Page 27 of 29 FirstFirst ... 172526272829 LastLast
Results 391 to 405 of 422

Thread: Chollywood rising

  1. #391
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Ridiculous

    I've seen the screener. Fu Manchu isn't even in this. And Tony Leung is fantastic as always - one of the most complex MCU villains so far.

    Aug 18, 2021 11:46am PT
    Marvel President Kevin Feige Addresses China’s Biggest ‘Shang-Chi’ Concerns


    By Rebecca Davis

    Jasin Boland / Courtesy of Marvel Studios
    Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige addressed Chinese fans’ most pressing concerns about the upcoming “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” in a recent interview.

    Feige held an exclusive 14-minute-long interview in English with the well-regarded veteran Chinese film critic Raymond Zhou on the day of the film’s U.S. red carpet premiere (it’s out widely on Sept. 3), which shone a spotlight on China’s biggest gripes so far about the film.

    “Shang-Chi” doesn’t yet have a China release date, and it’s unclear whether it has formally passed censorship. Past franchise successes prove that crossing that hurdle into the world’s largest film market will of course be key to the title’s global gross.

    One of the last major overseas trips Feige took before COVID-19 shutdowns was to Shanghai in 2019 for an “Avengers: Endgame” promotional event, he told Zhou, calling it “one of the biggest MCU fan events I’ve ever been [to].” The film opened in China two days before the U.S., and grossed $629 million there to become the country’s highest grossing foreign film of all time, and its sixth largest earner overall.

    Marvel is clearly hoping that the franchise’s first Asian superhero will have the same box office appeal, despite some strong local concerns that have been brewing since the project was first announced.

    Many Chinese viewers insist that any film based on comics featuring the archetypically stereotyped character Fu Manchu — who is Shang-Chi’s father and nemesis in the original comics — will turn out to be a racist depiction. Feige, however, explained that the character is “just one of the truths about the early comic books” but is not in the movie “in any way, shape or form” and is not a Marvel character.

    He emphasized and reiterated the point a number of times.

    “[Fu Manchu] is not a character we own or would ever want to own. It was changed in the comics many, many, many years ago. We never had any intention of [having him] in this movie,” he said. Later: “Definitively, Fu Manchu is not in this movie, is not Shang-Chi’s father, and again, is not even a Marvel character, and hasn’t been for decades.”

    A second concern in China is that in the comics, Shang-Chi is at times portrayed as abandoning his Chinese roots to embrace the West, and in one plot line even goes so far as to kill his father.

    “That’s certainly one of the elements we’ve changed,” Feige reassured. “All of our comics go back 60, 70, 80 years. Almost everything has happened in almost every comic, and we chose the elements that we like to turn into an MCU feature. So that story is not what this is about.”

    The film actually tells the opposite story, he explained, depicting how Shang-Chi returns to engage with his father’s legacy after running away from it in his youth. He stressed: “That sense of running away…is presented as one of his flaws. It is a flaw to run away to the West and to hide from his legacy and his family — that’s how the movie is presented. And how he will face that and overcome that is part of what the story’s about.”

    The framing is well-aimed. Chinese audiences in recent years have been particularly drawn to emotional stories about family without black-and-white battles of good against evil, attributes that helped shoot films like local animation “Ne Zha” and sci-fi spectacle “The Wandering Earth” to unexpected box office heights.

    “Shang-Chi” ticks all those boxes, Feige said, describing the film’s story as one centred on the love, conflict and misunderstandings between a father and son, and unique in that there is no true villain.

    Feige said Tony Leung, who plays the film’s ambiguous, flawed bad guy, is “the heart of the movie,” calling the Hong Kong icon “one of the greatest actors in the world.”

    At one point, Zhou posed a question about the uncomfortable but widespread criticism in China that Simu Liu is not attractive or charismatic enough by local standards to carry the role, making the casting choice racist. As Zhou delicately put it, the decision has “caused a lot of misunderstandings among Chinese fans.”

