phenomenon for art-house movies is that most of them struggle to survive. We strive to provide for more space for them to develop," Lou Xiaodong said in Busan, according to the state-backed China Daily.

Jeffery Lau's project for Film Carnival is rather more conventional. Titled Ne Zha, the movie is a fantasy action movie based on the legendary figure from Chinese mythology who fights evil dragons to protect the people of the Middle Kingdom. It is targeting a February, 2017 release during the Chinese New Year.

4. The Cash Comes From Private Equity Funds Under the Lous' Management

For each of the films it has announced, Film Carnival has set up private equity funds managed by securities company Huafeng Investment Consultancy, where the elder Lou also serves as president. THR was not able to ascertain the source of Huafeng's financing and has reached out to the company for comment.

5. The Company Is Also Investing in Boutique Entertainment Complexes and... Tea Houses

Together with CITIC Guoan, Film Carnival has said it plans to build a new type of comprehensive pan-entertainment centers called "film culture experience entertainment centers," which will house different upmarket entertainment facilities including movie theaters, cultural centers, VR technology centers, gyms, and hotels. The company hopes to establish the centers in China's first-tier cities of Hangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Lou Xiaolou also appears to be an avid tea drinker. In August 2015, Film Carnival launched Xiaolou Tea House, a tea shop business named after the chairman.

Who is God? and Nezha both sound interesting

[Jimbo]

Chinese companies are now producing (or co-producing) some American movies. Last year, Jake Gyllanhaal's (sp?) Southpaw, as well as the upcoming Hardcore Henry, are some examples.

As for mainland Chinese cinema and 'face', they will never cross over internationally with how they're making movies now. Mainland Chinese filmmakers need to put out a better product to ever hope to achieve crossover appeal. Obsession with 'face' is a killer.

[GeneChing]

China Box Office Jumps 51% Amid Ticket Fraud Scandal (http://www.ibtimes.com/china-box-office-jumps-51-amid-ticket-fraud-scandal-2347500)
BY ADITYA KONDALAMAHANTY ON 04/03/16 AT 7:47 AM
China Box Office

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Will the Chinese box office exceed the U.S. in 2016? Pictured: Chinese moviegoers in Beijing, Jan. 6, 2015.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

China’s box office revenues grew 51 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to news reports Sunday that cited China National Radio. However a recent ticketing scandal has cast doubts over the accuracy of the figures.

Ticket sales in the first three months of 2016 amounted to 14.5 billion yuan ($2.24 billion), with Chinese films accounting for almost three-quarters of the country’s box office sales, the state-run radio channel said.

China’s movie ticket sales grossed $6.3 billion in 2015, a 48 percent jump from the year before. In February, Chinese sales of movie tickets overtook the U.S. for the first time, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Hollywood has become increasingly reliant on China — the world's second-largest film market — as the domestic market stagnates.

In March, China’s box office watchdog suspended the license of a distributor who had artificially inflated the box office figures of a martial arts film — “Ip Man 3.”

“These kinds of issues could be considered inevitable in a young industry, but box office fraud has become so serious that it is already harming Chinese cinema,” Zhang Hongsen, head of China’s state-run film bureau told the BRICS Post.

China currently limits the number of foreign films that can be released in the country to 34 a year, prompting Hollywood studios — including Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. — to strike partnerships with Chinese film and media companies to make local blockbusters. The stupid thing about these inflated box office figures is that they are so unnecessary.


China's box office certain to overtake US as takings up 50% in 2016's first quarter (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/apr/01/chinas-box-office-certain-to-overtake-us-as-takings-up-50-in-2016s-first-quarter?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1)
Huge rises in number of screens, homegrown hits and admissions have meant China set to overtake US as biggest movie market in 2017, even as Chinese ticket prices fall and local directors bemoan quality of talent

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Tale of tails … a still from The Mermaid, Stephen Chow’s comedy which has helped China’s box office to unprecedented levels of success

Catherine Shoard and agencies @catherineshoard
Friday 1 April 2016 11.10 EDT Last modified on Friday 1 April 2016 11.21 EDT

China is set to become the highest-grossing cinema territory in the world next year, based on the rise in its takings over the past 15 months.

In the last quarter, revenues from cinemas in the mainland of China rose by 50%, in line with rises witnessed throughout 2015.

If sustained, China would make more than $10bn in 2016, closing in on the US 2015 total of $11bn. The north American box office plateaued around $10bn for eight years, before a 7.3% rise in 2015 took receipts into the teens.

The first quarter Chinese box office gross in 2015 was RMB9.663bn, rising to RMB14.49bn for the three months just ended. Last year’s total was RMB44bn ($6.78bn).

Takings have risen alongside the number of cinema screens: in 2015, 8,035 were added in China, at the rate of 22 per day, upping the total by around 40% to 31,627 screens. By the end of 2016, China is expected to have beaten the US, which has just shy of 40,000.

The 51.08% year-on-year rise in admissions in China accounts for how the territory was able to combat its comparatively low ticket price: $5.36, more than three dollars cheaper than the US’s $8.38. China’s average ticket price has actually fallen 2.5% from its 2015 figure. More than 60% of bookings taken in the country are made online.

China’s mushrooming numbers are also credited to its booming local industry, with incentives in place for cinemas which show domestic rather than Hollywood films. Chinese movies accounted for 61.48% of ticket sales in 2015, with many of the biggest hits – such as The Mermaid, The Monkey King 2 and The Man From Macau 3 – falling into this category.

While some US movies performed well – Zootopia is currently on $207m – others did not make it to release in China. The country does not have an official certification system and all films are edited to be acceptable for all ages, with authorities and film-makers usually liaising over required cuts.

In the case of Deadpool – which earlier this week became the best-performing R-rated film ever – the frequency of inappropriate material meant a compromise could not be met.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, by contrast, was afforded release, and boosted month-end takings around the globe, including in China.

Over the Chinese New Year period in 2016, the country set a new record for the highest box office gross during one week in one territory. It made $548m, overtaking the previous record of $529.6m, which was set over the 2015 Christmas week in north America.

[GeneChing]

I'm a little surprised that it has taken this long to start on this. After all, all the Hollywood movie merch is made in China.


China's Film Industry Targets Merchandising as New Revenue Stream (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chinas-film-industry-merchandising-growth-884688)
6:30 AM PDT 4/18/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

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The producers of Chinese hit 'Monster Hunt' are developing movie merchandise for its upcoming sequels.
Courtesy of Edko Films

While China's box office is surging, the country's revenue from consumer products is just a trickle compared to Hollywood, but the local industry is looking to change that.

The explosive growth of China's box office is the envy of the global film industry. But amidst the country's surging ticket sales, many areas of China's entertainment sector still lag far behind Hollywood — none more so than movie merchandising.

Such was the consensus on Monday at the Beijing International Film Festival's first annual Chinese Film Merchandising Summit, which featured a panel of influential executives from both Chinese and Hollywood studios.

China's box office expanded 50 percent in the first quarter of 2016, and the country is projected to overtake North America as the world's largest theatrical territory next year.

But as Beijing's deputy mayor Li Shixiang pointed out during a keynote preceding the panel, 80 percent of China's film-related revenue comes from box office, whereas in North America, just 30 percent comes from ticket sales.

"The rest is made of up of derivative products," the deputy mayor said, adding: "It's very important for us to develop a merchandise industry ... Our hope is that not only the Chinese audience will know Iron Man and the Transformers, but families around the world will own figurines of the Monkey King and other Chinese characters."

As the seminar in Beijing on Monday laid bare, the Chinese industry has begun making efforts to bootstrap its nascent merchandising business. Last year, China Film Group, the country's dominant state-backed film enterprise, created a research institute for movie merchandising in collaboration with the Beijing Film Institute, which also added a movie merchandising major to its film studies programs.

Jeffrey Godsick, president of consumer products at 20th Century Fox, said he believes China's merchandising space will soon follow the explosive growth of the exhibition sector. He said he has made three trips to China so far this year as Fox is "spending a lot of time here looking for local partners."

"Chinese consumers want authenticity and they want real brands," Godsick said. "This is the most exciting moment in the history of merchandising in China, because you're starting at the beginning and you understand how important it is in the industry and you're taking it very seriously."

Jerry Ye, CEO of leading Chinese studio Huayi Brothers Pictures, agreed that the sector was important, but noted the considerable challenges Chinese studios still face in launching healthy merchandising divisions.

"Every country's toys are manufactured in China, so why can't we produce toys for our own films?" Ye asked. "The development of the IP industry must first have an environment of copyright protection to defend our IP from knock-offs," he explained. "Otherwise, these products will only be another form of promotion for the films, and not a very good form."

Once copyright protection is in place, Chinese studios will still require more time to develop strong franchises to build product lines around, Ye said. "We need to create our own super heroes," he said. "Your film first has to become very successful to be well-suited for merchandised products."

Some in the Chinese industry believe changes in local tastes and improvements in copyright enforcement have already created a viable marketplace for high-quality movie goods, provided that IP holders, manufacturers and retailers can make it as easy to acquire legitimate products as it is to get pirated products.

"Consumers' purchasing power has been growing rapidly and under these circumstances they are looking for great products and not just great films," said La Peking, chairman of China Film Group, adding: "Since 2015, the merchandising sector has been growing quickly.

Last year, Chinese media company Mtime, which runs a popular movie reviews site and a mobile ticketing service, partnered with real estate and investment conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group to launch over 50 brick-and-mortar stores in cinemas in 10 cities, laying the groundwork for a cross-country online-to-offline merchandise service. The company released a mobile app in December, making it possible for cinema chains to order licensed film goods directly to their theaters with a few clicks.

So far, Mtime's service has mostly trafficked in Hollywood merchandise, as Chinese production companies are just beginning to develop merchandise-able franchises to feed local demand.

In a video montage played during Monday's panel at the Beijing festival, Hong Kong director Raman Hui, director of China's second highest-grossing film ever, Monster Hunt ($385 million), noted how his film missed a merchandising opportunity during its wildly successful run in cinemas last July.

A live-action CGI adventure-fantasy featuring a color cast of monsters, the movie would indeed ripe for development into wildly popular toys. "A lot of people were making bad knock-offs and there was not much we could do, because we didn't make any merchandise for the first film," Hui said. "At that time, I said to my boss, 'we should have started this years ago'."

The boss in question was Hong Kong super-producer Bill Kong, chairman of Edko Films, who was among Monday's panelists.

"Before a film comes into reality, how do you know it will become popular?" Kong said. "At the beginning of Monster Hunt, we went to McDonald's and KFC [to talk about some merchandising] and they didn't take us seriously — the talks went nowhere."

Kong said a sequel to Monster Hunt, again directed by Hui, a DreamWorks Animation veteran, will be released in the summer of 2018, followed by a third film at a later date.

"We'll be paying more attention to merchandising in the future," Kong said.

[GeneChing]

Hollywood's Good News/Bad News China Problem (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywoods-good-news-bad-news-900242)
5:00 AM PDT 6/8/2016 by Paul Bond

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The country's movie industry is set to grow 19 percent a year and reach $15 billion, says PwC's new annual report, but the U.S. share of it is declining rapidly.
After years of ratcheting projections for China's box office higher, experts now predict the country with nearly 1.4 billion citizens will overtake the U.S. (population 323 million) as the planet's most lucrative cinema market in 2017 — and absolutely crush it for years thereafter.

That's potentially good news for the U.S.-based entertainment industry, which has made significant inroads in China. The bad news: Hollywood's share of the Chinese box office slipped from 46 percent in 2014 to 38 percent in 2015 as the quality of local films improves and a state-sponsored quota on outside movies remains. In fact, Hengdian World Studios — sprawled across 7,000 acres in eastern China — now is the world's biggest film studio.

By 2020, China's box office is projected to top $15 billion, while the U.S. will just hit $11 billion — courtesy of 19 percent annual growth, compared with 2 percent — according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' Global Entertainment and Media Outlook. China already has surpassed the U.S. as the largest market for 3D films. The country is adding 15 screens a day and could be primed for more because China has only 23 screens per 1 million people, compared with 125 per million in the U.S. There's also room for ticket inflation: The average price in China is projected to be $6.04 in 2020, compared with $9.02 in the U.S.

Switching to television, the study reveals global growth would be anemic if not for strength in advertising, which is increasing at 4.7 percent annually. With competition from the internet, the U.S. TV industry — sans advertising — is projected to shrink in 2020 compared with 2019, a first during the 17 years PwC has published its annual report. Domestically, revenue from over-the-top services already has overtaken that from physical home video and is set to do so globally in 2017. An X-factor is virtual reality, which PwC's Matt Lieberman says will begin having a small effect on TV in two years. The research firm is running focus groups for clients who have turned TV content into VR experiences. "They're doing deep dives into which genres and demographics work best," he says. "This is one to watch."

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This story first appeared in the June 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Nice graphs...

[GeneChing]

Shanghai Film Festival: China to Top U.S. Screen Total by 2017, Says Wanda Cinema Chief (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/shanghai-film-festival-china-top-901867)
8:37 AM PDT 6/12/2016 by Abid Rahman

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Zeng Maojun says 21 new screens a day are being built in the country and that 80,000 screens is optimum number for China's population.
China will overtake the U.S. in total number of screens next year, according to Zeng Maojun, president of Wanda Cinema Line, the country's biggest exhibitor.

Speaking Sunday at the “Communication or Confrontation: On Capitalizing the Chinese Film Industry” forum at the Shanghai International Film Festival, Zeng said that China was adding 21 new screens a day and that the demand for new theaters was still far from maturity.

In 2015, China had 31,627 screens, an increase of 8,035 screens from the previous year. The MPAA's annual market review put U.S. screen numbers at 40,547 in 2015, a 262-screen increase from 2014. At a rate of 21 new screens per day, China should be just shy of 40,000 screens by the end of 2016 and is on track to overtake the U.S. in early 2017.

Maojun rejected the notion that there was a bubble in screen-building in China, which some have linked to the vagaries of shopping mall construction in the country. With China's economy slowing from its breakneck pace of the 2000s, shopping mall construction has likewise slowed. Zeng conceded that some cities such as Chengdu were at saturation point when it came to theaters, but that there were still many cities that were underserved.

Wanda Cinema Line, part of the giant Dalian Wanda conglomerate that also owns AMC Entertainment in the U.S and Hoyts in Australia, has 6,000 screens in China and Zeng was bullish on the near-term prospects for his company and the wider market.

He added that China could comfortably support 80,000 screens, double the U.S. number, in the coming years.

Later in the discussion, Zeng revealed Wanda Cinema's push to increase its customer loyalty membership program, which currently stands at 60 million users in China. He also said that AMC was looking to increase its membership program from 3 million users to 10 million users by the end of 2016 and the company is seeking similar growth for Hoyts.

The Wanda Group hopes to have 100 million members worldwide for its various theater brands by 2020. This strategy to increase membership dovetails with the group's data mining strategy, Zeng said, the plan being to have more targeted releases for audiences by category, demographically and even geographically.


It's all about Warcraft (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69449-Warcraft) right now.

[GeneChing]

Eastern promise: the Hollywood films making their money in China (https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/jun/14/hollywood-films-in-china-asia-market-warcraft-the-beginning?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1)
With Warcraft: The Beginning breaking records in Asia yet failing in its homeland, what does the future hold for American-made blockbusters?

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Big in China ... clockwise from top left, Pacific Rim, Terminator: Genisys, Warcraft: The Beginning and Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Benjamin Lee @benfraserlee
Tuesday 14 June 2016 13.38 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 14 June 2016 17.03 EDT

The ambitiously, or perhaps foolishly, titled orcs v humans video game adaptation Warcraft: The Beginning was perceived as not just a standalone summer blockbuster but the first instalment in an epic new series of adventures. Before the film had even been released, director Duncan Jones was teasing that more was to come and Universal, a studio that’s seen franchises bloom in recent years from Fast & Furious to Despicable Me to Fifty Shades, was surely eyeing a Lord of the Rings style profit-making saga.

But as every poorly received trailer and poster landed online, the buzz started to smell worse than the inside of an orc’s boot. The reviews were reflective of this undeniable stench. It was labelled “a contender for the worst movie of the year” and one reviewer hoped that the sequel “languishes in development hell forever”. Audiences made this a safe bet with a disastrous US opening of just $24.4m, meaning its domestic gross would be unlikely to make back even half of its $160m budget. Game over.

But on the other side of the world, one country was desperately inserting coins to continue. Warcraft opened in China to a record-breaking five-day total of $156m, the highest ever debut for a foreign release, thanks to the game’s popularity, a whopping 26 brand sponsors and a stack of specially created localised marketing materials. Along with a strong showing from other countries, it’s up to $300m worldwide, with analysts suggesting that an entirely achievable $450m would be the magic break-even number that might even lead to a sequel.

Its success has come just a week after news of John Boyega signing on to star in Pacific Rim 2, pushing the film closer to production. In 2013, this seemed an unlikely proposition. The reviews were more positive for Guillermo del Toro’s brash monster movie, but it failed to find the required audience in the US. A $101m total might sound respectable but from a $190m budget, it’s a disaster. Yet the film scored overseas, making $114m in China and topping out at $411m worldwide.

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Rinko Kikuchi in Pacific Rim. Photograph: Warner Bros

The sequel, again teased early on by the original film’s director, was still far from a sure thing, but in the years since China’s box office has become even more important, with 2016 set to be the year that the country overtakes the US. Pacific Rim 2 then became the first Hollywood sequel to be greenlit thanks to international audiences, and, if China continues to embrace the orcs actioner, Warcraft: The Middle could well be on the way.

However, it’s not guaranteed. The resurrection of the Terminator franchise was seen as a regrettable decision by critics and audiences in the US, but in China, Terminator: Genisys was a hit, making $113m compared with a US total of just $89m. Ultimately, Paramount decided against their planned sequel, despite a $440m worldwide number.

There’s also a problem with heritage when it comes to Chinese blockbusters. The success of Warcraft and Pacific Rim could be traced back to their relative newness. But the success of sequels and reboots often relies on brand awareness, and since many Hollywood films have never been released in China, that’s not always easy to ensure. Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke records around the world, but it was only moderately successful with Chinese audiences and its final underwhelming gross was seen by some analysts as the reason why the film didn’t beat Avatar’s international record. The first film in the series to be released in the country was Phantom Menace in 1999, meaning the saga doesn’t have the same feverish cult following in China. The forthcoming spin-off Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has smartly recruited Chinese stars Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen.

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Joseph Gordon Levitt in Looper. Photograph: Sony Pictures/AP

If we’re being cynical, it’s a tactical casting decision, but it’s far from a new trend. Transformers: Age of Extinction was part-funded by China Movie Channel and utilised local talent and locations, while Iron Man 3 included extra footage in China with popular actor Fan Bingbing. It all started, though, with a more modestly budgeted film: 2009’s indie time-travel thriller Looper. A co-production with a Chinese company led to a major location change from Paris to Shanghai for key scenes, extended for the Chinese release, and it became the first US film to open to more money in China than at home. Working with a Chinese company also means that the film is exempt from the country’s strict annual quota of just 34 foreign movie releases (a number that may increase next year).