    Feige explained that many of the MCU’s origin stories for new characters featured lesser known or unknown actors who were right for the part and went on to stardom, citing Tom Hiddleston, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Holland, Chris Evans and even Robert Downey, Jr., whose casting sparked initial blowback.

    The executive urged viewers to see the movie before making judgements.

    “Let all the hard work that the performer does be the proof, and not just the announcement or the Google search when somebody learns their name,” he said.

    The interview was seen locally as part successful charm offensive and part last-minute damage control. One film blogger deemed Feige “quite sincere,” with answers that had “basically no ambiguity or deliberate side-stepping.”

    In a comment like over 3,000 times, a Weibo user wrote: “I was previously thinking about not seeing it, but this has finally dispelled my doubts; I feel like I can watch the film with ease.”

    Others bristled that Feige only addressed the widespread Chinese concerns about “Shang-Chi” at the last minute, when its box office there appeared to potentially be in jeopardy.

    As one Weibo user cynically commented: “To sum up: ‘We don’t want to lose the mainland China market.’”

    Threads
    Chollywood-rising
    Shang-Chi-and-the-Legend-of-the-Ten-RingsShang-Chi-and-the-Legend-of-the-Ten-Rings
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  2. #392
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    3 years...

    This is what was feared when HK turned over to PRC in 97...

    Aug 24, 2021 1:09am PT
    Illegal Film Screenings to Be Punished With Three-Year Jail Terms Under Hong Kong Censorship Law


    By Patrick Frater


    Courtesy of Celestial Tiger Entertainment
    Hong Kong is to introduce a new film censorship law that could send anyone responsible for illegal screenings to jail for up to three years. Offenders could also be liable to a HK$1 million ($128,000) fine.

    The new law is intended to codify national security concerns that were introduced into the city’s film classification ordinance as recently as June.

    The moves were announced by the government’s commerce secretary Edward Yau at a press conference on Tuesday.

    As well as codifying the Film Censorship Authority’s powers and duties regarding national security, the new law will allow the government to appoint an official representative to the Board of Review and do away with non-official members.

    It will also cancel a film distributor or exhibitor’s right to appeal against a board decision if the decision is made on national security grounds.

    Although the government has said that the July 2021 National Security Law does not have retrospective effect, the new film censorship law appears to have retroactive impact and undo existing classifications of past titles.

    It will “empower the Chief Secretary for Administration to direct the Film Censorship Authority to revoke certificates of approval or certificates of exemption previously issued for films if their exhibition would be contrary to the interests of national security.”

    That means that films such “Ten Years,” a dystopian portmanteau film made in 2015 that predicted how everyday Hong Kong life would under the yoke of mainland Chinese rule, could soon be banned.
    Hong Kong has witnessed unprecedented social and political turmoil since mid-2019 when the government attempted to introduce a law allowing extradition to mainland China. After a year of civil disobedience and violent clashes between police and pro-democracy forces the mainland government silenced protests by injecting the National Security Law into an annex of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.

    Since that time, the city’s election and education systems have been upended and a trades union disbanded.

    In the entertainment and media sector, pro-Beijing media have pressurized exhibitors to cancel screenings of a documentary about the 2019-20 protests, the public broadcaster RTHK has been neutered and the city’s leading pro-democracy newspaper has been bankrupted.

    The film censorship law will receive a first and second reading in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council on Wednesday next week (Sept. 1). Opposition politicians have all resigned, meaning that the pro-government majority is certain to get its way.

    Yau said the law was necessary for “more effective fulfilment of the duty to safeguard national security as required by the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as well as preventing and suppressing acts or activities that may endanger national security.”
    threads
    Chollywood-rising
    Hong-Kong-protests
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  3. #393
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Chollywood risen

    Unfortunately the key element - the graphs - won't cut&paste here easily. You'll just have to go to the original article.

    Aug 25, 2021 11:05am PT
    Why Hollywood Movies are Being Squeezed Out in China, and What Happens Next


    By Patrick Frater

    Jonny Cournoyer
    Hollywood film franchises such as “xXx,” “Warcraft” and “Resident Evil” used to be largely sustained by their box office performance in China, which significantly exceeded their North American hauls and drove global grosses. Frequently, Hollywood titles would dominate the Chinese box office charts during most weeks.

    But in recent years, that tide has been turning. In 2018, Hollywood topped the local B.O. over 25 weekends, closely followed by Chinese-made winners, which conquered 22 weekends. Now, the studios are struggling for traction in what has become the world’s single largest theatrical market.

    In the first eight months of 2021, Hollywood titles have been chart toppers on just eight occasions, driven by an ageing “Fast and the Furious” franchise, and over two weeks by a rereleased “Avatar.” Hollywood’s share of the China box office market in 2021 has collapsed to a shocking 9.5%, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

    This year, there are only two U.S. pictures in China’s top-15 rankings. In contrast, the top two films at the global box office so far this year are China’s “Hi Mom” on $822 million, and “Detective Chinatown 3” on $686 million, ahead of “F9: The Fast Saga” with $681 million.



    “[COVID aside] this year would have been a difficult time for import films and Hollywood in particular,” says Artisan Gateway principal Rance Pow. “The Chinese films that have been popular have become very popular and on top by quite some distance.”

    But it wasn't always this way. The modern-day Chinese film industry is still relatively young and grew up alongside a Hollywood market share that reached 50% in some years.

    However, the government has done its best to keep U.S. titles in check. A system of import controls exercises quota allocations; blackout periods often cordon off three or four prime seasons per year for Chinese-language film releases; and the use of a censorship approval system diminishes pre-release marketing to just a few weeks.

    There hasn't been a single significant Hollywood release in China since “A Quiet Place Part II” on May 28 and "Luca" on Aug. 20. Meanwhile, Disney-Marvel titles haven't been released in China since “Avengers: Endgame” in April 2019. In fact, “Black Widow” still remains without a release permit in China.

    Since the pandemic struck, the supply of Hollywood movies into China has been thin and sharply out of synch with China’s V-shaped economic recovery which started in mid-2020. Industry sources have told Variety that revenue share quota slots remain available — an almost unprecedented situation.

    In a late July filing, IMAX China indicated that audiences have returned to Chinese theaters, and particularly IMAX theaters, in numbers approximating pre-pandemic attendance levels, but they're there for Chinese-language films and the handful of Hollywood films that were available. "The delay of certain Hollywood film release dates impacted IMAX's Hollywood films box office,” reads the filing.

    However, the release hiatus, combined with the studios’ experimentation with day-and-date theatrical-streaming releases, has caused all U.S. summer titles to be heavily pirated. The weak $5 million debut of “Luca” is a prime example.

    Changing local tastes drive support for Chinese fare
    Just as concerning from a Hollywood point of view have been changes in audience structure and taste. It's widely believed that as Chinese exhibitors have built theaters in smaller towns and cities, they have addressed a more local market and diluted the population that's likely to watch foreign movies. At the same time, Chinese movie-making has become more sophisticated, more blockbuster-driven and backed by bigger budgets. Prodded by central government, mainland Chinese filmmakers have reached into previously off-limit genres.

    That means Hollywood is no longer the only purveyor of well-packaged action and sci-fi movies, or franchises built around other forms of proven IP, such as comics, TV or streaming series and games.

    Concurrently, China’s 'main melody' titles — nationalistic fare that emphasizes Socialist values — have also raised their game. Flooding out from private sector studios and employing established filmmakers, many are premium productions with stars and stellar production values that deliver real audience appeal.

    Ultimately, whether or not Hollywood’s recent troubles are COVID-related or more systemic, U.S. studios have struggled to participate in the rebound that got underway in July 2020 after China’s cinemas had been closed for five and a half months.