Warcraft: The Beginning was also a co-production between Universal and Legendary, a company that has recently become a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate Wanda Media Group. Next year, the company is set to release prequel Kong: Skull Island and The Great Wall, a China-set fantasy adventure from director Zhang Yimou starring Matt Damon, a film that’s a clear sign of a growing commercial relationship between the two countries as well as a creative one.

It’s still likely to leave many Hollywood films unaffected but could lead to worrying side-effects. While spectacle translates well to international audiences, humour isn’t always as easy. Guardians of the Galaxy proved a hit with critics and audiences in most of the world, but it didn’t catch on in China. The title translation to Interplanetary Unusual Attacking Team goes some way to explain why the film’s unique brand of comedy was tough to convey. The less joke-heavy X-Men: Apocalypse has already eclipsed it.

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Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool. Photograph: Allstar Picture Library

It’s also likely to affect content on a broader level, with Chinese censorship still notoriously stringent. Deadpool was denied a release in the country thanks to its violence, nudity and language, while Crimson Peak was barred because of its supernatural content as the censorship guidelines prohibit films that “promote cults or superstition”. An alarming, commercially minded future could see all blockbusters conforming to Chinese rules in order to maximise profits.

The overseas success of Warcraft: The Beginning is an undeniable turning point for global box office, but the long-term effects remain unknown. Jackie Chan believes that it will lead to more homegrown blockbusters, once the Chinese film industry realises the money that can be made. That would make sense and hopefully curb an influx of overly modified US offerings.

Appealing to an international audience doesn’t need to be a bad thing, but if the industry spends too much time and effort directing content to one country, one that has an entirely different view on so many issues, Hollywood could end up losing its domestic audience. Warcraft: The Beginning (and the end), please.

It's all about Warcraft now.

[Jimbo]

How about, rather than Hollywood movies having to conform to China's censorship rules, that the Chinese censors be less uptight, open their minds a little and adapt themselves? Of course, that's too much to ask. TBH, I've become very picky about which Hollywood 'blockbusters' I'll even watch anymore, but I do NOT believe that China should be able to dictate the content and subjects of movies made here, or anywhere else outside of China. They're using their own admittedly lucrative market (along with buying up much of the U.S., including in Hollywood) as a passive-aggressive bid at world domination, and unfortunately, far too many people and corporations in this country are only too willing to bend over and take it from them. Last I heard, the U.S. isn't a communist country (not yet, anyway).

[mickey]

They're using their own admittedly lucrative market (along with buying up much of the U.S., including in Hollywood) as a passive-aggressive bid at world domination, and unfortunately, far too many people and corporations in this country are only too willing to bend over and take it from them.

Greetings,

Jimbo (thank you for the pm): I thought I was the only lit candle in the dark with regard to the above. The amount of power China is flexing is a reflection of the massive amount of debt the USA is in. It seems that the only way out would be WAR. Back in the early '90s, someone I knew predicted that the USA would get into a very big war with China. Time will tell.

mickey

[Jimbo]

Greetings,

Jimbo (thank you for the pm): I thought I was the only lit candle in the dark with regard to the above. The amount of power China is flexing is a reflection of the massive amount of debt the USA is in. It seems that the only way out would be WAR. Back in the early '90s, someone I knew predicted that the USA would get into a very big war with China. Time will tell.

mickey

mickey,

I've actually been observing this since the '90s. But for all their sabre-rattling and military buildup, I have doubts that China wants to actually get into a war militarily with the U.S., or any other country that could potentially inflict damage in return. No, IMO their war is with dollars, and unfortunately, it's working very well for them. They know very well that American corporate greed, and the willingness of consumers to prefer cheaper, generally inferior products made in China over higher-quality but more expensive products produced elsewhere (among other things), is making their goal easy. China has also been buying up much of the world's gold.

I remember hearing from an American businessman who worked in China for a time, and he said that a high-powered Chinese businesswoman flat-out told him, gleefully, that China's ultimate goal was to financially ruin/take over the U.S. and become THE number one world superpower.

In Hollywood nowadays, there cannot even be a Chinese villain anymore. Everything has to depict them as the great partner/savior of the world. And of course, Hollywood bows down obediently and does as it's told. It's a very insidious, wolf-in-sheep's-clothing type of situation.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying all the people in China are in on this, but it's clear that their government and big corporations certainly are.

[mickey]

Greetings,

Jimbo, I agree with your observations. It would be the US government who would want the war. It is pretty much their only vice.

I met someone who was into finances and he shared it is the government to which the debt is owed who really calls the shots. So, the USA is very much on the brink of collapse or has already done so, with media is only maintaining appearances. This person also shared that he is glad he has dual citizenship because when it really hits the fan, he has a place to go to and live easy. He does not have one moment of worry.


mickey

[GeneChing]

Elaine Feng Named President of Warner Bros.' Chinese Studio Flagship Entertainment (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/elaine-feng-heads-warner-bros-905792)
1:07 AM PDT 6/23/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

http://cdn5.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/portrait_300x450/2016/06/elaine_feng_2016.jpg
Elaine Feng
Flagship Entertainment

The joint-venture studio is developing remakes of "Miss Congeniality" and Adam Sandler's "Blended," along with at least 10 other Chiense-language titles.
Elaine Feng is the new boss of Flagship Entertainment, the Chinese film studio co-owned by Warner Bros' and China Media Capital.

In the newly created role as President of Flagship Entertainment, Feng will oversee day-to-day operations, including staffing, operations and creative development, as well as marketing and co-production activities. Feng moves to Flagship from her role as CEO of Warner Music China, where she handled Warner Music Group's recorded music operations for the region.

Launched in September last year as a joint venture between Warner and public equity and venture capital firm China Media Capital, Flagship Entertainment aims to produce high-end Chinese-language films for the country's booming theatrical market, as well as international territories.

In March, Flagship announced its first slate of 12 films, including titles of every genre with a wide range of budgets. The studio is developing Chinese remakes of Miss Congeniality and Adam Sandler's Blended, along with an original disaster picture titled Crater and other titles. The studio is targeting its first release for later this year.

"'I'm honored to lead Flagship Pictures China at this important juncture," said Feng. "Not only is this a unique opportunity to put my experience across the media, Internet and entertainment sectors to use in the rapidly growing and evolving Chinese film industry, it's also a privilege to play a role in realizing the vision so clear in the DNA of both partners — the pursuit of excellence and the creation of impactful films."

Warner Bros veteran Richard Fox relocated to China late last year to head up and oversee the studio's minority 49 percent stake in Flagship. It is understood that Feng and Fox will work side-by-side, with no formal reporting structure between the two.

"Elaine possesses rich experience, expertise and contacts across the creative and operational sides in both traditional media and internet space, and makes a great leader for Flagship," said Ruigang Li, chairman of CMC, in a statement. "We believe she will bring out maximum potential for our company as we establish Flagship as an important player in the Chinese-language film business within China and globally."

Added Kevin Tsujihara, Chairman and CEO, Warner Bros: "With Elaine, we’re getting someone with long track record of success across the Chinese entertainment industry. She's strategic, creative and well-connected, and has the knowledge and experience necessary to establish and position Flagship for ongoing success."

That Miss Congeniality remake better have some Kung Fu.

[GeneChing]

I'm lying. I love to say "I told ya so." :cool:


Hollywood’s Latest Stars Hail From China (http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-partners-mine-box-office-gold-for-hollywood-movies-1467103836)
Big marketing efforts from Chinese partners give box-office edge to ‘Warcraft,’ other films
“Warcraft” is now the highest-grossing video game film of all time. Watch what happens when China is fully behind a Hollywood film. Photo: AP
Updated June 28, 2016 4:57 a.m. ET

BEIJING—It was hard to avoid “Warcraft” in China in recent weeks.

Bus stops in the country’s big cities and shelves in its grocery stores advertised the film based on the “Warcraft” videogame franchise. Warrior images popped up on popular ride-hailing apps and web browsers. A 6-meter-high “Doomhammer” weapon was erected in Beijing’s upscale Sanlitun shopping district.

The movie—produced by Legendary Entertainment, the Hollywood studio purchased by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co. this year—has racked up more than $210 million from Chinese moviegoers so far. This is about five times its U.S. box-office tally, hammering home the audience numbers that a Hollywood movie can unlock in China with the help of the right Chinese partner.

Another Chinese-backed Hollywood movie, the Lionsgate comedy “Now You See Me 2,” took in about $43 million in its first weekend after opening Friday, compared with $22.4 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. earlier in June. The movie, backed by Hunan TV & Broadcast Intermediary Co., set an opening record for a Lionsgate title in China.

At a time of ramped-up competition in China’s movie sector, whose box office is set to overtake its U.S. counterpart next year, and with Chinese regulators limiting the number of foreign movies and blocking them from opening during peak periods, Hollywood studios are increasingly looking for an edge in China.

“Having Chinese partners on board brings the level of support to a Hollywood film that those without cannot compete with,” said Fu Yalong, research director of EntGroup, a film data company based in Beijing.

For “Warcraft,” almost everything about how it was marketed was a study in contrast with the usual obstacles Hollywood films face in China.

“Warcraft” was allowed to open at an opportune time, right after national college-entrance exams and during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival. That made it a prime holiday destination for a generation of videogamers—often with their dates.

Wanda helped make sure that anyone who wanted to see the movie could. Its theater chain, China’s biggest, offered nearly 80% of its scheduling slots to “Warcraft” on its opening day, and more than 70% later that weekend.

Other chains in which Wanda has interests also overwhelmingly showed “Warcraft” on its screens.

Lin Hao drove across Beijing to take a look at the Doomhammer, a legendary weapon used by orc-warrior leaders. For the 30-year-old engineer, “Warcraft” struck a nostalgic note, evoking days and nights of “fighting for the horde” in dorm rooms.

“I like special effects and reminiscing about the game,” said Mr. Lin, who took his wife, a nongamer, to watch the movie.

When “Warcraft” started flagging at the box office in its second weekend—dropping nearly 63% compared with its opening weekend—Wanda offered free or discounted movie tickets at its theaters. The campaign filled 1.71 million seats in its theaters over three days, Wanda said.

State regulators usually give Hollywood studios only about a month’s notice when they set a movie’s release date, leaving little time for marketing campaigns. In the case of “Warcraft,” Legendary said 26 well-established brands committed to creating commercial campaigns before the release date was set, from Ping An Insurance to dairy giant Mengniu.

A person familiar with the matter said such sponsors contributed about $200 million in brand support, a sizable lever for Legendary, whose typical marketing budget is about $6 million or $7 million a movie, the person said.

Hunan TV, which has co-financed a series of films with Lionsgate, has already promoted “Now You See Me 2” for months, running footage of the film’s lead characters during a satellite-television Lunar New Year extravaganza in February, one of the country’s most-watched shows.

With about 80% of movie tickets bought online in China, the backing of one of China’s internet giants represents something of a Holy Grail for Hollywood studios.

https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OJ-AL530A_CHOLL_16U_20160627041206.jpg

Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd., the film arm of Alibaba Group Holding, an investor in Paramount’s comic-book adaptation “Teenage Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” is pushing ads for the movie across Alibaba’s network, including ticketing platforms, the Taobao online store and the Weibo social-media platform.

Leveraging its reach, Alibaba is using big data from its ticketing platform and Taobao to send digital discount codes to a targeted audience and is working with more than 100 brands, in areas such as food delivery, popcorn and supermarkets, to use images from the “Turtles” in ads across China’s cities.

Tencent Holding Ltd., an investor in “Warcraft,” promoted it on its social-media platforms QQ and WeChat, each with hundreds of millions of active users, and ran ads with its exclusively streamed videos of National Basketball Association championship games to tens of millions.

Legendary has yet to decide whether there will be a sequel to “Warcraft,” but is now working on sequels to the sci-fi film “Pacific Rim,” which grossed more in China than stateside, and the monster film “Godzilla.” The company said it aims to develop these two sequels as China-U.S. co-productions.

For the Chinese partners, besides sharing in the box office, there are other advantages to the Hollywood ties.

“Working with the best foreign production companies will help us to bring our own Chinese content to the outside world in the future,” said Zhou Shixing, chief content officer of Hunan TV.

—Lilian Lin

[GeneChing]

...didn't quite see that coming, but we should have...:o


China Lifts Summer Blackout on Hollywood Films Amid Box-Office Slowdown (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-lifts-summer-blackout-hollywood-909264)
4:06 AM PDT 7/8/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

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"The Legend of Tarzan"
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

After years of blocking Hollywood movies during the peak summer blockbuster season, why is China letting a few foreign tentpoles back in?
China's film authorities appear to be taking a step back from one of Hollywood's least favorite policies.

For years, Chinese regulators have imposed a blackout on foreign-film imports during the peak summer blockbuster season. Known locally as a "domestic movie protection period," the policy was designed to boost the local industry by giving Chinese-made movies an uncontested run at cinemas during the summer school break, which lasts, roughly, from late June through August. Additional blackouts are instituted during Chinese New Year in February and during the Golden Week holiday in October.

Last year's summer blackout ran June 19 to Aug. 23. It had the desired effect: Raman Hui's CGI-live-action fantasy Monster Hunt grossed $385.2 million to become China's then biggest film ever, and other local pictures like Monkey King and superhero spoof Pancake Man earned over $150 million each.

But regulators have loosened their grip for this summer. According to precedents set in recent years, Independence Day: Resurgence, released June 24, should have been the last Hollywood tentpole to market, but instead Paramount's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows was granted a July 2 release date (it easily won the weekend against a Chinese-Korean co-production). More surprising, Warner Bros.' The Legend of Tarzan has been scheduled for July 19 — Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie were in Beijing promoting the movie Thursday night — and Universal's The Secret Life of Pets is set for Aug. 2. Chinese production companies will then get a reprieve until Ice Age: Collision Course comes out on Aug. 23 and Jason Bourne bows on Sept. 1.

Insiders say two factors are behind the policy shift.

"There are two stats that matter to the people who make these decisions," a Beijing-based executive tells THR, asking not to be named while commenting on policy matters. "One is the market share of foreign films versus local movies, and the other is the overall growth rate at the end of the year — the second stat is probably slightly more important," the executive adds.

In the first quarter of 2016, Chinese films did historic business. Led by Stephen Chow's The Mermaid, which earned $528 million from China alone, local movies accounted for nearly 75 percent of the box office over the quarter, fueling year-over-year growth of 51 percent. This big early lead likely gave regulators confidence that Chinese movies would maintain at least more than 50 percent market share by year's end, which the central government is understood to insist upon.

But the second quarter presented an almost opposite picture. For the first time in over five years, the overall Chinese box office shrank for a full quarter, slipping nearly 5 percent compared with the same period in 2015. Spring is usually a Hollywood-designated release window, and imports indeed led the way, taking $1.1 billion (topped by Legendary Entertainment's Warcraft with $220.8 million), but this represented a year-over-year gain of just under 2 percent. Local movies, meanwhile, totaled just $374 million during the second quarter, a 21 percent fall from last year. Still, Chinese films accounted for 53.1 percent market share in the first half of the year thanks to the big hits of the first quarter. (The data was supplied by Beijing-based box office monitor Ent Group.)

Insiders say regulators may have let a few Hollywood titles in this summer to hedge against the possible continued under-performance of local movies. "I don't see anything coming out soon that looks like it's going to light people's hair on fire," says one source.

"In the absence of very strong Chinese movies, if you put in a two-month blackout, the theaters are going to struggle and that's bad for the industry," says the Beijing executive.

In 2015, the box office grew an eye-popping 48 percent in China, leading to widespread predictions that the country would surpass North America as the world's largest theatrical territory in 2017.

"What if the trend from the second quarter continues for the next four or five months, and the year ends at less than 10 percent growth?" the exec adds. "All those people who predicted China would overtake North America as the world's biggest market by 2017 will look a little stupid — and nobody here wants that."

[GeneChing]

Woah, wait, what about Kungfu Yoga (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68161-Kungfu-Yoga&p=1277810#post1277810) (et.al.)?


Eros’ Trinity Launches First India-China Co-Productions (http://variety.com/2016/film/asia/trinity-india-china-co-productions-1201815157/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/han-sanping.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
AP PHOTO/VINCENT YU
JULY 15, 2016 | 05:52AM PT

Trinity Pictures, the film production arm of India’s distribution giant Eros International, has struck a deal to co-produce two franchise movies with Chinese partners. Both films will shoot in the two countries and be made in dual language versions.

With China’s Pea**** Mountain Culture & Media and state-owned Huaxia Film Distribution, Trinity will produce Kabir Khan’s travel drama, “The Zookeeper” and Siddharth Anand’s, “Love in Beijing.” Han Sanping, former head of China Film Group, is set as the pair’s creative producer.

“The Zookeeper” is a human drama that, tells of the journey of an Indian zoo keeper who travels China to find a panda to return to India with, in order to save his zoo. The budget is set at $25 million. The cast will include a leading Indian star and a top Chinese actress. A significant portion of the shoot will be in Chengdu.

Anand’s cross-cultural romantic comedy, “Love in Beijing,” about an Indian girl who falls in love with a Chinese man, will feature an A-list Indian actress and a leading Chinese male actor. The production budget is $15 million. Both films are set for delivery in the 2018 fiscal year.

“The original stories were developed by the Trinity Pictures Writers’ Room, creative teams from both Trinity Pictures and the Chinese film companies worked closely on the scripts to create storylines that blend Sino-Indian culture,” Trinity said in a statement.

The deals are in addition to the Chinese agreements Trinity struck last year. Last year, Eros International signed memorandums with leading Chinese state owned film companies, China Film Group Corp, Shanghai Film Group and Fudan University for the exploitation of intellectual property rights as well as to develop, co-produce and distribute Indo-China films across all platforms in both countries.

“With Trinity, we also want to tell stories that transcend the language barrier and have mainstream appeal. We believe our Indo-China co-productions will be game-changing as we pave the way to open up one of the largest film markets in the world,” said Jyote Deshpande, CEO of Eros International.

“Getting the right and the organic story was one of the most important aspect for both the teams from beginning. Hope the movie shapes up to be a true co-production,” said Allen Liu, partner, Pea**** Mountain, in a statement.

I suppose this could mean the first India-China Co-Productions for Eros’ Trinity...:rolleyes:

[GeneChing]

Summer sequels stay afloat with boost from overseas box office (http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2016/08/01/international-summer-box-office-warcraft-now-see-you-me-2-ghostbusters/87543330/)
Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY 5:11 p.m. EDT August 1, 2016

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/b63a0d426936096aebd4058a05b14dc6080a9f10/c=359-0-4721-3280&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/2016/07/25/USATODAY/USATODAY/636050637958719945-XXX-IMG-NOW-YOU-SEE-ME-2-NYS-4-1-EJEKOO4B-82495194-1-.JPG
(Photo: Jay Maidment)

Thanks in large part to the appetite of overseas audiences, there's no relief in sight from underwhelming sequels and reboots.

Franchise movies that tanked in North America this summer have found redemption at the international box office. Independence Day: Resurgence bombed stateside, earning only $102 million on a $165 million budget, but managed a healthy $270.8 million abroad. Alice Through the Looking Glass and X-Men: Apocalypse each made more than 70% of their box office in foreign markets ($206.3 million and $379.1 million, respectively), while 83% of Ice Age: Collision Course's earnings are international ($211.6 million vs. $42.1 million domestically).

"International is playing a huge part not only in saving some of these sequels, but also making sure that there is another," says Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. Even after five installments of Ice Age, for example, that's "a franchise that will continue, despite the lackluster audiences in the United States and Canada."

Another is magician thriller Now You See Me 2, which performed modestly in the USA with $64.6 million, but conjured a mystifying $238.8 million overseas, $97.1 million of that in China. "That is definitely one of those that's going to have a trilogy specifically because of China," Bock adds.

Last year alone, China's box office raked in $6.8 billion — not far behind North America's $11.1 billion, according to the Motion Picture Association of America's Theatrical Market Statistics summary. Not only is it the second-largest movie market, but "the single most important overseas," says Daniel Loria, editorial director at tracking site BoxOffice.com. This year, tentpole movies are "making about a quarter of their gross in North America and three-quarters overseas. China is a huge driver in that push."

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'Warcraft' crashed and burned stateside, but did record-breaking business overseas. (Photo: Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures)

As a result, the market has the ability to make or break a potential franchise. One of the biggest tests of its might will be video-game adaptation Warcraft, which misfired with only $47.2 million in the USA. But the $160 million fantasy adventure has earned an astounding 89% of its $433 million worldwide haul in foreign markets — $220.8 million of which comes from China, where it broke records with the largest debut for a foreign release in the country's history.

"Warcraft would be an outright disaster if it weren't for China," Bock says. Although Legendary Pictures has yet to announce a second movie, there's a chance that "a sequel might bypass North America because of how strong it was there. If they craft it a little more toward Chinese audiences, next time it could be looking at an even larger gross." That could mean casting Chinese actors or filming in China, as Lionsgate is planning to do with its just-greenlit Chinese-language spinoff of the Now You See Me franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Despite less-than-enthusiastic reviews, new installments of The Smurfs, The Croods and Transformers franchises are expected next year, all of which have previously earned upward of 65% of their box office overseas. But other summer disappointments such as Ghostbusters face a bigger uphill climb on the road to future films.

Paul Feig's all-female reboot has so far scared up $106.2 million in the USA but just $52.1 million overseas. With its hefty $144 million budget, it will need to make at least two or three times what it already has in order to turn a profit and justify sequels — a hurdle further complicated by the fact that it hasn't yet secured distribution in China because of the country's ban on films that promote "cults or superstitious beliefs," according to Variety.

"You have to have China these days if your film is on the fence, and this is definitely on the fence," Bock says. Also working against Ghostbusters is that it's "really more of a comedy than a true-blue (summer action movie), and those don't always translate. It's dropping very fast in those (overseas) markets and that's not a good sign."

I'm going to have to change the name of my Chollywood Rising column soon. Maybe it'll be Chollywood Risen? Chollywood Awakens? Maybe I should lose the whole 'Chollywood' term as that was bounced around when the column started and has long since been abandoned. :o

[GeneChing]

China Box Office Still On Track To Overtake U.S. In 2017 Despite Recent Slump: Report (http://deadline.com/2016/08/china-box-office-overtake-us-2017-1201805401/)
by Nancy Tartaglione
August 18, 2016 9:45am

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A slowing of its fortunes in the past few months isn’t expected to stop Chinese box office from overtaking the U.S. in 2017 for the first time. That’s according to new data compiled by Bloomberg. Middle Kingdom moviehouses are on track to rake in $10.4 billion in 2017, versus an estimated $10.2B for the U.S. market, according to average projections by IHS Markit and PwC. It’s important to note here that the figures do not rep North America, which are projected by comScore to hit $11.6B in 2016. The projections in question are just for the U.S. market versus China.

Next year will be particularly interesting to watch given a new U.S.-China contract is to be negotiated. That will update and replace the February 2012 agreement that saw the Middle Kingdom increase quotas and revenue share for the studios. Who the American president turns out to be could also certainly have an impact here.

Looking at this year, things got off to a strong start. In February, Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid helped push Middle Kingdom box office to a record 6.87B yuan ($1.05B) for the month. That was the first time Chinese turnstiles outspun those in North America during a single month. U.S.-only box office was bested by the PROC in February 2015.

Chinese ticket sales are expected to increase by 22% in 2017, says Bloomberg. But this year has been topsy-turvy since February and that has resulted in skeptics wondering if the breakneck momentum China has demonstrated is experiencing a temporary hiccup or something more permanent.

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Universal Studios

The second quarter of this year was down 4.6% with July’s takings then off about 18.6%. That was the first time in five years that such a decline has been witnessed in the rapidly expanding market. June, however, was buoyed by Warcraft which at $221M in receipts is the No. 3 movie of the year behind Zootopia at No. 2 with $236M and The Mermaid at $527M. Those films helped push overall box office up over 2015 in the first frew months of 2016.

The rest of the year has been marked by some local misfires, particularly in July which is traditionally a blackout month where homegrown pics thrive. The star-studded League Of Gods fell hard in its second week, for example. The summer has now delivered only two Mandarin-language movies to cross $100M: Skiptrace with Jackie Chan (and Johnny Knoxville and partly in English) and the recent 3D adventure fantasy release Time Raiders.

“Local films just aren’t resonating like they did last year,” an industry source recently told me, but this person also suggets a reversal ahead. As Chinese audiences grow more sophistocated, local films are expected to attempt production values that emulate Hollywood.

Another reason box office has slowed this year is believed to be the government’s vow to crack down on the practice of inflating returns. Last year’s Monster Hunt was hit by reports of empty but sold out screenings every 15 minutes, and producer Edko Pictures admitted to giving away $6.2M worth of tickets near the end of the run. It also said it was instituting serious criticism to those involved at the ground level.

The authorities this year slapped the distributor of March’s Ip Man 3 with a one-month suspension for fraud. But some sources believe manipulation continues and has negatively affected moviegoers who can’t see films they want — instead opting out of going to the movies at all — and that has a trickle-down effect. There are also fewer discounts on tickets.

The next big Hollywood releases in China are Jason Bourne and Ice Age: Collision Course which both go out next Tuesday. That mid-week release date means some things haven’t changed from last year when we saw the tactic of double-dating and few Friday releases in the fall for Hollywood. Star Trek Beyond is set for September 2 and should also give a boost to business. The amount of screens is expected to rise to about 40K by the end of 2016. Beyond that, it’s a wait-and-see game as there are currently no Hollywood and few Chinese films dated into 2017.

What should I change the name of our Chollywood Rising column to next year? Chollywood is a really outdated term - it'll be even more so when China outgrows Hollywood.

[GeneChing]

...who'd a thunk the the Chicoms plan for world domination was going to be through movie theaters?


Alibaba Pictures to Build Its Own Cinemas (http://variety.com/2016/biz/asia/alibaba-pictures-to-build-cinemas-1201840072/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/alibaba-pictures-full-logo1.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
COURTESY OF ALIBABA
AUGUST 18, 2016 | 04:45AM PT

Alibaba Pictures Group is planning a move into the construction and operation of cinemas in China.

The company is the movies arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and has its own share listings in Hong Kong and Singapore.

“APG has set up a team in charge of this (cinema) business and the team is already operational,” an Alibaba Pictures spokesman told Variety by email.

Local media reports have pointed to a construction project in the giant inland city of Chongqing as one of APG’s first sites.

In May this year APG agreed to invest $154 million in the convertible bonds of Dadi Cinema Construction, one of China’s top three circuits. But aside from the Dadi investment, APG is currently more focused as a technology-driven film financier, distributor and marketing player.

The downstream move into exhibition comes at a time when box office growth in China has suddenly slowed and cinemas suffered three successive months of lower sales. But this and other huge bets such as Wanda Cinema Line’s recent commitment to buy 150 additional IMAX screens, suggest that Chinese companies are confident that the theatrical business will recover its poise.

Many more cinemas are coming on stream. At the end of 2015 China had 31,600 cinema screens in operation. By the end of this year the total is expected to be close to 40,000, putting it roughly on a par with the North American screen count – albeit with a population more than four times as large.

At the time of the Dadi deal APG CEO Zhang Qiang said: “Cinemas will play an integral part in Alibaba Pictures’ operations, as the company aims to build an integrated entertainment platform for the film industry. It will not only serve as an important consumption context within the entertainment industry, but also become a core application of internet in the film industry.”

Last month APG said that it was setting up a $300 million (RMB2 billion) investment fund in partnership with Gopher Asset Management. Some of the capital from the new fund could conceivably flow into APG’s cinema unit. The fund’s purposes were spelled out only vaguely: “The investment fund will invest in companies along the value chain of the movie and TV entertainment industry,” APG said in a filing.

[GeneChing]

Hollywood’s 22 Biggest Box Office Champs in China (Photos)
Chinese moviegoers can’t get enough of America’s big-budget action flicks (http://www.chron.com/entertainment/the-wrap/article/Hollywood-s-22-Biggest-Box-Office-Champs-in-9171950.php)
Matt Pressberg, Published 7:44 pm, Thursday, August 18, 2016

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/45/74/63/9948411/5/920x920.jpg

Chinese moviegoers can’t get enough of Hollywood’s big-budget action flicks and superhero movies.

Furious 7 (2015)
$390.9 million
The Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson revved-up action flick is easily the highest-grossing Hollywood movie ever in China.

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
$320 million
Mark Wahlberg starred in the sci-fi movie based on the foldable toys, which was co-produced by two Chinese firms and was the first Hollywood movie to make more than $300 million in the Middle Kingdom.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
$240.1 million
The superhero mashup is China’s highest-grossing Marvel Cinematic Universe film, a franchise that’s been embraced by the country’s young-leaning moviegoers.

Zootopia (2016)
$235.6 million
The buddy-cop comedy is the highest-grossing imported animated film in the history of the Chinese box office, and played especially well in China’s second- and third-tier cities.

Jurassic World (2015)
$228.7 million
Like “Furious 7,” the dinosaur sci-fi adventure was produced by Legendary Entertainment, which was acquired by China’s Dalian Wanda Group in January.

Warcraft (2016)
$220.8 million
Another Legendary film, this one inspired by a video game series, flopped in the U.S. but dominated the Chinese market, home to about half the game‘s players worldwide.

Avatar (2009)
$204.1 million
The worldwide smash hit also captivated Chinese audiences, even back in 2009 when the country’s box office was a fraction the size it is today.

Captain America: Civil War (2016)
$190.4 million
The latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with an ensemble cast including Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Don Cheadle, continued the iconic comic book company’s momentum in China.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
$165.1 million
The prequel to this film, 2009’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” made $65.8 million in China, setting the stage for “Dark of the Moon” to be the country’s highest-grossing Hollywood film since “Avatar.”

Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
$154.3 million
The Mandarin-language version of the movie starring Jack Black as a friendly fighting bear had the characters reanimated so their mouths moved naturally with the translated words.

We've covered most of these here.

[doug maverick]

thought this was an interesting article, even though the chinese B.O. has been slumping its still a force.





9969




Why ‘Warcraft 2’ May Never Play in US Theaters
“I would suspect that the sequel would be more China-centric. It’s very possible it wouldn’t be released here,” one industry expert tells TheWrap
Matt Pressberg | August 29, 2016 @ 5:03 PM
Warcraft Fimmel Patton
Normally, a movie with a $160 million production budget that makes $47 million at the domestic box office doesn’t get a sequel. But June’s “Warcraft” was not a normal movie, and its likely sequel won’t be, either.

In fact, it could be the first English-language movie from an American production company that will get a theatrical release in China and not the U.S. And as China’s box office continues to become more significant, “Warcraft 2” — or whatever the next installment is called — could provide a blueprint for other movies to follow.

Legendary Entertainment’s fantasy epic based on the “World of Warcraft” video game series starred American actors such as Paula Patton and Ben Foster. But the movie’s dominant international box office — it made $220.8 million in China and set a record for the biggest disparity between domestic and foreign receipts — means that “Warcraft 2” might draw its talent elsewhere. And given “Warcraft’s” weak performance at home, it may not even play in American theaters at all.

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Also Read: Why 'Warcraft' Can Bomb in US This Weekend and Still Be a Blockbuster

“Who says it needs to have American actors?” Sky Moore, a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan who’s worked on several U.S.-China co-production deals, told TheWrap. “I would suspect that the sequel would be more China-centric. It’s very possible it wouldn’t be released here.”

“Warcraft” isn’t exclusively a China success story — the movie made $22.5 million in Russia and $15.7 million in Germany, two other strong video game markets — but the Chinese box office is basically why “Warcraft” even made sense as a movie. It hit a substantial $6.8 billion last year, meaning that movies that wouldn’t have made sense before might make sense now.


Warner Bros.’ 2013 sci-fi monster flick “Pacific Rim” made $111.9 million in China — $10 million more than it did in the U.S. — on a $190 million budget.

Even though Chinese theatrical splits are among the least favorable of any foreign territory — Hollywood studios only get 25 percent of the box office gross for revenue-sharing films, 34 of which are allowed in each year — the top-line number has grown large enough to where the Chinese market by itself can now swing the balance on whether a movie will be made or not.


Also Read: 'Warcraft' Reviews: It 'Doesn't Suck' and 6 Other Much Worse Critical Reactions

And as China’s box office continues to grow — despite a summer slump this year, it could pass the U.S. as the world’s largest as soon as 2017 — Moore said that could lead to sequels of movies that connected a lot more with Chinese than American audiences being produced for that market.

“I’d expect more remakes in China of movies that did well there and not-so-well here,” Moore said. “It’s a big enough market.”

China has become a massive movie market, but it has a remarkable lack of diversity as far as the movies that actually do well there. Looking at the films that have earned more than $100 million at the Chinese box office, it’s basically fantasy, sci-fi, loud action movies and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


Also Read: 'Warcraft' Movie Is Openly Hostile to Non-Nerds (Commentary)

“Warcraft” not only fits in with that theme, but it had some other China-specific advantages that made it a massive hit there and a flop at home.

The film’s production company, Legendary, was acquired by China’s Dalian Wanda Group in January, and Wanda — also China’s largest movie theater operator — helped put the film on a higher percentage of the country’s screens than “Furious 7,” China’s all-time highest-grossing Hollywood film.

Also, media and entertainment conglomerate Tencent, owner of China’s most popular social media app, WeChat, was one of the film’s marketing partners, and Tencent gave the film a massive marketing push, helping it fill theaters in third- and fourth-tier cities. In addition, China is estimated to be home to about half the world’s “World of Warcraft” players, giving the movie a built-in fanbase.


Also Read: 'Warcraft' Review: Swords, Sorcery and Stupidity Abound in Game Adaptation

But just because a game is popular somewhere doesn’t necessarily mean that a movie version will automatically work. Terence Fung, the chief strategy officer of game company Storm8, said game and film fanboys (“Warcraft” had an overwhelmingly male audience) are not going to support a substandard branded product just because it’s affiliated with a game or comic book hero they love.

“Both the film and the game have to be true to the intellectual property,” he told TheWrap. “It has to make sense.”

What may make sense for Hollywood going forward is to think differently in distributing the type of big-budget, often poorly reviewed fantasy epics that the younger-skewing Chinese film audience can’t get enough of. It took $20 to see “Warcraft” in an American theater. It might take a passport and a plane ticket to China to see the follow-up.

[GeneChing]

I posted that on the Warcraft thread (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69449-Warcraft), doug. But fair enough, it's quite relevant here too.

Here's more on the slump:

Is China's Movie Boom Doomed? (https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-31/is-china-s-movie-boom-doomed)
14 AUG 30, 2016 9:25 PM EDT
( UPDATED AUG 30, 2016 9:28 PM EDT)
By Adam Minter

It's been a tough summer for China's movie business. In what's usually blockbuster season, box-office sales declined for the first time in five years. In July alone, theater visits fell 15 percent. Things are looking especially grim for Chinese films: They've been underperforming foreign competition so badly that the government suspended a longstanding moratorium on summer Hollywood flicks intended to give a boost to local studios.

That's an abrupt turnabout for an industry that grew by 50 percent last year. Although it may prove temporary, it nonetheless illuminates some looming challenges for China's moviemakers -- and for its culture business more broadly.

One immediate cause for the bust is that film authorities are attempting to crack down on falsified box-office data. The practice is longstanding: Distributors buy up millions of dollars' worth of tickets for their own movies, give sales figures an artificial boost and create some buzz. Just how much this affected the bottom line for Chinese movies is difficult to say, but it was enough to draw the attention of the government, and it suggests that domestic filmmakers may have to get used to lackluster sales for a while.

If fraud were the only drag, though, China's box office would probably still be booming. A more pervasive problem is shaky consumer confidence. In the first quarter of 2016, the average price of a ticket rose to $3.35, compared to $2.54 during the same period last year. Moviegoers had gotten used to online vendors driving down prices through subsidies and aggressive competition, but such discounts are starting to disappear. For many Chinese consumers, that adds up to a crimp on leisure spending, especially with economic growth slow and layoffs looming in many areas.

Some more fundamental cultural forces may also be at work.

One is that widespread piracy is putting a premium on film-going experiences that can't be had at home. Although distributors had long relied on 3-D, IMAX and Hollywood films heavy on special effects to draw jaded consumers to the theater, the novelty of such experiences is beginning to wear off for more sophisticated audiences. When "Jason Bourne" was released almost exclusively in 3-D in China, it prompted protests from customers who didn't appreciate having to pay extra to see a movie that would've been just as good (or bad) in two dimensions.

That also helps explain why China's domestic films have done so poorly. Years of easy access to pirated foreign films have raised expectations for story-telling, acting and production values. Though today's Chinese consume their share of mind candy, they are, on balance, much more discerning than earlier generations of filmgoers. The problem is that China lacks the professional class of screenwriters that would be needed to consistently produce quality film and television. One prominent film executive even said last year that his studio would rely on fan fiction and online forums for storylines.

Finally, history has given China's filmmakers reason to be risk-averse. The result has been a kind of cultural pasteurization that favors the tried and true, rather than the artistically adventurous. Historical epics (firmly grounded in the imperial past) and melodramas remain popular if uninspiring topics.

Although China's government will doubtless continue to play a role in shaping culture, it could encourage some competition for staid filmmakers by loosening longstanding quotas on the number of foreign films that can be released every year (currently set at 34). There's little evidence that such quotas work: In South Korea, loosening quotas actually led to steady growth in the local film business and helped boost the influence of Korean film and television overseas (especially in China). Not incidentally, box-office sales also surged.

Increased competition might not be to the taste of every Chinese filmmaker and studio head. But it's the best way to shake off the mediocrity that afflicts so much of China's current output. And it would give consumers a better reason to get in line for a ticket.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:
Adam Minter at aminter@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Timothy Lavin at tlavin1@bloomberg.net

[GeneChing]

I think the slump was over reported by sensitive Hollywood types hoping for weakness in the China film market. There are often hiccups in most any growth pattern.