    The recovery accelerated in September when cinema capacity restrictions were eased from 50% to 75%, and China became the first theatrical market to reach operational normality, according to U.K.-based researcher Gower Street Analytics. Activity was sustained at a high level until June 2021, when attendance levels began to fall noticeably short of 2019 levels, due in part to dwindling Hollywood fare, an over-saturation of political movies and movie theater restrictions.


    China's “Hi Mom” is topping the global box office with $822 million.
    Beijing Culture
    Politics will impact next chapter
    What happens next depends on a series of political factors. The already unusually long summer blackout period could be stretched until after the Oct. 1 National Day festivities. That would have the effect of squeezing any remaining Hollywood films into the last three months of the year.

    Movies that may be at risk include “The Eternals," directed by Chloé Zhao, who was branded a traitor for her past comments; “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," where Disney may not have done enough to diffuse charges of racism; “Space Jam: A New Legacy," because American basketball continues to be a sensitive subject following an NBA official’s 2019 comments on Hong Kong; and “Top Gun," which is seen as promoting the U.S. military.

    The political standoff between China and the U.S. has already gummed up film industry negotiations. Now there's the possibility that, in a tit-for-tat move following U.S. moves against ZTE, TikTok and Huawei, China may be deliberately hobbling one of America’s biggest export industries. Several seemingly uncontroversial Hollywood titles are without release approvals or dates, including “Jungle Cruise” and “The Suicide Squad.” Sci-fi spectacular “Dune” has the advantage of being backed by the Wanda-owned Legendary Entertainment, but some online commentators are still cool about its prospects.

    Possibly the most complicated calculation is whether policy or economics will guide the Chinese government’s thinking about the film industry through the last third of the year.

    The National Radio & Television Administration is understood to have set a box office target of RMB60 billion ($9.23 billion at current exchange rates) for this year. That's largely the same as 2018’s score of RMB60.7 billion and the RMB64.3 billion achieved in 2019, when Chinese-language titles earned a combined RMB41.2 billion.

    Since June, cumulative national box office is now running some 24% below 2019 levels, at $4.93 billion to Aug. 15. With new outbreaks of COVID-19 prompting reinstated cinema restrictions and the postponement of a couple of major local titles, that target looks to be almost out of reach.

    Regulators will have to decide whether to help China’s cinema chains by allowing more Hollywood imports, or whether, in this politically sensitive year, the U.S. should be kept at bay, even if that means a box office stumble.

    Such a scenario would, in turn, raise new questions in Hollywood: if China becomes an unreliable partner, why would Chinese factors need to be taken into consideration at the greenlight stage?
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  4. #394
    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    Unfortunately the key element - the graphs - won't cut&paste here easily. You'll just have to go to the original article.
    ...or looky here:
    Attached Images Attached Images   

  5. #395
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Nice.

    Thanks for the assist!
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  6. #396
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Sold out? It's Hollywood. Does that term have any meaning there at all?

    How Hollywood Sold Out to China
    A culture of acquiescing to Beijing’s censors is now the norm, and there’s little sign of it changing.

    By Shirley Li

    Wang Zhao / AFP / Getty
    7:00 AM ET
    SHARE
    Chloé zhao, the director of Nomadland, is new Hollywood royalty. In April, she made history as the first woman of color to win Best Director at the Oscars. In November, her big-budget Marvel movie, Eternals, will arrive in theaters. She commands so much admiration from the industry right now that she gets away with showing up to the red carpet of a film premiere in jeans.

    Zhao was, for a time, just as warmly regarded in China. Born in Beijing, she also has ties to Chinese entertainment royalty: Her stepmother, Song Dandan, is one of the most celebrated comic actresses in the country. And Zhao’s success in Hollywood made her the model of a crossover artist, bringing Chinese sensibilities to American filmmaking. In March, the Communist Party–owned newspaper Global Times anointed her “the pride of China.”

    But then an eight-year-old interview in which Zhao called the country a place “where there are lies everywhere” spread online. Beijing responded by deleting social-media celebrations of her Oscar win and canceling the release of Nomadland. Eternals, which should have been a shoo-in to screen across China, now faces a potential ban. Swiftly and quietly, Zhao’s native country appears to have disowned her—at least, for now. (Zhao declined to comment on the matter.)

    Hers is a cautionary tale—and a common one these days. No matter their clout in Hollywood, filmmakers and actors have always been subject to bosses who decide which movies get to soar at the box office and which are left to languish. Now, more than ever before, that boss is Beijing.

    In 2020, the Chinese film market officially surpassed North America’s as the world’s biggest box office, all but ensuring that Hollywood studios will continue to do everything possible for access to the country. This also means China will assert itself more aggressively to control Hollywood. The country, which already places a quota on the number of foreign films that can be screened every year, banned them for nearly two months this summer because of celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party’s founding.

    Meanwhile, China’s film industry now churns out its own big-budget franchises, lessening the country’s dependence on the next Fast & Furious installment. Though some American filmmakers, such as Quentin Tarantino and Judd Apatow, have pushed back on China’s demands, they are the rare exceptions willing and able to weather any potential repercussions. Instead, the film industry has regularly shaped its productions to please Beijing; whenever Hollywood fails, it either issues self-flagellatory public apologies or remains silent on the matter altogether. (Universal, Disney, and the other major Hollywood studios I reached out to for this story all declined to comment or did not respond to my requests.)

    With studios now implementing their own limits on free speech, America’s supposedly gutsy, creative entertainment industry is at rapid risk of making preemptive self-censorship the standard. During the blacklist era of the 1940s and ’50s, Hollywood studios infamously submitted to domestic political pressure. Today, film censorship—the rise of which you can literally watch on screen—has become one of the most visible examples of American businesses bending their values to satisfy China, and a worrying harbinger for any industry that wants access to the country’s consumers. China has simply become too lucrative for Hollywood to resist.
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  7. #397
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    continued from previous post


    Gilles Sabrié / The New York Times / Redux
    What critics might call censorship, Hollywood studios might label a market-entry strategy. The phenomenon has long been part of the global film industry. Post–World War II West German audiences saw a different version of Casablanca than the rest of the world. Last Tango in Paris, with its notoriously explicit sex scenes, was edited before it could be released in Britain and barred from being shown in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Three Nordic countries placed an age restriction on the film E.T. in 1982 after child psychologists accused the film of portraying adults as “enemies of children.”

    Thus, when China re-allowed Hollywood movies in the late 1980s and ’90s (they were banned during the Cultural Revolution) as long as it could select and edit the ones it wanted, American companies didn’t see red flags. “It’s all a version of self-regulation we’ve been going through for decades,” says Russell Schwartz, a former president of marketing at New Line Cinema and at Relativity Media, who oversaw campaigns for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Rush Hour sequels.

    When China began seriously investing in—not just importing, but co-producing or financing—Hollywood films in the 2000s, the country represented pure opportunity. “Everybody was doing backflips” to get their films screened, Schwartz told me. The Chinese government, which oversees the country’s entertainment industry, imposes a quota on international movies—34 a year, occasionally a couple extra—and determines release dates, how much advertising a film receives, and the number of theaters in which it can screen. Foreign studios, Schwartz told me, lobby fiercely for their titles to be allowed entry.

    Hollywood’s admittance into China might have appeared to be an opportunity for America to promote Western ideals in an authoritarian country. However, according to Wendy Su, an associate professor of media and cultural studies at UC Riverside and the author of China’s Encounter With Global Hollywood, Hollywood only ever had one, all-encompassing objective: “the vast Chinese market and the potential for greater profits,” she wrote over email. The country had been “extraordinarily underscreened” only two decades ago, Schwartz noted, but built theaters so quickly that it now boasts more than 75,500 screens, according to a report released in February (the U.S. had roughly 41,000 as of 2020). Films that underperform in the States can thus recuperate their losses abroad.