China Box Office: Growth Returns in August After Prolonged Downturn (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-growth-returns-924924)
11:36 PM PDT 8/31/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

http://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/08/time_raiders.jpg
'Time Raiders'
Le Vision

The uptick comes after the Chinese market suffered its first quarterly decline in half a decade, followed by an 18 percent drop in ticket sales in July.
China's box office shifted back into growth mode in August after one of its worst slumps in years.

Chinese ticket sales rose 12 percent to $606 million (4.05 billion yuan) in August, compared with $543 million (3.62 billion yuan) in 2015, according to data from Beijing-based firm Entgroup.

From April to June, sales shrunk 5 percent — the Chinese box office's first full-quarter decline in over five years. In July, the downturn deepened, with revenue plunging 18 percent compared to the year prior.

The biggest hit in August was Le Vision Pictures' fantasy adventure Time Raiders, starring Lu Han and Jing Boran. Based on a wildly popular series of young adult novels, the film was released Aug. 5 and has grossed $147.8 million — the most of any local release this summer.

The Chinese exhibition market also got a lift from the release of more Hollywood films in August than usual.

After the disappointing overall performance of local pictures from April to June, Chinese regulators took the unprecedented step of loosening the usual blackout on foreign blockbusters. China's film authorities have traditionally kept imported competition out of the market during the peak moviegoing weeks of late summer, boosting local studios by giving Chinese titles uncontested room to perform.

Last year's "domestic movie protection period," as the blackouts are sometimes called, ran June 19 to Aug. 23. But this year, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and The Legend of Tarzan were granted July dates, and The Secret Life of Pets came out on Aug. 2. Also, last year's blackout ended with the release of Terminator: Genisys on Aug. 23, whereas two Hollywood titles opened head-to-head on the same date this year — Universal's Jason Bourne and Fox's Ice Age: Collision Course.

So far, Bourne has earned $57.8 million in China, Collision Course has grossed $51.7 million and Pets has taken $58.0 million.

Paramount's Star Trek Beyond opens in China on Friday, followed by Sony's breakout horror hit The Shallows on Sept. 9.

[doug maverick]

most execs want china to do better then america, because they want that chinese money!! its much easier to do co productions with china then say india, where the cinema doesnt cross over as well. chinese cinema, especially action cinema is ingrained in american culture. and filmmakers like wong kar wai and zhang yimou will always be arthouse darlings... hell they are giving jackie an oscar, which honestly while its a political move to apologize for the gaff they made last year, i think its a well deserved honor that may open some eyes to asians in cinema. no matter how big chinas box office gets, america will always be that marker for success in entertainment. look at music you got stars like CL a korean kpop star who is part of one of the biggest girl groups in the world, still trying to break america they dont even need too their concerts even sell out here...olol

[GeneChing]

Not sure what this means in the grand scope of all that's happening with China film, but it is notable.


Orange Sky Slashes Investment Plans, Drops Investors (http://variety.com/2016/biz/asia/orange-sky-slashes-investment-drops-investors-1201852264/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

http://i0.wp.com/pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/orange_sky_golden_harvest_by_riolu947-d7kwk02.png?crop=0px%2C2px%2C1618px%2C900px&resize=670%2C377&ssl=1
COURTESY OF ORANGE SKY GOLDEN HARVEST
SEPTEMBER 5, 2016 | 07:01AM PT

Pan-Asian cinema exhibition group Orange Sky Golden Harvest has cut plans for expansion in mainland China and scaled back its plans to bring in $59.7 million (RMB400 million) from outside investors.

The move signals a changed investment climate resulting from the recent slowdown of the Chinese theatrical box office.

The investors being dropped are Beijing Weiying (aka Wepiao,) one of China’s largest online ticketing companies, and media investor Beijing Qing Zhong Tong Chuang Asset Management. It will continue to raise $29.8 million (RMB200 million) from a unit of state-controlled investment group CITIC.

In March, OSGH signaled that it would split out its Chinese multiplexes into a separate company that would first attract outside investors, and later might go for a public share listing. Now it says that it reducing its expansion plans.

“It was anticipated that the proceeds from the subscription by the Investors will be used for building and acquiring of more than 100 cinema screens during the coming three years, and that the expected capital expenditure per screen, which will be built or acquired during the coming three years will amount to approximately RMB2.5 million to RMB3.0 million. Due to changes in economic and market conditions in (mainland China), it is expected by the group that the capital expenditure required will be reduced to around RMB150 million to RMB200 million,” the company said.

OSGH, which operates cinemas in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, was one of the first companies to operate multiplex cinemas in China. But it has struggled to turn that early lead into either market dominance or profits. In the first half of this year, OSGH moved from profit to a loss of $4.25 million (HK$33 million) with the mainland China business dragging down the other segments. It explained that the losses in China were due to growing competition, new screen incubation issues and finance costs.

At the time of the proposed investments OSGH touted business synergies as a side benefit of Wepiao’s involvement in the group, and strengthened financial management resulting from Qing Zhong Tong Chuang’s participation.

OSGH shares were up 5% in trading Monday on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange prior to the after-hours announcement.

[GeneChing]

Seven Trends Shaping The Chinese Film Industry (http://technode.com/2016/09/05/seven-trends-shaping-the-chinese-film-industry/)
Sep 5, 2016 China Film Insider

Revenue generated by China’s film industry will reach RMB 200 billion (US$30 billion) by 2020, with both box office revenue and number of movie-goers surpassing that of North America, making it the largest film market in the world, says a new report by professional services firm Deloitte.

For those who are banking on the continued rise of the Chinese film industry, optimistic forecasts like that are particularly welcome at the moment, especially as box office sales have been declining for the first time in five years, and theater visits in July alone plummeted 15 percent.

While Deloitte’s researchers expect the industry to grow at home, it will be uneven growth, and importantly, it won’t necessarily translate into global domination for China as “cultural differences” and “legal considerations” interfere with the country’s ability to export their own films to other countries.

Those are among the key findings of a chapter on the film industry in Deloitte’s new report, “The New Journey of ‘Internet +’,” which takes a broad look at how the Internet is affecting the growth of the Chinese economy.

Despite recent road bumps, the report’s researchers believe the Chinese film industry has already reached a “golden age” with new carriers, an influx of capital, and innovative business models all propelling the country’s film industry to the “top of the film pyramid.”

The report identifies seven trends that are shaping the Chinese film industry landscape. The following is a summary of those findings.

1. From Bigger to Biggest

The report finds that China’s box office revenues and number of moviegoers are expected to surpass North America by 2020. But different segments of the industry, whether it is film consumption, investment in films and theaters, or film exports, will grow at different rates.

As revenue generated from non-box office activities continues to rise, the report’s researchers believe China’s film consumption still has a lot of room to grow.

The report sees investment in theaters stabilizing with plenty of opportunities for steady expansion into second, third, and fourth-tier cities.

Film exports are likely to struggle, as cultural differences and legal considerations including censorship issues as reasons why Chinese films won’t gain traction overseas.

2. From “Made in China” to “Made for the World”

The report predicts co-productions will increase, albeit slowly. Co-pros can “achieve ‘win-win’ outcomes for both parties,“ because they’re considered to be “Made in China” and enjoy the same treatment as domestic films, the reports says,

“In 2014, though co-productions accounted for only six percent of total productions screened in China, they contributed around 50 percent of total box office revenue,” the report notes. “In the first quarter of 2015, co-productions contributed ~60 percent of total box office revenue.”

However pulling off a successful co-pro is easier said than done, with issues such as copyright ownership, cultural differences, and different work styles presenting challenges.

3. From “Non-intelligent” to “Intelligent”

The reports’ researchers see the involvement of internet giants like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent as a game changer as the new players utilize their ability to draw on big data to drive “decision optimization” and profit growth.

The effect of these innovations has already transformed the domestic film industry chain, from intellectual property (IP) to production, marketing and promotion, distribution, ticket sales, and cinema screenings, the report says.

4. From “Highly Concentrated” to “Diversified”

The arrival of new players like Tencent Pictures, iQiYi Films, and Baidu Pictures has prompted traditional film companies to go on an acquisition spree, the report says.

While the M&A binge has led to a much greater “concentration” within the industry, there is also a trend towards companies hiving off their internet and new media departments into new companies that can then go public independently.

There has also been a huge influx of non-industry capital with non-film industries accounting for 49 percent of total acquirers since 2014. Despite all the acquiring going on, the report’s researchers point out that not many companies have yet achieved satisfactory results as differing management cultures fail to gel smoothly.

5. From “Long Tail” to “Thick Tail”

The report shows how Chinese companies like Huayi Brothers and Enlight Media are looking closely at what lessons they can learn from foreign companies like Disney. These local companies are restructuring their revenue streams to diversify away from just box office.

Now, local companies are looking to ape Disney’s blueprint of investing in theme parks, toys, books, video games, and any other possible avenues to provide stable sources of income. Other key areas for revenue rebalancing include video on demand, TV networks and derivative products.

6. From “single IP” to “IP franchises”

Local film companies, particularly Internet companies, have been hoarding as much IP as possible, buying up the rights to hundreds of novels and stories. But converting that IP first into films and then into other fields like cartoons, mobile games, and toys, is still a work in progress.

The report researchers encourage the local industry to learn from projects such as Disney’s Toy Story 3, which generated $8.7 billion through games, books, DVDs, copyright, and licensing, on top of $1.1 billion in global box office.

7. From a Lack of Standards to “Standardization”

The report notes that with around 70 percent of the 600 or more films produced annually in China never being screened, lack of standards are resulting in “a colossal waste of resources for producers and the film industry as a whole, and furthermore, poses potential hazards for investors.”

To solve the problem, the report’s researchers suggest the introduction of “completion guarantees” with third party companies supervising the whole process of film production, ensuring that film production and distribution are on budget and on schedule.

I'm not sure that I wholeheartedly agree with this, but I do like the term 'thick tail'.

[GeneChing]

Hollywood's epic bid to conquer China (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/09/17/hollywoods-epic-bid-to-conquer-china/)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2016/05/25/96314973warcraft-xlarge_trans++j_SZRLN8vhPOyzKIgtptSLENU4Bt9-7UHwwp3DXZwac.jpg

Panned by critics and commercially disastrous in the West, Warcraft is in China's top 10 grossing films of all time
Christopher Williams, chief business correspondent
17 SEPTEMBER 2016 • 4:50PM

As a work of cinema, Warcraft was “empty and impenetrable” and cursed with a “terminal flimsiness” that made for an “epic fail”, according to the critics. Film-goers were warned to “avoid it at all costs” this summer, and for the most part in the US and UK they did. In its opening weekend at the US box office Warcraft grossed only $24m on the back of a production budget of $160m, which under normal circumstances would easily qualify the video game adaptation as a flop.

Amid the rise of the Chinese consumer, definitions of success and failure have changed, however, and the film industry is adjusting accordingly.

Warcraft brought in $65m in its opening weekend in the People’s Republic, and has marched on to a total of more than $220m to date, making it the third-highest grossing film at the Chinese box office this year.

“Thank God for China,” says Charles 'Chuck’ Roven, the Hollywood veteran whose production company Atlas Entertainment backed Warcraft.


It had one Chinese actor in it, and you couldn’t really recognise him because he was an orc
Charles 'Chuck' Roven

“It was really disappointing in the US, but that film now has a chance of maybe making a little and even generating a sequel as a result of what it did in that one territory.”

Warcraft’s massive success in China is emblematic of how Chinese money is changing the film industry. The growing spending power of consumers, the politics of doing business in the world’s second largest economy, and the increasingly global ambitions of Chinese investors, are all altering the how and why of making movies.

“We knew China was going to be important, but it has really started to spike,” Roven says. “Warcraft has caused a lot of people to go, 'Wow’. China is the second largest market in the world, and it has now proven to us that a western movie can work there. Warcraft was a totally western movie.

“It had one Chinese actor in it, and you couldn’t really recognise him because he was an orc. He was great in the movie though.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/business/2016/09/17/108610916_Chinese_-large_trans++QbIAlMgBBjstqL9vckGEljW6FouhPILq15h-xiEoaNE.jpg
Chinese movie-goers in 3-D glasses CREDIT: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The ability of Chinese cinephiles to save a floundering Hollywood release, or even a whole franchise, is now well established. A strong appetite for computer-generated spectacle and 3D has proved the box office salvation of the 2013 giant robot action film Pacific Rim, and has helped keep the Transformers series clanking along despite audience weariness and critical loathing in the West.

But with China due to overtake the US as the world’s largest cinema market next year, success there is more than a safety net. Roven’s latest release, the superhero franchise instalment Suicide Squad, made with Warner Bros, has performed reasonably well around the world. News that it is unlikely to get a release in China as an apparent result of a dark tone that celebrates rebellion was greeted in Hollywood last month as a heavy blow to its commercial prospects.

“The Government there is so unpredictable by our standards and what Hollywood is used to,” says Stephen Follows, an independent film industry analyst. “There are very strict rules on things like time travel and magic, and anything non-scientific, but they are broken all the time.”


There are very strict rules on things like time travel and magic, and anything non-scientific, but they are broken all the time

Navigating a combination of censorship and protectionism is a major challenge for Western studios seeking access to Chinese wallets. The state monopoly importer, China Film Group (CFG), only allows 34 foreign-produced titles onto the country’s silver screens, which last year numbered more than 30,000 and next year are expected to top 50,000.

The scale of the market and the growth opportunity makes the censorship gauntlet well worth running. Even with 50,000 screens, China would need more than 10 times as many to match the UK’s number per head of population.

“There are still so many places there that don’t have cinemas,” Follows says. “All boats are rising on the tide. Studios might worry about protectionism later but right now it’s a story of raw growth.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2016/06/03/transformers-2_2990922k-large_trans++qVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu 2jJnT8.jpg
Chinese audiences have kept the Transformers franchise rolling

Hollywood titles accounted for 46pc of the Chinese box office in 2014, which fell to 38.4pc in 2015, as the market itself grew 48.7pc. Only three Hollywood movies were in the top 10 at he Chinese box office, down from five in 2014. But the incentives remain great enough for Western companies to go into business in China with local investors, especially since films majority backed by a Chinese-owned enterprise do not count towards CFG’s quota.

The rules on what counts as Chinese are strict and require permanent establishment in China, unlike the UK, where visiting productions can claim tax exemptions merely by hiring British staff. But in China the hassle of working internationally and blow of giving up equity are softened by a bigger slice of potentially massive box office takings. “You normally get 20pc,” Roven says. “If you have a co-production you get 44pc. That’s a huge difference no matter what.”


China's greatest box office hits

The Mermaid (2016 – $527m)

Furious 7 (2015 – $391m)

Monster Hunt (2015 – $351m)

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014 – $320m)

Mojin: The Lost Legend (2015 – $256m)

Warcraft has been a major beneficiary of this system. The film, a collaboration between Roven’s Atlas Entertainment and Legendary Pictures, a pioneer of Chinese co-production among Hollywood studios via a 2013 deal with CFG, was guaranteed a release.

Roven says the relationship meant the film also got valuable backing on the ground. “You want to be in business with companies that are going to help you get the best distribution, the best exhibition and best remittances,” he says.

Selling films into China still involves accepting unpredictability. Stephen Follows says data on attendances and revenues is unreliable. “If you’re being fiddled by your Chinese partner there is nothing you can really do about it,” he says.

Yet the ties are strengthening in both directions. As well as Hollywood studios setting up in China, Chinese investors have been buying Western film assets. Legendary Entertainment itself was snapped up in January for $3.5bn (£2.6bn) by Dalian Wanda, the Hong Kong-listed conglomerate controlled by Wang Jianlin, one of China’s richest men.

Wanda has also been linked this summer to a potential takeover of Paramount, one of the Big Six studios, currently owned by Viacom.
continued next post

[GeneChing]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/business/2016/09/17/106365321_GUANGZHO-large_trans++mDlFMJ5bmIWt0sYAakZCiDoJJx60e-G9rsN0orlsZBs.jpg
Zachary Quinto attends a red carpet even for Star Trek Beyond in Guangzhou CREDIT: GETTY

Meanwhile, Tencent, the Chinese web giant, acquired IM Global, a US film financier. Roven envisages the deal as part of a plan by Tencent, which owns a slice of Warcraft, to create a powerful Netflix-like business in China. Such a move could deliver subscription revenues in a market where DVDs brought in nothing, because of rampant piracy.

Hunan Television, China’s number two broadcaster, has invested up to $375m in productions by Lions Gate, a second-tier Hollywood studio. Wanda’s global push is by far the most ambitious, however. It is aiming to become the first Chinese major studio on the global market, with Wang boldly declaring that “if one of the Big Six would be willing to be sold to us, we would be interested.”

He has already built the world’s largest cinema empire. As well as thousands of screens in China, Wanda owns major chains in the US and Australia.


In some ways this is not new, it is just a new source of money
Stephen Follows

In July it added Britain’s biggest cinema operator, Odeon & UCI Cinemas, in a £921m deal with the private equity firm Terra Firma. Wanda seized the opportunity of the post-referendum fall in sterling to snap up an asset that had been on the block for over a year, despite having publicly said months earlier it was not interested.

The idea of building a film powerhouse comprising both production and exhibition is an old one, last tried in the West by Warner Bros in the 1990s. The emergence of China as the world’s largest box office, bringing with it the barriers and foibles of a planned economy, is leading some in the film industry to wonder whether this time the model will work.

Foreign investors have attempted to conquer Hollywood before and failed, but never has Hollywood so badly want to conquer a foreign market in return.

Veterans such as Roven recall a time when Japan appeared to offer a lucrative new market in the 1990s, only for Hollywood to be shut out by a resurgent domestic film industry. Yet all agree China is definitely something different.

“In some ways this is not new, it is just a new source of money,” Follows says. “But China is not going to go away. It is so big that whatever happens, the industry will be changed.”

I'm so glad that Daniel Wu (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=1269) tuned me into Warcraft. Watching this play out has been fascinating.

[GeneChing]

I gotz nuttin to say 'bout dis 'ere news to fill the minimum post requirements, so I'll post like a pirate (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69717-Intl-Talk-Like-a-Pirate-Day&p=1296330#post1296330), mateys.


David Goyer Strikes Deal With China’s Tencent Pictures (http://variety.com/2016/film/asia/china-tencent-deal-with-david-goyer-1201863358/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/david-goyer.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
China's Tencent Strikes Deal With DavidBAFTA/REX SHUTTERSTOCK

SEPTEMBER 18, 2016 | 08:10AM PT

Fantasy and horror meister David S. Goyer (“Ghost Rider,” “The Dark Knight”) is to develop film projects that could be produced by Tencent Pictures, a film division of Tencent, China’s social media giant.

Goyer appeared in person at an event Saturday in Beijing to celebrate the first anniversary of Tencent Pictures and to unveil the company’s first slate of movie projects. Goyer did not announce a specific title, but said they could be oriented either towards the local Chinese or global markets.

As befits its social media and tech roots, the company unveiled a lineup that spans adaptations of book, comic books, animation and games. Tencent Pictures, headed by CEO Cheng Wu, is distinct from Penguin Pictures, another film operation under Tencent’s umbrella.

Tencent Pictures was previously a part of the Chinese contingent in Legendary Entertainment’s “Warcraft” and it announced that it will also on board Legendary’s “Kong Skull Island.”

Another horror specialist, the Japanese producer Takashige Ichise (“The Grudge,” “The Ring”) will produce “Koseison” for the studio. The film is an adaptation of old Japanese TV series “Dinosaur Cops Koseidon” from Tsuburaya Productions.

Among the other headline projects is “The Tibet Code.” Based on a best-selling period fantasy series of novels by He Ma, the books will be developed as both TV series and video games.

Lu Chuan, who previously directed “Kekexili: Mountain Patrol” and recently made “Born in China” for Disneynature, will deliver his new project “20,000 Miles Plan” for the fledgling studio. Other projects include “The Game of Antiques,” based on a novel by Ma Boyong; “aura,” an adaptation of Tencent hit MMORP game; and animated feature “The Tuzki 3D,” which will be co-produced with Turner Asia Pacific. The Tuzki character, conceived by Momo Wang, has appeared in short formats, social media platforms and apps since 2006. The film, to shoot in 2017 and be released in 2018, will be its first theatrical feature.

[GeneChing]

I'm surprised a lot more studios aren't doing this.


Pinewood Studios to Open China Office (http://variety.com/2016/film/asia/pinewood-studios-to-open-china-office-1201865338/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/pinewood.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
COURTESY OF HIGH LEVEL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016 | 11:09PM PT

Film and TV facilities group, Pinewood Studios has opened a Beijing representative office. It is to be headed by Amanda Halliday, who becomes senior VP, Pinewood China.

The move comes in response to a growing demand in the flourishing Chinese film industry, for Pinewood’s services in the fields of studio design and build, production services including post production, content development, marine services, education and training, the company said.

“Pinewood has been working in China for a number of years and we have forged some strong relationships with film companies, content producers and games developers. A permanent presence in China is a key strategic element of Pinewood’s overall international strategy,” said Andrew M. Smith, president, Pinewood China.

Pinewood already provides consultancy services to a number of leading Chinese film companies and is advising the Wanda Group on the design and construction of the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis, a film facility and studio complex comprising 45 stages and scheduled to open in 2017. Recently, Pinewood’s post production sound team provided post-production services to Chinese clients including Tencent Games and Disneynature/Shanghai Media Group.

Halliday joined Pinewood in 2014 having previously worked in film and theatre in Beijing.

[GeneChing]

Chinese Purchases of U.S. Companies Have Some in Congress Raising Eyebrows (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/01/world/asia/china-us-foreign-acquisition-dalian-wanda.html?_r=0)
Sinosphere
By EDWARD WONG SEPT. 30, 2016

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/10/01/world/01chinacongress-web1/01chinacongress-web1-master768.jpg
Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Wanda Group, hopes to buy at least a 50 percent stake in one of the “Big Six” Hollywood studios. Credit Thomas Peter/Reuters

PRINCETON, N.J. — Movie theaters and studios are rarely the focus of geopolitical conflict.

But 16 members of Congress are raising this question: Should foreign acquisition of these kinds of American companies be subject to special scrutiny?

In a recent letter, those politicians cited the case of the Dalian Wanda Group, the Chinese conglomerate that in January bought Legendary Entertainment, one of Hollywood’s biggest production companies, for as much as $3.5 billion. In 2012, Wanda bought AMC Theaters, the large American chain, for $2.6 billion.

“Should the definition of national security be broadened to address concerns about propaganda and control of the media and ‘soft power’ institutions?” the representatives said in the letter, which was dated Sept. 15 and addressed to Gene L. Dodaro, comptroller general.

Mr. Dodaro is the head of the Government Accountability Office, and the aim of the letter was to urge that office to consider whether the government process to review foreign investment in the United States needs to be expanded. The process is overseen by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or Cfius, an interagency group that is supervised by the Treasury Department.

“As we prepare for the upcoming presidential transition, now is an opportune time for G.A.O. to review what has worked well, and where Cfius authorities may need to be expanded, especially given the rise in state-controlled enterprises from China and Russia, among other designated countries,” the letter said.

Wanda is not a state-controlled enterprise, but the writers said that any Chinese company designated a “state champion” that benefits from “illegal subsidies” could pose a strategic, if not overt, national security threat. They said there have been “growing concerns about China’s efforts to censor topics and exert propaganda controls on American media.”

The letter also pointed to the $43 billion purchase of Syngenta, a Swiss company specializing in seeds and farm chemicals, by the state-owned China National Chemical Corporation as another transaction that had raised “concern” in Congress. That deal was approved by the committee in August.

In a list of nine questions at the end of the letter, the signers also asked whether the committee sufficiently reviews Chinese angel or venture capital funds being established in the United States, as well as Chinese investment in technology accelerators and regulators.

In February, Steven Davidoff Solomon, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in The New York Times that some bids for foreign businesses by Chinese companies were canceled after scrutiny by the committee. While it approves most transactions, he wrote, we should “expect tensions to get worse” since Chinese companies are increasingly investing in foreign companies as a way of moving money out of China.

“We are entering into a new phase with Chinese acquisitions,” Mr. Solomon wrote. “The United States’ national security service, never considered a transparent process, is going to have to grapple with how far it can allow these Chinese companies to go.”

Among the signers of the Sept. 15 letter are some well-known critics of the Chinese Communist Party.

Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, introduced a bill in 2012 that called for the government to withhold visas for Chinese journalists if Beijing continued its policy of not issuing such documents to American journalists or news organizations that it deemed to be troublemakers. Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey, speaks out regularly against human rights abuses in China.

“Beijing is increasingly confident that its version of state authoritarianism can be exported, though the Communist Party’s efforts at ‘soft power’ outreach have little credibility or impact at this point,” Mr. Smith said in a written statement to The Times on Wednesday.

“But the buying spree by Dalian Wanda Group and other Chinese investments in Hollywood, media and entertainment should raise questions that restrictions on creative freedom or media self-censorship will follow, particularly when Dalian Wanda’s C.E.O. is very clear that his goal is to subvert American pop culture’s influence and change the world where rules are set by foreigners,” he said.

“Would any movies favorably portraying the Dalai Lama, Liu Xiaobo or Chen Guangcheng be greenlighted if they risked the loss of Chinese investment — I don’t think so,” he added, referring to three people deemed prominent political adversaries by the Communist Party.

Wanda declined to comment on Friday.

On Wednesday, Wang Jianlin, Wanda’s chairman and founder, told CNN that he thought the American lawmakers were “over-worried.” He also said he would continue to invest in companies in the United States and was interested in buying at least a 50 percent stake in one of the “Big Six” Hollywood studios.

In a speech at Harvard Business School in October 2015, Mr. Wang, designated by Forbes as China’s richest man, emphasized that he ran a “privately owned corporation” whose “first objective is to make money.”

An investigative article published by The Times in April 2015 showed that relatives of top Communist Party officials and their business associates were early investors in Wanda and held significant stakes in the company.

At the Harvard speech, Mr. Wang, in reply to a question about that article, acknowledged that Qi Qiaoqiao, the sister of Xi Jinping, China’s president and the leader of the Communist Party, and Deng Jiagui, her husband, had held shares in Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties but sold them before an initial public offering. Mr. Wang said that meant the couple had missed out on making a “fortune” from capital gains.

Follow Edward Wong on Twitter @comradewong.

A version of this article appears in print on October 3, 2016, on page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: Chinese Deals for U.S. Media Have Some in Congress Raising Eyebrows

Chicoms buying out U.S. capitalists? :confused:

[GeneChing]

And once again, fear of the "Yellow Peril" rises. :o


Washington Post Warns That China’s Hollywood Invasion Is a ‘Propaganda’ Play (http://www.thewrap.com/washington-post-warns-that-chinas-hollywood-invasion-is-a-propaganda-play/)
Dalian Wanda Group has bought Legendary Pictures, set a strategic alliance with Sony Pictures and is in talks to buy **** Clark Productions
Beatrice Verhoeven | October 6, 2016 @ 9:10 AM

http://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/dalian-wanda.jpg
Dalian Wanda

In the wake of a Hollywood spending spree by China’s Dalian Wanda Group, the Washington Post has published a deeply cautionary editorial, warning that “Beijing’s next propaganda outlet” could be the entertainment industry.

The Chinese firm has purchased Legendary Entertainment and has a pending deal to buy **** Clark Productions, which produces the Golden Globes and American Music Awards, and the paper sees this as “a matter of national strategic importance.”

“China already has imposed its censorious values on Hollywood studios, using access to its lucrative but strictly limited market (where Dalian Wanda also controls many theaters) as leverage,” the editorial says, adding that Wanda enjoys substantially greater freedom to conduct business in the U.S. than foreign firms are granted in China.

“Not only does Beijing seek to impose its censor’s rules on American films, but it also refuses foreign investors the same access to Chinese media and entertainment industries that Dalian Wanda enjoys in the United States. It is not far-fetched to assume that China would seek to spread pro-regime propaganda via ownership of U.S. entertainment media.”

Wanda, which bought Legendary for $3.5 billion and plans to target one of the “Big Six” Hollywood studios next, is in talks to buy **** Clark Productions at a $1 billion valuation.

“Is its ownership also a matter of national strategic importance?” asked the article. “The answer, according to a growing number of U.S. officials and entertainment industry observers, is maybe. That’s because the would-be buyer is Dalian Wanda, a Chinese conglomerate whose chairman’s Communist Party membership and close ties to President Xi Jinping’s government in Beijing make it a private firm only in a nominal sense.”

The editorial added, “If fully executed, this acquisition strategy could give Dalian Wanda, and by extension its patrons in Beijing, influence over not only the distribution of films but also their content.”

The paper recalls when Japan spent billions of dollars to take over Columbia Pictures and Universal but were forced to retreat because they underwent financial losses. However, it said, there is a “fundamental difference” between China and Japan’s spending habits.

“Japan is a strategic ally of the United States and a democracy committed to free expression,” it said. “China, by contrast, is adversarial and ruled by a dictator, Mr. Xi, who has openly declared a global propaganda agenda, based on the idea that ‘Chinese art will further develop only when we make foreign things serve China.’“

The 28-year-old Wanda Group is on pace to spend more than $30 billion in deals this year, with almost half of that in sports and entertainment. The company that began as a residential real estate development firm in the northern port city of Dalian, China, has grown at a record pace. Two months ago, it announced plans to install 4,000 new RealD 3D screens and 150 new IMAX theaters — the largest-ever installation deals for each of those formats.

Its latest move was to set a strategic alliance with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Wanda will invest in key film franchises that will be announced within the coming weeks, one individual familiar with the deal said. In return, SPE will take advantage of the considerable marketing and release power that the investment group enjoys in China.

And congress seems to be concerned by all of the activity. Earlier this week, the Government Accountability Office accepted a request from members of congress to review the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and determine whether its legal powers have kept pace with the influx of international buyers targeting American companies — particularly the fire hose of Chinese investment in Hollywood.

[Jimbo]

And once again, fear of the "Yellow Peril" rises. :o

Gene,

In this instance, I think the article is more or less spot-on. I don't consider this an example of "yellow peril" fears but a very real concern of something that has been happening for some time.

[GeneChing]

We Americans are too wrapped up in our own propaganda to be seduced by Chicom movie propaganda. :o


https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iKbTW5AsBTZ0/v0/1200x-1.jpg
PAPER TIGER.
PHOTOGRAPHER: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


China's Invading Hollywood! Now, Relax (https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-07/china-s-invading-hollywood-now-relax)
17 OCT 7, 2016 11:35 AM EDT
By Adam Minter

Wang Jianlin, China's richest man, has been on a Hollywood shopping spree. As chief executive of the Wanda Group, he's acquired Legendary Entertainment, producer of "Jurassic Park," and is in talks to pay $1 billion for **** Clark Productions, producer of the Golden Globes and other live television events. An earlier purchase, AMC Entertainment, recently announced plans to buy Carmike Cinema, which would create the world's biggest theater chain.

When Wang arrives in Hollywood for a highly anticipated visit later this month, he'll have even bigger game in sight: one of the Big Six Hollywood studios that control as much as 85 percent of U.S. and Canadian box office revenue. If successful, he'll be the first Chinese national to own one.

That's aroused worries that Wang and other aspiring Chinese movie moguls may restrict creative freedoms and spread Chinese propaganda in the U.S. and beyond. Last month, 16 members of Congress wrote to the Government Accountability Office asking it to reconsider how foreign investments in the U.S. are reviewed. Since then, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has added his signature to the letter. Wanda's entertainment acquisitions were on the list of worries: "Should the definition of national security be broadened to address concerns about propaganda and control of the media and ‘soft power’ institutions?" the group asked.

At home, it's true, China operates one of the world's most formidable propaganda and censorship programs, and tycoons like Wang have succeeded in part because of their willingness to play by its rules. China's Communist Party has long embraced the idea that the role of art is to advance its interests. In October 2014, President Xi Jinping made that commitment explicit in a speech in which he called on Chinese painters, writers and filmmakers to "fully implement the Party's art policy."

Every Chinese artist knows what red lines shouldn't be crossed; the idea of Tibetan or Taiwanese independence is off-limits, for instance, as are topics that call into question the canonical history of the Communist Party. More recently, the government has added a few specific bans, including one barring television programming that promotes "Western lifestyles."

The idea that Wang might be able to export Communist dogma to Hollywood, however, seems fanciful. The most successful Chinese movies tend to be harmless melodramas and martial arts films. So far, this year's biggest box office success is a comedy about a mermaid assassin who falls in love with the greedy real estate developer she was sent to kill. On those rare occasions when Chinese filmmakers dabble in propaganda, the films have invariably failed (unless propped up by box office fraud).

Indeed, even on their home turf, Chinese films are no competition for Hollywood, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of China's box office receipts in 2015 despite rampant piracy and strict limits on the number of foreign films. Wang has openly acknowledged that part of his goal is to obtain U.S. technology and know-how in order to improve Chinese filmmaking. He has little incentive to transform a U.S. studio into a facsimile of its Chinese peers.

A bigger concern is self-censorship. In recent years, Hollywood studios have become adept at making -- or at least, editing -- films that can get past China's censors. Some have gone further and rewritten storylines that might raise hackles in Beijing, as when MGM decided to change Chinese villains into North Korean ones in a clumsy 2011 remake of "Red Dawn." A Chinese-owned studio would no doubt be at least as conscientious about the Party's sensitivities, if not more so.

Fortunately, the impact would probably be limited. Since the 1940s, Hollywood's studio system has given way to a blossoming of independent production companies, distribution channels and exhibition formats that give an independent-minded filmmaker many options. A Wang-owned studio could still pass on controversial projects, of course. But shareholders and audiences would look askance if management repeatedly missed out on successful films, and at least some filmmakers and talents would look elsewhere if Wanda developed a reputation for asserting a political agenda. Meanwhile, the proliferation of production houses -- not just indies, but major companies such as Amazon and Netflix -- means that U.S. viewers aren't likely to be starved for choice.

In theory, Wanda could use its power as the owner of AMC to ensure that large numbers of U.S. cinemas are stocked only with politically acceptable films. But the Justice Department's antitrust lawyers have required AMC to sell off theaters for competition reasons in the past, and the proposed Carmike acquisition - currently under investigation - may inspire them to do so again.

Meanwhile, under a landmark Supreme Court antitrust ruling in 1948, Hollywood studios were required to divest themselves of their theater-chain holdings and stop forcing independent theaters to book their films. Even if Wanda acquires a major studio, that decision - and a zealous Justice Department - ensures that it won't be able to force propaganda down the throats of American audiences that are probably home watching American-owned Netflix, anyway.

Americans have plenty of reasons to be wary of China's expanding influence. But at a time of expanding entertainment options, fear that China might be taking over the local multiplex is overheated and outdated. Taste, technology and ambition will ensure that there is always something else to watch.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:
Adam Minter at aminter@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Timothy Lavin at tlavin1@bloomberg.net

[GeneChing]

Aliblin? Amblibaba?


Steven Spielberg's Amblin Pacts With China's Alibaba Pictures Group (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steven-spielbergs-amblin-pacts-chinas-936630)
12:02 AM PDT 10/9/2016 by Abid Rahman

http://cdn5.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/10/spielberg_ma.jpg
Getty Images
Steven Spielberg (left), Jack Ma

The legendary director joined Alibaba boss Jack Ma at a signing ceremony in Beijing that will see Alibaba Pictures take an equity stake in Amblin.
Amblin Partners and China's Alibaba Pictures Group have entered into a strategic partnership to co-produce and finance films for global and Chinese audiences.

At a glitzy event Sunday in Beijing, attended by Steven Spielberg and Alibaba Group chief Jack Ma, the companies said they also will collaborate on the marketing, distribution and merchandising of Amblin's films in China. Alibaba Pictures also will have the option to co-finance Amblin films worldwide.

Under the terms of the deal, Alibaba Pictures will acquire an unspecified minority equity stake in Amblin with an Alibaba representative joining Amblin's board.

Alibaba Pictures joins India's Reliance, Canda's eOne and Jeff Skoll's Participant Media as equity holders in Amblin Partners, which was established in December.

Joining Ma onstage for an informal talk, Spielberg said that he hoped the partnership would "bring more of America to China, and bring more of China to America."

Ma praised Spielberg's storytelling abilities and how his style resonated with Chinese audiences. "I don’t think there are many differences between East and West — the only difference is that the West is better at telling stories," said Ma, adding that Alibaba Pictures hoped to learn more from Spielberg and Amblin.

Jeff Small, president and co-CEO of Amblin, also was in Beijing for the signing ceremony. Small confirmed the Alibaba deal was the Amblin's first alliance in China and that both companies had been speaking for several months.

Alibaba Pictures president Zhang Wei said that the partnership will begin with the marketing and distribution of the Spielberg-directed The BFG, which is set for release Friday in China.

The fledgling Chinese film studio already has invested in several high-profile Hollywood projects including Star Trek Beyond, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation and most recently Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.

Amblin's upcoming slate of films includes comedy A Dog's Purpose, to be released Jan. 27, and sci-fi adventure film Ready Player One, based on the best-selling book by Ernest Cline and directed by Spielberg. The pic, starring Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg and Tye Sheridan, is slated to hit theaters March 30, 2018.

[GeneChing]

18 Hollywood movies that pandered to China's giant box office (http://www.businessinsider.com/hollywood-movies-in-china-2016-10/#marvels-doctor-strange-changed-the-ancient-one-from-tibetan-in-the-comics-to-celtic-if-you-acknowledge-that-tibet-is-a-place-and-that-hes-tibetan-you-risk-alienating-one-billion-people-who-think-that-thats-bull****-and-risk-the-chinese-government-going-were-not-going-to-show-your-movie-doctor-strange-screenwriter-c-robert-cargill-said-1)
Gus Lubin
5h

http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5800f2c852dd7340018b4e53-577/joseph-gordon-levitt-in-looper-2012-movie-image-e1332035632364.jpg
"Looper" did everything it could to get a Chinese release.TriStar

Hollywood is paying more attention than ever before to China, which could have the world’s biggest box office by 2017. And that means courting Chinese censors, who allow distribution of as few as 34 foreign films each year.

"No Hollywood producer that wants to take advantage of the Chinese market would at this point include a film that includes anything about Taiwan, about Tibet, about Tiananmen," Aynne Kokas, author of the forthcoming book "Hollywood in China" and a professor at the University of Virginia, recently told Business Insider.

And that’s just the start.

"You won’t see the Chinese government acting as an enemy to the US state, but you will see the counterexample of things like 'The Martian' and 'Gravity' where Chinese astronauts save an American astronaut," Kokas said. "If the US and China had that level of cooperation in their military and space programs, we wouldn’t be having all these conflicts in the South China Sea."

Beijing also looks down on "violent content, sexual content, political content, particularly anything that shows Chinese leaders who are corrupt — American leaders who are corrupt is less of a problem. Also supernatural content," Kokas added. (It’s worth noting that China doesn’t have ratings, so all movies must be approved for a general audience.)

Kokas expects even more seamless coordination between Hollywood and China in the future, as US and Chinese companies announce collaborative film slates, Chinese companies buy US entertainment companies, US studios announce more Chinese coproductions, and US studios open China-focused subsidiaries.

"There are really structural changes in the US media industry that are less visible to consumers but will have a substantial change in how Hollywood actually operates," Kokas said.

We've rounded up some movies that made obvious changes in hopes of Chinese distribution:

Marvel’s "Doctor Strange" changed The Ancient One from Tibetan in the comics to Celtic. "If you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion people who think that that’s bull**** and risk the Chinese government going, '…we’re not going to show your movie,'" "Doctor Strange" screenwriter C. Robert Cargill said.

http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57ffdcd652dd7340018b4b1f-1200/marvels-doctor-strange-changed-the-ancient-one-from-tibetan-in-the-comics-to-celtic-if-you-acknowledge-that-tibet-is-a-place-and-that-hes-tibetan-you-risk-alienating-one-billion-people-who-think-that-thats-bull****-and-risk-the-chinese-government-going-were-not-going-to-show-your-movie-doctor-strange-screenwriter-c-robert-cargill-said.jpg
Disney

Cargill also claimed this was a no-win scenario, saying the original character was "a racist stereotype."

Source: Double Toasted via Cinema Blend

"Iron Man 3" changed The Mandarin from an evil Chinese mastermind in the comics to a Western actor hired by the real villains. It also crammed the movie with product placement and more.
http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/518735fb69bedd4119000019-1200/iron-man-3-changed-the-mandarin-from-an-evil-chinese-mastermind-in-the-comics-to-a-western-actor-hired-by-the-real-villains-it-also-crammed-the-movie-with-product-placement-and-more.jpg
Iron Man 3 trailer

"Iron Man 3" shows a doctor drinking China’s Gu Li Duo milk — positive propaganda after batches of domestic milk in real life China were contaminated with mercury. It also features Chinese medicine, product placement for China’s TCL and Zoomlion, two Chinese supporting actors, and a winning shot of cheering Chinese schoolchildren, as noted by The New York Times.

Some of these elements exist only in the special Chinese cut.

"Cloud Atlas" removed nearly 30 minutes from its Chinese cut, largely plotlines and scenes with controversial sexual relations.
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57ffddaa52dd73e9008b4b8a-1200/cloud-atlas-removed-nearly-30-minutes-from-its-chinese-cut-largely-plotlines-and-scenes-with-controversial-sexual-relations.jpg

Zhou Xun plays a human-replicant in "Cloud Atlas.""Cloud Atlas"
Notably, the same-sex romance between two men and sex between a future "human-replicant" and her foreman.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

"Looper" changed a scene from future Paris to future Shanghai, hoping to qualify as a Chinese coproduction.
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57ffdf57da177d202f8b4803-1200/looper-changed-a-scene-from-future-paris-to-future-shanghai-hoping-to-qualify-as-a-chinese-coproduction.jpg
eshiu.com

A time-traveler discourages another character from retiring in France. "I’m from the future," he says. "You should go to China."

The film also added Chinese actress Xu Qing.

Source: Film School Rejects

Li Bingbing plays Blink in "X-Men: Days of Future Past.""X-Men: Days of Future Past"
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57ffde3b52dd73a2088b4ac9-1200/x-men-days-of-future-past-featured-half-an-hour-of-content-in-hong-kong-and-cameos-by-chinese-star-li-bingbing-and-a-chinese-boy-band.jpg
"X-Men: Days of Future Past" featured half an hour of content in Hong Kong and cameos by Chinese star Li Bingbing and a Chinese boy band.

Source: The Guardian

"Skyfall" took out a scene in which James Bond kills a Chinese security guard in the Chinese cut.
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57ffded6da177dd72c8b4840-1200/skyfall-took-out-a-scene-in-which-james-bond-kills-a-chinese-security-guard-in-the-chinese-cut.jpg
"Skyfall"

It also dropped a plotline in which a character turned villainous after being left in Chinese custody. All versions of the film include scenes in Shanghai and Macau.

Source: The New Yorker

"Mission: Impossible 3" dropped a shot of clothes on clotheslines in Shanghai for the Chinese cut. Apparently, the lack of dryer ownership is a sensitive issue.
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57ffe3bada177d30028b4c87-1200/mission-impossible-3-dropped-a-shot-of-clothes-on-clotheslines-in-shanghai-for-the-chinese-cut-apparently-the-lack-of-dryer-ownership-is-a-sensitive-issue.jpg
"Mission Impossible 3"

Source: NPR

"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End" removed Chinese actor Chun Yow Fat from the Chinese cut because displaying a Chinese pirate was not acceptable.
http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57ffdcfbda177d78008b4c75-1200/pirates-of-the-caribbean-at-worlds-end-removed-chinese-actor-chun-yow-fat-from-the-chinese-cut-because-displaying-a-chinese-pirate-was-not-acceptable.jpg
Disney
Source: The Federalist

"Transformers: Age of Extinction" included shots of a debit card from the Chinese Construction Bank and a main character drinking a Chinese brand of milk.
http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/57ffe0b152dd7340018b4b4e-1200/transformers-age-of-extinction-included-shots-of-a-debit-card-from-the-chinese-construction-bank-and-a-main-character-drinking-a-chinese-brand-of-milk.jpg
"Transformers: Age of Extinction"
The movie, which was coproduced by China’s Jiaflix Enterprises, generally shows the Chinese government as benevolent, while some US government agents appear as indecisive and corrupt.

Source: The Diplomat / Listverse

"Men in Black 3" cut a scene in which Chinese bystanders get their memories erased for the Chinese edit.
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57ffe40cda177d1b008b4cb6-1200/men-in-black-3-cut-a-scene-in-which-chinese-bystanders-get-their-memories-erased-for-the-chinese-edit.jpg
"Men in Black 3"
"This could have been a hint on the use of internet censorship to maintain social stability," China’s Southern Daily newspaper noted. The Chinese cut also dropped scenes in which shady aliens are disguised as Chinese restaurant workers.

Source: The Telegraph
continued next post

[GeneChing]

"World War Z" changed the origin of a zombie virus from China in the book to Russia in the movie.
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/51c86e4f6bb3f7182200000e-1200/world-war-z-changed-the-origin-of-a-zombie-virus-from-china-in-the-book-to-russia-in-the-movie.jpg
Paramount Pictures
Source: Listverse

"Pixels" removed an attack on the Great Wall among other changes.
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57ffe465da177d30028b4c95-1200/pixels-removed-an-attack-on-the-great-wall-among-other-changes.jpg
"Pixels"
Leaked emails from Sony Pictures Entertainment show that the studio removed the Great Wall scene as well as a reference to hacking by a "Communist-conspiracy brother" in hopes of getting Chinese distribution.

Source: Reuters


"Red Dawn" changed an invading army from Chinese to North Korean in postproduction.
http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57ffe4a052dd73a2088b4b16-1200/red-dawn-changed-an-invading-army-from-chinese-to-north-korean-in-postproduction.jpg
"Red Dawn"
"The studio spent a considerable amount of money to digitally alter the film," said Stanley Rosen, professor of political science at University of Southern California. "But with North Korea as the enemy, there was no challenge since there’s really no market for US films there."

"Captain America: Civil War" shows Avengers using China’s Vivo phones.
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57ffe4d752dd7340018b4b76-1200/captain-america-civil-war-shows-avengers-using-chinas-vivo-phones.jpg.
Vivo
This doesn’t make sense in the context of the movie, Geek.com’s Dave Gonzales explains, not only because those well-funded characters would not use such mediocre products, but also because US government-backed secret agents would never be allowed to use products with such unreliable security.

"Warcraft" is based on a game franchise that might have more players in China than the US. Adding Chinese actor Daniel Wu was a cherry on top.
http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57ffe54752dd731b008b4c3b-1200/warcraft-is-based-on-a-game-franchise-that-might-have-more-players-in-china-than-the-us-adding-chinese-actor-daniel-wu-was-a-cherry-on-top.jpg
"Warcraft" character Gul'dan was voiced by Daniel Wu."Warcraft"
It also helped that this CGI-heavy movie was easy to dub into Chinese.

"Warcraft" went on to earn much more in China ($221 million) than the US ($47 million).

Source: Vanity Fair

"Independence Day: Resurgence" featured Chinese star Angelababy and a bunch of Chinese products.
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57ffe5c452dd73c5548b4625-1200/independence-day-resurgence-featured-chinese-star-angelababy-and-a-bunch-of-chinese-products.jpg
"Independence Day: Resurgence"
Lead actor Liam Hemsworth is shown using China’s popular QQ instant messaging service. Also a Chinese product, Moon Milk, is all over the film.

Source: Vanity Fair

"Django Unchained" was drastically recut to remove violence in China.
http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/50e45d2569bedd582800002b-1200/django-unchained-was-drastically-recut-to-remove-violence-in-china.jpg
Weinstein Company
While another version of the film was cleared for release, it was pulled from theaters in a matter of hours.

The movie was rereleased a month later with major changes: Django and his wife are not seen naked while they undergo torture; a flashback of a slave mauled by dogs is not present; and the shootout at the end of the movie is heavily altered.

Source: The Guardian

The rebooted "Karate Kid" was radically recut for China to remove negative portrayals of Chinese characters — tricky in a movie about an American expat fighting Chinese bullies. As an American critic noted, it went from an "underdog story to one of self-discovery."
http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57ffe6bada177d25028b4cc1-1200/the-rebooted-karate-kid-was-radically-recut-for-china-to-remove-negative-portrayals-of-chinese-characters--tricky-in-a-movie-about-an-american-expat-fighting-chinese-bullies-as-an-american-critic-noted-it-went-from-an-underdog-story-to-one-of-self-discovery.jpg
"Karate Kid"
Notably, the movie cut scenes in which Chinese kids were bullies, showing instead that they don’t fight the Americans unless provoked. Also the Chinese kung fu teacher no longer seems like a bloodthirsty jerk.

Also the movie title was changed to "The Kung Fu Kid."

Source: Shandogxifu / Listverse


Don’t be surprised if you see Chinese stars in more movies. For example "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" prominently features China’s Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen — perhaps a strategy to recover from the weak Chinese response to "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."
http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57ffe726da177d25028b4cc9-1200/dont-be-surprised-if-you-see-chinese-stars-in-more-movies-for-example-rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-prominently-features-chinas-donnie-yen-and-jiang-wen--perhaps-a-strategy-to-recover-from-the-weak-chinese-response-to-star-wars-the-force-awakens.jpg
"Rogue One: A Star Wars story"
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
continued next post

[GeneChing]

What movies got outright blocked from release in China? It’s a long list.
http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57a1f927ce38f237008b46a3-1200/what-movies-got-outright-blocked-from-release-in-china-its-a-long-list.jpg
Warner Bros.
Some examples:

"Suicide Squad." Aynne Kokas said: "A case like 'Suicide Squad' is relatively easy to understand because it’s a really violent film and removing that violence would make it difficult to actually release the film."

"The Departed." A Chinese spokesperson said: "It’s very bloody and violent. It’d be difficult to edit all those violent scenes out …. [also] this military procurement plot involving the government, of course, is not appropriate for the domestic market."

"Top Gun." A 3D rerelease was rejected because it portrayed US military dominance, notes the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

"Captain Phillips." Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution at Sony Pictures, speculated in leaked emails that the plot was a nonstarter: "Reasons being the big military machine of the US saving one US citizen. China would never do the same and in no way would want to promote this idea."

"Seven Years in Tibet." Obviously, the story of an Austrian climber befriending the Dalai Lama wasn’t getting into China. Interestingly, it led to temporary bans on all movies from Sony Pictures Entertainment and actor Brad Pitt.

"Ghostbusters," "Crimson Peak," and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" were all blocked, presumably because of ghosts.

I find the term 'marketing' better than 'pandering' here. :rolleyes:

[GeneChing]

Great Stalin quote.


Hollywood, Chinese-style (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/17/congress-probes-chinas-inroads-in-the-us-film-indu/)
Congress probes China’s inroads in the U.S. film industry

http://twt-thumbs.washtimes.com/media/image/2016/10/17/10172016_b3-berm-bond-barrel8201_c0-107-2350-1477_s885x516.jpg?1732d7fbed33525e4d1a1be2ccfdfc4e b003e59b

By Richard Berman - - Monday, October 17, 2016
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Joseph Stalin once said, “If I could control the medium of the American motion picture, I would need nothing else to convert the entire world to communism.”
The Chinese government is taking those words to heart. China’s Communist Party claims that “efforts should be made to manifest core socialist values in internet publicity, culture, and service.” President Xi Jinping has vowed to “strengthen China’s soft power” and “build its capacity in international communication.” In his words: “The stories of China should be well told, voices of China well spread, and characteristics of China well explained.” The country now spends $10 billion every year on external propaganda.
Chinese officials are intent on spreading favorable spins of the Chinese Communist government — from repression of its citizens to its aggressive foreign policy and military buildup agenda.
How are they doing it? In part by buying U.S. film studios and movie theater chains, which the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently agreed to review in depth.
It comes at a crucial time. China’s foot soldier is Dalian Wanda, a Chinese firm closely aligned to the Communist Party. In 2012, Wanda bought AMC Entertainment — the second-largest movie theater chain in the country — for $2.6 billion. It purchased Legendary Entertainment — the producer of “The Dark Knight Trilogy” — for an even heftier $3.5 billion in January.
Wanda-owned AMC now plans to buy Carmike Cinemas for $1.2 billion, forming the country’s largest chain with 8,380 screens in more than 600 theaters. The company has also shown interest in buying at least a portion of Lionsgate Corp. and Paramount Pictures — if not some of Hollywood’s “Big Six” studios.
Wanda’s founder and chairman, Wang Jianlin, is not shy about his ambitions — or his ties to the Chinese government. A former Communist deputy and China’s wealthiest man, Mr. Wang strives to turn Wanda into “a juggernaut” in the movie industry through high-dollar mergers and acquisitions that grant him greater control of major production and distribution channels.
Ownership of AMC theaters, for example, will allow Mr. Wang to promote his country’s motion pictures to American moviegoers and to depress viewing of films and treatments he may not want viewed by American audiences. Before Wanda’s takeover, the company’s cinemas showed no Chinese films, yet now put on double-digit productions every year. As Mr. Wang puts it, “[AMC’s] boss is Chinese, so more Chinese films should be in their theaters where possible.”
And he has used the Chinese government’s soft-power policy to his advantage. Calling it “very beneficial” to Wanda’s bottom line, Mr. Wang has steered at least $1.1 billion in government subsidies to Wanda. He has sold company stakes to relatives of some of China’s most powerful politicians and business executives, including the business partner of former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s daughter and relatives of two members of the Politburo — the Communist Party’s principal policymaking committee. Qi Qiaoqiao, the elder sister of President Xi Jinping, was also an early Wanda investor. Mr. Wang’s motto says it all: “Stay close to the government and distant from politics.”
The cozy relationship blurs the line between Wanda’s interests and the Communist Party’s. While the company gains greater market share through mergers and acquisitions, it also gains the opportunity to alter movie scripts prerelease and prevent certain films from being shown at Wanda-owned theaters if Chinese officials lobby for it.
It’s not a stretch. “Pixels,” the 2015 action-comedy flick, initially depicted aliens blasting a hole in the Great Wall. The scene was removed entirely from the final version of the movie. Similarly, the 2012 remake of “Red Dawn” originally featured Chinese soldiers invading an American town, but filmmakers changed the invaders into North Koreans without even receiving a formal complaint from Beijing.
Wanda recently bankrolled the $25 million production budget of “Southpaw,” becoming the first Chinese firm to “solely finance an American movie.” And it left fingerprints everywhere. According to David Glasser, who helped produce and market the film, “[Wanda was] involved — it wasn’t just a silent investment.” Mr. Glasser went even further: “They were on the set and involved in production, postproduction, marketing, everything.”
What prevents Mr. Wang’s company from removing a scene critical of China’s aggressive military posturing in the South China Sea? Or keeping such a movie out of its American theaters?
Fortunately, Congress is aware of China’s subtle power play. The promised GAO review came in response to a request from 18 bipartisan members of Congress to investigate Mr. Wang’s dealmaking and the effects of Chinese propagandizing through state-supported companies. Rep. John Culberson, Texas Republican, also asked the Department of Justice to launch a review of the Foreign Agents Registration Act to see if the “foreign propaganda influence over American media” was being sufficiently addressed. Wang Jainlin, the Wanda CEO, will be in Hollywood this week on a public relations tour promoting his government’s offer to subsidize American film making in China.
Congress should heed Stalin’s words. It may be a bridge too far for the Communist Chinese to achieve these control goals. However, there will be a lot of mischief experienced while they try.

• Richard Berman is the president of Berman and Company, a public affairs firm in Washington, D.C.

[GeneChing]

A dramatic box-office slowdown in China has Hollywood nervous (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-china-box-office-20161024-snap-story.html)

http://www.trbimg.com/img-58092029/turbine/la-1476993275-snap-photo/750/750x422
A Wanda Cinema location in Wuhan, in the Chinese province of Hubei. (Zhang Peng / LightRocket via Getty Images)

Ryan Faughnder and Yanan Wang

At the Wanda Imax theater in Beijing’s bustling Central Business District, shopping mall patrons passed the time on couches in the lobby as they waited to meet friends on a Wednesday afternoon — but many weren’t there to see movies.

Some in fact, like 21-year-old Tian Zhuanghui, said a lack of good films have kept them away from the multiplex.

“I watch movies a lot less now,” Tian, a recent university graduate, said with a shrug. “I just don’t have the desire to anymore. The excitement is gone.”

Tian, who prefers fantasy and science fiction pictures, is far from alone in her waning interest. Her sentiment reflects a surprising plot twist in the world’s second-largest film market: a dramatic box-office slowdown.

Ticket sales in China during the last six months have been down by 10% compared with the same period last year, according to EntGroup, a Beijing-based research firm. That’s a striking turnaround for a country that saw a nearly 50% jump in box office receipts in 2015 to $6.78 billion, leading many people to believe that mainland China would overtake the U.S. and Canada as the world’s No. 1 market as soon as next year. But a weak summer season has dampened the hype.

Movie ticket receipts are weakening even though cinema chains are still building theaters at a rapid pace.

The headwinds have caused growing anxiety in an increasingly global-focused Hollywood, which has placed big bets on the burgeoning appetite of Chinese consumers for entertainment. U.S. studios are increasingly gearing their would-be blockbusters to appeal to audiences in China, and doing deals with local companies to improve their chances of doing big business there.

Experts have scrambled to explain the phenomenon, citing a poor film lineup, a lack of discounts from online ticket sellers, and increased government scrutiny of phony box office statistics.

“There are a lot of things to be concerned about, and a slowdown in the box office there is one of them,” said Rob Cain, a producer and veteran studio consultant on China. “A lot of Chinese audiences are getting tired of paying good money for bad films.”

The slowdown has sparked a sharp reaction from some Chinese investors eager to court Hollywood.

China’s richest man, Wang Jianlin, chairman of cinema and real estate giant Dalian Wanda Group, tried to quell concerns last week during a speech to Hollywood executives in Los Angeles. Wang, who came to a Los Angeles County Museum of Art event to tout his new $8.2 billion, 408-acre movie production complex in Qingdao, stressed that the box office would continue to show strong growth throughout the next decade, despite the current hiccups.

“I believe any pessimism about China’s film market is inaccurate,” Wang said, according to an English language transcript of his speech last Monday night. “As China continues its urbanization, as the number of shopping malls grows, and as the income of the Chinese population rises, China’s film market will maintain a fast growth rate over the next 10 years.”

Nonetheless, it’s become clear that the torrid pace of the past several years is not sustainable. Wang said China’s box office sales should increase up to 15% annually during the next decade, meaning the industry could reach $30 billion by 2016 — three times the size of North America ($11.1 billion in 2015).

Analysts blame the slowdown partly on a leap in prices consumers have to pay for tickets sold online. For years, tech companies such as Alibaba Group and Tencent offered aggressive subsidies discounting tickets as much as 50% in order to fight for market share. That practice has been cut back significantly now that the ticket sellers are under increasing pressure to turn profits. The average ticket price in China is about $5, compared with $8.51 in the U.S.

Industry observers also single out the past manipulation of box office statistics by private companies that inflated the successes of their movies in previous years. In March, Chinese regulators launched an investigation into online ticket sellers to find out if they had inflated the sales numbers for the martial arts movie “Ip Man 3,” starring Donnie Yen and Mike Tyson.

The crackdown on the practice by China’s government regulators raised questions about the reliability of the overall statistics for the Chinese market. The sudden sluggishness may reflect greater transparency in the market, and could cause headaches for investors and studios who had hoped for easier returns on their movies.

“It may cause some short-term dislocation,” said Marc Ganis, co-founder and managing director of Jiaflix Enterprises, which helps studios distribute movies in China. “This is significant and meaningful, but it ought not to reduce the interest in the Chinese market.”

Then there is the issue of quality, or lack thereof. China needs better movies in order to draw the masses to cinemas. Wanda Group’s Wang, along with many analysts, said the box office boom inspired a wave of investment in pictures that were rushed to market in order to take advantage of the upswing. While the industry fielded a couple of homegrown blockbusters including “The Mermaid” ($526 million in China) this year, there were a number of movies with major stars that did poor business, such as the comedy “Papa,” historical adventure “Xuan Zang” and the war flick “Brothers.”

Lawrence Wang, China regional manager for cinema technology provider Vista Group, said sacrificing quality has backfired.

“Because the market is crazy, people are thinking any film can make money,” he said. “But it's an illusion. The audiences there have their own taste, and they can tell if the film is not good.”

Hollywood itself may be partly responsible for the stalled growth in China. Last year’s box office boom in the world’s most populous country was partly fueled by American blockbusters like “Jurassic World” and “Furious 7” that have been in short supply this year.

Movie producers and studio executives in Los Angeles privately downplayed the long-term significance of the China slump, but acknowledged that studios have to do a better job of studying the tastes of Chinese moviegoers. To many, China remains an enormous untapped opportunity. People there see an average of less than one movie each year, whereas their U.S. counterparts buy almost four tickets each annually. Analysts and executives hope Chinese per capita attendance continues to grow as more of the population has access to local movie theaters.

Recent sluggishness at the box office hasn’t curtailed deal making on either side of the Pacific.

Chinese film production and marketing company Huahua Media said last week it would invest in Paramount Pictures’ upcoming Brad Pitt World War II movie “Allied.” That comes on the heels of Alibaba Pictures’ agreement to co-produce and co-finance movies with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners.

Sony Pictures in September secured a commitment from Wanda to invest in a handful of its major projects, in hopes of giving its films a leg up in the country. While Wanda has been the most aggressive in the space, studios and production companies have also lined up to work with Chinese partners like Tencent, Alibaba, Hunan TV and Fosun International. Last year, Warner Bros. and China Media Capital set up a joint venture called Flagship Entertainment Group to make local-language movies.

In turn, China film companies have turned to U.S. studios to learn more about the art and craft of modern filmmaking. Hollywood exports such as Disney’s “Zootopia” and Legendary Entertainment’s “Warcraft” continue to generate a considerable portion of the overall theatrical revenue. Success in the Chinese box office can determine whether a movie is profitable.

Better Chinese movies would be welcome news for 20-year-old Wang Yi, who had just exited a showing of the computer animated “L.O.R.D.: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties” at the Beijing Central Business District theater.

Wang said she used to go to the movies twice a week, whenever there was a new release. Now she comes half as often.

“There are fewer good Chinese movies,” she said. “American blockbusters, especially superhero movies, are more fast-paced and exciting."

If China ever succeeds in making that global blockbuster, we'll never hear the end of it. :rolleyes:

[GeneChing]

...but wait, there's more. See the next post.


Ang Lee says China box office will soon dwarf Hollywood (http://www.themalaymailonline.com/showbiz/article/ang-lee-says-china-box-office-will-soon-dwarf-hollywood)
Saturday October 29, 2016
01:48 PM GMT+8

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/images/sized/ez/Ang_Lee_BAFTA_reuters_291016_620_430_100.JPG
Director Ang Lee accepts the John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Excellence in Directing at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) Los Angeles’ Britannia Awards in Beverly Hills, California, October 29, 2016. — Reuters pic

LOS ANGELES, Oct 29 — Taiwanese-born filmmaker Ang Lee predicted yesterday that the Chinese film market was about to explode, not only overtaking but dwarfing the American box office in a matter of years.

The two-time Oscar winner said executives in the world’s second economy used to rely on him as a bridge to Hollywood, but the newly-confident Chinese film industry no longer finds it necessary.

“It’s huge, it’s going to be bigger in a few years,” the 62-year-old told reporters on the red carpet at the glitzy Bafta Britannia Awards in Beverly Hills.

“In a few years it’s probably going to be bigger (than the US) and then in the years to come a lot bigger. They’ve got many people and, most importantly, film has been lacking in the past in the culture so it’s still fresh.”

“People still want to see movies — they are not jaded yet.”

China’s movie market has exploded and PricewaterhouseCoopers projects its box office will rise from US$4.3 billion (RM18 billion) in 2014 to US$8.9 billion in 2019, outstripping the US.

Hollywood studios have been looking to capitalise on the burgeoning market through partnerships with Chinese companies.

Meanwhile, Beijing has ambitions to increase China’s “soft power”, unleashing a wave of Chinese money into Hollywood.

Chinese internet billionaire Jack Ma announced earlier this month that he has purchased a stake in cinema legend Steven Spielberg’s company.

Meanwhile real estate developer turned media conglomerate Wanda bought Jurassic World creator Legendary Entertainment for US$3.5 billion earlier this year.

Last month Wanda — which snapped up US movie theatre chain AMC in 2012 for US$2.6 billion — announced it would invest in movies produced by Sony Pictures, its first deal with one of Hollywood’s so-called “Big Six” studios.

Lee was the first Asian ever to win an Oscar for directing, in 2006 for gay cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain. He went on to win again for 2012’s Life of Pi.

He was at the Bafta LA ceremony — which celebrates the contribution of Hollywood talent and British entertainers — to receive the John Schlesinger Britannia Award for excellence in directing.

His war drama Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, starring Joe Alwyn, Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel and Steve Martin, will be released in the US on November 11.

Lee described the film as a “social satire” and a “coming-of-age story of a young soldier realising who he really is.” — AFP

[GeneChing]

Well, at least I can keep my "Chollywood Rising" title for a few more years now. I was stressing because I couldn't think up a better one. And I'm not really that fond of the present one either. :o


China’s Ascent to No. 1 Film Market Now Stalled Until 2019 (http://variety.com/2016/film/news/china-number-one-film-market-1201906128/)
James Rainey
Senior Film Reporter
@RaineyTime

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/shanghai-skyline-china-placeholder.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
YANG WEI CHEN/SHUTTERSTOCK
NOVEMBER 1, 2016 | 10:22AM PT

China is still poised to overtake the United States as the world’s largest film market, but a slowing of audience growth means the handover of market supremacy will likely now occur in 2019, not 2017, as previously predicted, a top trade association executive said Tuesday.

Audience growth in China had been projected at 30% but now appears to be at 20% or less, said Michael Ellis, Asia-Pacific president for the Motion Picture Association of America. “It’s going to happen, it’s just not quite sure when,” said Ellis, speaking at the U.S.-China Film Summit at UCLA.

Ellis said the audience in China skews younger than in the U.S., with viewers in the 25 to 30 age bracket visiting the cinema a dozen times or more a year — representing more than 40% of that nation’s market.

In a snapshot of the Chinese market for the seventh annual conference — sponsored by the Asia Society Southern California — Ellis reported that the average ticket price now stands at $5.65, compared to the $8.61-a-seat average in the United States.

Despite estimates that the Chinese exhibition industry is expanding by 20 screens a day, the nation remains under-resourced compared to the United States. China has an estimated 35,000 theater screens, or 25.7 per million of population, compared to 40,174 screens in the U.S., 123.7 per million population.

Ellis discussed the continuing speculation over whether China will increase its annual quota — most recently set at 34 films a year — on the number of foreign movie imports allowed into the country for screening. He said it was hard to predict whether that number will change, but said the quota has always been a floor, not a ceiling, for foreign films in China.

“China can and will exceed that quota when there are market reasons to do so,” Ellis said.

But wait...there's more.

[GeneChing]

This is a little ironic when you consider that there are dozens of Chinese-made films with entirely Chinese casts and they have Chinese villains. :rolleyes:


China Film Official Insists There’s No Ban on Hollywood Movies With Chinese Villains (http://www.thewrap.com/china-film-official-no-ban-chinese-villains/)
It’s been difficult to spot a Chinese bad guy in a recent Hollywood blockbuster
Matt Pressberg | November 1, 2016 @ 3:10 PM

http://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/3d-imax-china.jpg

A top Chinese film official said Tuesday that there’s no official policy to bar Hollywood movies featuring Chinese bad guys from playing in the country — which is expected to surpass the U.S. as the world’s biggest box office market in the next few years.

“As for villains or heroes, I don’t think there is any restriction,” Miao Xiaotian, the president of the China Film Co-Production Corporation, a state-run body that oversees co-productions, said at the Asia Society’s U.S.-China Film Summit at the University of California Los Angeles. “I cannot say that the villain cannot be played by Chinese actors. I don’t think there’s any restriction on that.”

The 2012 film “Red Dawn” famously swapped out its Chinese villains for North Koreans during postproduction to ensure it would get a theatrical run in China’s multiplexes. And since then, the number of big-screen bad guys from the Middle Kingdom has dwindled to basically zero, while the Chinese box office has become an increasingly important source of revenue for Hollywood.

Miao also shed light on China’s motives behind its policy of pursuing co-productions between U.S and Chinese firms. Official Chinese co-productions require a minimum 15 percent financial investment from Chinese partners — more with certain countries that have signed official treaties, and also substantial local representation in the cast.

“For casting, we request that there will be Chinese actors for main characters,” he said. “Our requirement is that there should not be less than one-third.”

Miao also reassured Hollywood execs about the content of films they hope to import into his country. “Don’t worry,” he said noting that most significant Hollywood films end up winning approval from China’s state censors.

This year, “Suicide Squad” and “Ghostbusters” failed to win approval — and Miao noted the war movie “300” as another example.

“I think that film didn’t go to China because of violence,” he said.

Currently, China allows 34 imported films per year on a revenue-sharing basis. Miao wouldn’t speculate on whether that quota might be raised, although there have been a flurry of Hollywood films that have recently landed China release dates, including Paramount’s “Allied,” Lionsgate’s “Deepwater Horizon” and Disney-Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” — as China’s box office has had an uncharacteristically sluggish run.

“In the future if the quota will increase or not, I’m not sure about that,” he said. “It’s hard to speculate. But I think co-production is a very good way to make it up.”

[GeneChing]

Plus four. oh yay.


China's limit on imported films relaxed amid box office downturn (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/01/china-limit-on-imported-films-relaxed-amid-box-office-downturn?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1)
New releases increase number of Hollywood films shown in China to 38 – four more than the usual quota

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Disaster movie Deepwater Horizon has secured a Chinese release on 15 November. Photograph: David Lee

Alan Evans
@itsalanevans
Tuesday 1 November 2016 05.59 EDT

China appears to have relaxed its rule limiting the number of Hollywood films that can be shown each year in a bid to boost slowing box office returns.

In the last few days, a number of Hollywood films have secured release dates, pushing the total released in China this year to at least 38, compared to the usual quota of 34. Deepwater Horizon, Keeping Up With the Joneses and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children have been given release dates, and films including Doctor Strange, Trolls, Allied, Moana and Sully had been confirmed.

The quota of 34 applies to films imported on a revenue-sharing basis, allowing US distributors to collect 25% of box office revenue. Other films can be imported on a flat-fee basis – in which Chinese distributors pay one fee and keep all of the profits – and account for about 30 films a year.

According to China Film Insider, a spokesperson for the Chinese film bureau denied that the quota had been exceeded, saying some of the films did not count towards the number as they were “cultural exchange projects”.

US studios are keen to capitalise on China’s enormous box office potential. A deal in 2012 increased the number of foreign imports from 20 and also improved the share of profits US studios received.

After years of growth in China, box office takings in 2016 have fallen far short of what was expected – just $5.6bn (£4.57bn) of the hoped-for $8.9bn has been made so far. This downturn is thought to have prompted the relaxation of the quota as officials attempt to reinvigorate the film industry.

The 2012 deal was valid for five years and will be up for renegotiation in February, when it appears the quota may be increased considerably. China Film Insider reported that a state official warned the domestic industry to prepare for “intensive and fair” competition, while the Hollywood Reporter suggested that the number of imports was likely to be increased by 10 to accommodate arthouse movies and Oscar winners.

[GeneChing]

China film news is buzzing right now. I'm just going to post a few on the Chollywood Rising thread (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/newreply.php?p=1297686) for now and more later.


The Silver Lining Behind China’s Box Office Slowdown (http://variety.com/2016/film/asia/wanda-building-theaters-box-office-slump-1201907135/)
7:03 PM PDT 11/2/2016 by Rebecca Sun

http://cdn5.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/06/wanda.jpg
Getty Images
Wanda cinema in China

Execs at the U.S.-China Film & TV Industry Expo optimistically see a more stable pace characterized by a focus on quality over quantity.
Chinese film executives are putting a positive spin on the country’s bearish 2016 box office.

"We’re still very optimistic [about the Chinese market],” said Wanda Cultural Industry Group head Jack Gao, speaking at the 3rd annual U.S.-China Film & TV Industry Expo on Wednesday. Noting that “there’s no way you can explode 50 percent year to year,” as the Chinese market had done through the first quarter of this year, Gao predicted a more “steady and sustainable” rate of 15 percent growth over the next decade.

William Feng, who oversees Greater China for the Motion Picture Association, explained that a big reason for the box office slowdown stems from the elimination of ticket pricing irregularities and the government cracking down on fraudulent box-office reporting. “With that big portion of fake box office being wiped out, there’s been a big drop,” he said.

Both Hollywood and Chinese executives admitted that the record-setting growth in recent years created a glut of product that wasn’t always up to standard. “If you look at the movies we were making here and sending overseas, a lot were sequels to franchises that we grew up with, but not [Chinese audiences],” said LeVision Entertainment president Adam Goodman. “We can’t just treat China’s mad growth like, ‘It doesn’t matter what we do, if we put it there, it will find an audience.’ The consumers want something that is theatrical-worthy.”

Multiple experts declared that despite the depressed box office numbers, the Chinese audience’s demand for content still outweighs supply. China’s status as the world’s second-biggest movie market comes despite the fact that its per-capita number of screens is still less than a quarter of that in the top-ranked U.S. And the country is building more and more screens (led by the Wanda Cinema Line, which expects to grow its market share by 2 to 3 percent annually), expanding access to audiences in third- and fourth-tier cities.

Driven by this growth, Gao ambitiously predicted that by the end of the next decade, China’s box office would be 2.5 times that of the United States: “The market is still growing, so it’s our job to get good content and work with Hollywood filmmakers to fill the need of that market.”

[GeneChing]

Wanda Wants to Build Its Way Out of China’s Box Office Slump (http://variety.com/2016/film/asia/wanda-building-theaters-box-office-slump-1201907135/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

http://i2.wp.com/pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/20141220_174341-3.jpg?crop=0px%2C94px%2C1171px%2C652px&resize=670%2C377&ssl=1
Wanda Cinema Line

NOVEMBER 2, 2016 | 11:03AM PT

Jack Gao, Wanda’s head of international developments, says that the giant Chinese group is unfazed by the recent slowdown of the Chinese box office and plans to maintain an aggressive pace of multiplex building.

“The slowdown was not a surprise,” said Gao, group VP and CEO of international investments and business development at Wanda Cultural Industry Group. He was speaking Tuesday at the Chinese-American Film Festival Summit and echoed many of the same sentiments at the U.S.-China Film & TV Expo summit on Wednesday at L.A. Live. “We didn’t expect it to happen so fast, but you know what, it is a good thing.”

China’s theatrical box office had grown in an almost unbroken upswing for almost a decade, hitting an astonishing 49% growth rate last year, to finish 2015 with a total of $6.8 billion. This year started brightly and further records were broken at Chinese New Year in February. But from June onward revenues have flatlined and the year will likely end up with single figure or low double-digit percentage growth.

Cinema-building this year means that some 8,000 new screens are likely to go live this — down from an even higher figure last year. By the year’s end, the total in operation could come close to 40,000, putting China almost on a parallel with North America, albeit with a population of 1.3 billion, compared with North America’s 300 million-plus.

“Wanda will continue to build around 1,500 screens per year for the next decade,” said Gao. Its Wanda Cinema Line division is already China’s largest private sector cinema operator. “We see box office growth of a sustainable 15% per year over that time. That will make the China market possibly 2.5 time bigger than the U.S. The number of screen count could reach 120,000 screens. We remain very optimistic.”

In another sign that Wanda intends to build its way out of the current situation, the company placed an order for 150 more Imax screens in August.

Gao also hinted that Wanda expects AMC, its U.S. exhibition subsidiary, to complete its acquisition of Carmike Cinemas by the end of the year.

120,000 screens. wow.

[GeneChing]

Huayi Boss Denies Communist Influence in China’s Hollywood Dealings (http://variety.com/2016/biz/asia/china-hollywood-communism-james-wang-1201907833/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/wanda-legendary-partnership-china-and-hollywood.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
EDWARD TUCKWELL FOR VARIETY
NOVEMBER 2, 2016 | 06:58PM PT

James Wang (aka Wang Zhonglei), co-chief of China’s Huayi Brothers Media, poured cold water on the notion that the Communist Party is behind Chinese companies’ recent incursions into Hollywood.

“This is a joke,” said Wang on Wednesday in Los Angeles. “We are trying to develop our own markets.” He was speaking at the UCFTI Convention on Chinese-U.S. movie industry relations at L.A. Live, taking place the same week as the American Film Market in Santa Monica.

Some members of the U.S. Congress have suggested that regulators in America examine the recent Chinese investments. But Wang made careful distinction between the recent succession of Chinese investments and the string of Japanese corporate maneuvers in the 1990s and early 21st century, which provoked similar fears.

“In China, capital is seeking out content. Here (U.S.) companies are currently seeking capital,” said Wang. And finance is something that Chinese firms have provided in abundance in the past two years.

Chinese investments in Hollywood have included Fosun International’s equity investment in Jeff Robinov’s Studio 8, through co-financing deals of Perfect World and Bona Film Group (into Universal’s current production lineup, and 20th Century Fox’s current slate) to strategic co-operation deals between Alibaba and Amblin Partners and Wanda’s acquisition of Legendary Entertainment and the AMC cinema chain. Huayi is an equity investor and co-financing partner in mini-studio STX.

“(In its U.S. outreach) Huayi wants to focus on content and production companies,” said Wang. And he noted that is not a new approach.

Huayi was one of the first Chinese movie enterprises to be involved with a Hollywood studio. The company made several films with Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, a late 20th century China production initiative that with hindsight now looks to have been ahead of its time.

Pressed to explain how Chinese companies obtain government permission to export capital and make overseas investments, Wang was ****ing. “I didn’t realize that Washington D.C. was also in the business of telling stories,” he said.

“There is no such approval process,” Wang said. “I need approval from my board of directors, not the (Chinese) government.”

Wang said that the Chinese film industry has much to learn from Hollywood, especially in talent and production, and suggested that China may actually be suffering a brain drain. “(China is) now making 700 movies a year, but the number of quality movies has not increased proportionately. If you have good ideas and skills please come to China now. There is a mismatch between talent and production and this way we have a lot of bad movies,” Wang said. “There are lots of Chinese going to study film in the U.S., but not all of them are coming back.

It's not the chicoms. It's the tuhao. It's about the money, like always.

[GeneChing]

The reason Monster Hunt (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68878-Monster-Hunt), The Mermaid (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69162-The-Mermaid) & Skiptrace (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65866-Skiptrace) didn't do well in the U.S. was that they all kinda sucked. Sometimes there's just no accounting for Chinese taste. :o



Can China Make a Movie the Whole World Will Love? (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/can-china-make-a-movie-world-will-love-943345)
6:30 AM PDT 11/2/2016 by Rebecca Sun

http://cdn2.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/08/st_01880-h_2016.jpg
Courtesy of Saban Films
'Skiptrace'

Amid a domestic box-office slump, Chinese production companies seek to emulate Hollywood's worldwide "marketing and distribution muscle," said panelists at the Asia Society's 7th annual U.S.-China Film Summit.
In the throes of an uncharacteristic down year for the Chinese box office, it may no longer be enough to churn out product only for the local population. According to experts gathered at the Asia Society’s 7th annual U.S.-China Film Summit, China’s movie industry is more anxious than ever to create content that performs internationally.

“The Chinese are looking for how much further they can take their films,” said William Pfeiffer, executive chairman of global local-language production and financing consortium Globalgate Entertainment. Speaking on a Tuesday panel at UCLA’s Ruskin Conference Center, Pfeiffer said learning from Hollywood’s “marketing and distribution muscle” are among China’s key motivations for allying with U.S. companies.

None of China’s recent hits — Monster Hunt, The Mermaid, Skiptrace — have found much success beyond Asia. The latter film, a Jackie Chan-Johnny Knoxville buddy comedy directed by Renny Harlin, made 97.5 percent of its $136 million worldwide gross in China. Dasym Media Managing Director Charles Coker, a producer on the movie, conceded that it was “not current for American tastes.”

“It was written by an American scriptwriter under the auspices of a Chinese development team,” he added. “Putting a proper financing deal together is more objective than figuring out what works from a creative standpoint.”

Sheri Jeffrey, a partner at entertainment law firm Hogan Lovells, agreed that most so-called co-productions to date have been co-financing transactions. “How to develop a story that’s wildly successful in China and out of China: that’s the nut we have to crack,” she said, adding that early word on Legendary’s $135 million The Great Wall, which premieres in China over the holidays before rolling out to the U.S. in February, is that it too will play disproportionately better on one side of the Pacific.

The secret may be patience, which characterized the mutual courtship between Alibaba Pictures and Amblin Partners before they struck a long-term strategic partnership in October. Sharing the summit stage with Amblin president and co-CEO Jeff Small, Alibaba Pictures president Zhang Wei said that the two companies are taking their time looking for the right project to make together.

“It has to feel very organic,” she said. “We’re not going to force any Chinese elements into Steven [Spielberg]’s movies, and we don’t have to define something as a ‘China story’ or an ‘American story.’ So many stories in Hollywood are about universal values that people around the world can appreciate. We can tell those stories as well.”

[GeneChing]

When an aspiring actress hangs herself from this sign, it will have arrived.


See China's Answer to the Hollywood Sign (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/see-chinas-answer-hollywood-sign-943348)
6:00 AM PDT 11/2/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

http://cdn2.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/10/dh_wanda_studios_qingdao_b0173fin02-embed.jpg
David Hogsholt
Wanda Studios Qingdao

High above Wanda's $8.2 billion Qingdao Movie Metropolis sits a giant sign that the company hopes will become as iconic as the celebrated Los Angeles landmark.
Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, headed by Asia's richest man, Wang Jianlin, is building the world's largest film studio on China's eastern coast, about 300 miles north of Shanghai. But to truly compete with Hollywood, Wanda needed more than just a world-class filmmaking facility — it needed a sign.
The seaside city of Qingdao is known to most Americans as the home of Tsingtao beer, but that may be about to change. Wanda, a real estate company attempting an aggressive transition into global entertainment, has invested $8.2 billion to construct the filmmaking facility in the city. Dubbed the Wanda Qingdao Movie Metropolis, the finished project will span 408 acres and comprise 45 state-of-the-art soundstages, including the world's largest, as well as China's biggest indoor and outdoor water tanks (for an inside look at the studio, see here).
Overlooking it all, perched on the upper portion of a rocky mountaintop Wanda calls "Movie Metropolis Hill," sits a gigantic sign made of four Chinese characters in white: 东方影都. In translation, they read: "Movie Metropolis of the East."
"You can see it from almost anywhere you are in the studio," says Morgan Hunwicks, a Canadian and a production veteran who spent 10 years working at Fox Studios in Sydney before joining Wanda Studios Qingdao as head of production. "The idea, obviously, is our version of the Hollywood sign," he says. "It's taller, but [not as long as] the Hollywood one."
Whether Wanda's Qingdao sign will become an iconic landmark like its counterpart across the Pacific — which has overlooked Los Angeles since 1923 — remains to be seen. But Wanda is certainly trying to make it so: To lure Hollywood projects to its studio, the company has set up on of the world's most lucrative production incentives, a 40 percent rebate for qualifying film and TV projects that shoot there. And in an effort to make the area a comfortable working environment for international film professionals, Wanda is building luxury hotels, restaurants, bars, condos, a marina, a hospital and more atop a giant artificial island out in the Yellow Sea beside the studio site.
"It's fun to be a part of a project that was built from the ground up," added Hunwicks. "During my time at Fox, I think the most we ever built was a storage shed, because the studio had been around for a while and was in an existing footprint — there's just no space. But here the horizon is the limit."

[GeneChing]

Here's some more


Bona Film Seeks Status as Chinese Major Ahead of IPO (EXCLUSIVE) (http://variety.com/2016/film/asia/bona-film-seeks-status-as-chinese-major-ahead-of-ipo-1201910855/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/yu-dong-iif_0073-2.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
NOVEMBER 5, 2016 | 08:00PM PT

Bona Film Group is building on its role as one of China’s most successful distributors and is looking to expand its business both in Hollywood and in China, prior to a new IPO in 2018.

The company this week signed a deal to launch a $20 million film investment fund with Imax China, the Hong Kong stock market-listed offshoot of Imax. The pair will invest in Chinese movies and conversions of Chinese titles for release on the country’s huge number of giant screens. Imax China, which has a similar fund with China Media Capital, currently has some 320 screens in commercial operation, with an order book for nearly 300 more. The fund would likely give Bona’s Imax screens priority access to some of the titles.

Bona is also expanding the co-financing arrangement it has through The Seelig Group in the current slate of Twentieth Century Fox. That has already seen Bona invest $235 million in six movies including “The Martian” and “Independence Day: Resurgence.” Bona chairman and founder Yu Dong told Variety that Bona is now committed to seven movies and that he intends to continue co-financing other titles in the Fox lineup on a picture-by-picture basis.

In a separate deal, Bona is also an investor-producer in the upcoming Ang Lee title “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.” The company has converted two of its theaters — one each in Beijing and Shanghai — to be part of the tiny network of just five cinemas worldwide that will present the movie in the full 120 frames per second, 4K, 3D version that Lee ambitiously conceived.

The other screens are in New York, Los Angeles, and Lee’s native Taiwan. The film is set for release in China, Taiwan, and North America on Nov. 11.

Bona, currently riding high at the box office with fact-based action film “Operation Mekong,” has greenlighted a clutch of top projects for 2017-18. They include “Red Sea Operation,” a new actioner from “Mekong” director Dante Lam that will see the Chinese army in action in Yemen; an untitled film directed by Han Han, the blogger and race-car driver who delivered $100 million Bona hit “The Continent” in 2014; and “The Birth of an Army.” The big-budget, patriotic movie will be made style of all-star hits “Beginning of the Great Revival,” and “The Founding of a Republic.” The new picture will be produced by “Republic” and “Revival” producer Huang Jianxin and directed by Hong Kong’s Andrew Lau Wai-keung (“Infernal Affairs,” “Revenge of the Green Dragons”.)

A powerhouse slate and distribution success would nicely tee up the company for a return to the stock market. Bona was previously listed on the NASDAQ, but was taken private with finance from Yu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Studio 8 financier Fosun Intl.

With entertainment plays attracting huge investment flows in China, relisting on a Chinese exchange would be expected to deliver a vastly higher rating than the company enjoyed in the U.S. Yu says that the company wants to take the conventional IPO route, rather than financial engineering through a reverse into a shell vehicle, and that Bona is now queueing for a flotation, likely in 2018.

Meantime, Yu says that he is enjoying the support of his two major backers, internet giants Alibaba and Tencent. “They are very far from passive investors,” he said. “They are providing active support in marketing and distribution. What they are not doing is picking the movies we should make.”

Yu, who has previously voiced concern that China’s internet majors could dominate the movie industry, now says that there has been a subtle, but important lesson learned from this year’s box office slowdown.

“The internet companies are coming to realize that storytelling and an emphasis on quality and execution has a bigger impact and lasts longer than internet-originated concepts. That experience is what (Alibaba and Tencent) are getting from Bona,” Yu said. In “From Vegas to Macau III” and “Mekong,” Bona this year has produced two of the top seven films this year in China.

“When we come back to the stock market we want to be viewed as one of China’s majors in the same way as people talk about the Hollywood majors,” Yu said.

To that end, Yu is now hatching further plans to vertically integrate upstream into production services, and downstream into theme parks. The company is planning to build sound stages and post-production facilities at Huairou, northwest of Beijing, in the same district as the studios operated by China Film group and where the Beijing Film Academy also plans to build a production base.

[GeneChing]

Interesting development for Monkey King 2 & Time Raiders.


AFM: CMC Pictures Makes Market Debut With Slate of Chinese Hits (http://variety.com/2016/film/asia/cmc-pictures-market-debut-chinese-hits-1201910903/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

http://i2.wp.com/pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/time-raiders.jpg?crop=91px%2C93px%2C982px%2C546px&resize=670%2C377&ssl=1
COURTESY OF LE VISION PICTURES
NOVEMBER 5, 2016 | 07:54PM PT

“Someone to Talk to,” a Chinese relationship drama in which a man discovers his wife’s extra-marital affairs and considers killing her, is prominent among the debut American Film Market slate of CMC Pictures. It enjoyed a wide release in Chinese theaters this weekend.

Founded earlier this year, the company is the rights sales arm of the China Media Capital group, a powerhouse fund group. Under the chairmanship of former Shanghai Media Group boss Li Ruigang, CMC has some 80 media investments and is weaving together an integrated conglomerate that stretches from film production and distribution, through sports ownership to VR and smart TV technology.

Among CMC’s highest profile holdings is Flagship Entertainment, a joint venture with Warner Bros. to make Chinese movies.

CMC Pictures expects to handle the smaller-budget movies flowing from the CMC portfolio companies including Flagship, Gravity Pictures, vfx and production firm BaseFX, and Infinity Pictures, a production outfit headed by former Weinstein Co. and Sony executive Dede Nickerson.

One of the first such Flagship titles to be handled by CMC Pictures is “When Larry Met Mary,” a relationship comedy directed by Zhang Wen that was released in July for a gross of $40 million. (IM Global is handling the larger-budget Flagship picture “the Adventurers” at the AFM.)

CMC is also handling Aaron Kwok- and Gong Li-starring “Monkey King 2” from Hong Kong’s Filmko, which grossed $185 million in Chinese theaters; and “Time Raiders,” from Le Vision Pictures, which grossed $150 million.

Currently unreleased CMC titles include: “Suddenly Seventeen,” a body swap comedy that marks the feature directing debut of Zhang Mo, Zhang Yimou’s daughter; and “Buddies in India,” a film about a nobody and his surreal experiences abroad is directed, stars and is co-produced by Wang Bao-Qiang, the star of smash hits “Lost in Thailand” and “Detective Chinatown.” Enlight Pictures is the film’s other producer, and, with a prime Dec. 23 release date, expectations are high that it will be one of the biggest movies of the year.

“China has very few film sales companies. We are here for the long-term and expect to attend all of the major markets from now on, including FilMart and Cannes,” said Wei Jingyi, a veteran executive with previous positions including National Geographic Channel and Bloomberg.

[GeneChing]

The censorship issue is a little ironic as Hollywood really wants money and China is delivering the most money. But who is going to pay for films that make them look bad?


China passes restrictive new film law (http://www.themalaymailonline.com/world/article/china-passes-restrictive-new-film-law)
Monday November 7, 2016
06:10 PM GMT+8

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Brad Pitt among Hollywood celebrities subject to fierce criticism for their sympathy for the Dalai Lama. — Reuters file pic

BEIJING, Nov 7 — China passed a restrictive and long-discussed film law today banning content deemed harmful to the “dignity, honour and interests” of the People’s Republic and encouraging the promotion of “socialist core values”.

Booming box-office receipts have drawn Hollywood studios and a growing Chinese filmmaking industry into fierce competition for the Asian giant’s movie market, which PricewaterhouseCoopers projects will rise from US$4.3 billion (RM18 billion) in 2014 to US$8.9 billion in 2019 — outstripping the US.

The new set of laws governs the promotion of the film industry and was approved by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee at their meeting in the capital today.

The law states that its aim is to “spread core socialist values”, enrich the masses’ spiritual and cultural life, and set ground rules for the industry.

It forbids content that stirs up opposition to the law or constitution, harms national unity, sovereignty or territorial integrity, exposes national secrets, harms Chinese security, dignity, honour or interests, or spreads terrorism or extremism.

Also banned are subjects that “defame the people’s excellent cultural traditions”, incite ethnic hatred or discrimination or destroy ethnic unity.

It is also illegal for Chinese firms to hire or partner with overseas productions deemed to have views “harmful to China’s dignity, honour and interests, harm social stability or hurt the feelings of the Chinese people”.

The Communist Party fiercely criticises governments and public figures who have expressed sympathy for the Dalai Lama, previously the darling of Hollywood celebrities such as Brad Pitt.

Companies that work on such content face fines up to five times their illegal earnings over 500,000 yuan (RM310,320), it said.

Films must not “violate the country’s religious policies, spread cults, or superstitions”, insult or slander people.

The law comes into effect on March 1 next year.

Only 34 foreign films are given cinema releases each year under a quota set by Beijing, and all are subject to official censorship of content deemed politically sensitive or obscene.

To get around restrictions, Hollywood studios looking to capitalise on China’s burgeoning market have sought partnerships with local companies.

Co-produced movies can bypass the quota as long as they contain significant Chinese elements, such as characters, plot devices or locations.

The new laws also propose fines for those who provide false box office sales data, a widespread problem as firms have been exposed pumping up ticket sales to generate marketing buzz. — AFP

[GeneChing]

Wait...this November 16 (like next week) or Nov 16, 2017? Lately I don't put to much stock in predictive stats...:rolleyes:


There’ll soon be more movie theaters in China than in the US (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/11/movie-theaters-china-market-us-culture-cinema-hollywood.html)
Luke Graham | @LukeWGraham
8 Hours Ago CNBC.com

The number of movie theaters in China will soon take over the number in the U.S., taking the title of world's largest movie market in terms of screen numbers.

At the end of September, China had 39,194 screens, compared with an estimated 40,475 in the U.S. China has been building new cinema screens at a rate of 27 screens a day this year.

At this rate, China is expected to overtake the U.S. by November 16, according to analysis by IHS Markit.

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BJI | Getty Images
Movie screening in a cinema in China.

"The rate that China has been building cinema screens is very high," said David Han****, director of film and cinema analysis at IHS Technology, in a press release.

"In the first nine months of this year, China added just over 7,500 new cinema screens, continuing a trend seen over the past few years. China has been building cinema screens at a rate of over 10 a day for the past five years, rising to 27 a day this year."

The growth of China's movie business has been rapid. In 2003, China's box office revenue totaled just $121 million. That year, China opened up the market to overseas exhibition groups and invested more heavily in the sector. By 2015, box office revenue had grown to more than $7 billion.

In terms of revenue, the Chinese market is still smaller than the U.S. According to consultancy PwC, the revenue will grow from $9.9 billion in 2016 to $11 billion in 2020.

However, IHS forecasts that China's box office revenue will top the U.S. market by 2019.

"This is an interesting story all the more remarkable for the rapidity of China's ascent to the top spot in the market," Han**** added.

This change will have a big impact on the film industry. Already, Hollywood film studios are catering for the Chinese market by changing characters and adding or deleting scenes.