    Today, China’s box office doesn’t just represent opportunity for Hollywood; it can mean the difference between a studio’s success and failure. This has resulted in “anticipatory self-censorship” by the American film industry, says James Tager, the research director at PEN America, a nonprofit that promotes free expression, and the lead author of the organization’s exhaustive 2020 censorship report. Besides casting mainland-Chinese actors and shooting on location in China, the study says, studios even have regulators visit their sets—as was reportedly the case for Iron Man 3. (Marvel and Disney did not respond to a request for comment.)

    The Chinese government encourages this chilling effect by setting confusing, ever-shifting expectations, Tager told me. Time-travel narratives like Back to the Future were deemed “frivolous” and disrespectful of history—especially if such stories suggested the ability to alter reality. But 2012’s Looper, featuring scenes shot in Shanghai, with dialogue depicting China as a representation of the future, made it past censors. A culture of trying to predict the country’s needs is now the norm: Stories portraying Chinese characters as antagonists or featuring disagreement with Beijing in regions such as Tibet, Taiwan, and Xinjiang have been assumed off-limits. But China has also banned scenes from Bohemian Rhapsody, apparently for depicting same-sex relationships, and prohibited Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest altogether for including ghosts and cannibalism.

    Still, obvious pandering to Beijing can backfire in China. Audiences call a Chinese actor who appears in a Hollywood movie but plays a minimal role a hua ping, or a “flower vase”: nothing more than a recognizable face lazily included to help sell tickets. As the country’s own filmmaking industry has grown stronger, Chinese moviegoers have become more discerning about which foreign films to watch, and Hollywood’s share of the Chinese box office has lessened. Though action-thrillers such as Ready Player One fill seats in China, comedies still struggle to connect. “Many prospective clients have misinformed notions that China can be a savior market if you can only gain access,” Rance Pow, the CEO of Artisan Gateway, a consulting firm focused on Asia’s film industry, told me over email. “In fact … China can be a challenging, sometimes unforgiving environment for foreign fare.”

    If china’s apparent crackdown on Chloé Zhao’s work is a cautionary tale, then the case of John Cena is a tragicomic one. The WWE star turned actor appeared in this summer’s ​F9, the latest Fast & Furious blockbuster, and Universal Pictures jumped through all the right hoops to ensure its success. The film, co-produced with the state-owned China Film Group Corporation, premiered in China as well as several other places more than a month ahead of its stateside release—the longest lag ever for a Hollywood movie and a date seemingly chosen to accommodate the CCP’s centenary plans.

    Shortly after the film came out, Cena, who stars as the beefy villain in F9, posted a puzzling video to the Chinese social-media platform Weibo in which he awkwardly apologizes over and over in stilted Mandarin for “my mistake.” While Cena doesn’t name his offense, he had called Taiwan a country—a characterization the Chinese government adamantly opposes—during a press interview not long before the video. Cena’s apology made him a darling to Chinese nationalists and a punching bag for U.S. media. But the contrition paid off: F9 grossed $136 million in China its first weekend, nearly double its North American opening. Universal never confirmed what precipitated Cena’s video, and Cena hasn’t revisited the subject since. The only point of it, apparently, was to appease Beijing and move on.

    Supplication, then silence: That’s consistent with Hollywood’s larger publicity strategy when the hint of a China-related scandal arises. “The reason why no one wants to talk about this is because there’s no advantages to talking about this,” Tager told me. “They want this issue to go away.”

    According to analysts, studios are in a lose-lose position. Aynne Kokas, an associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Hollywood Made in China, explains that if Hollywood were to acknowledge self-censorship, the media blowback in the West would be significant, and China’s risk-averse government might blacklist Hollywood films to minimize attention. At the same time, she told me, studios might draw scrutiny from certain American legislators, harming their reputation at home. But Hollywood won’t stop caving to demands from Beijing, because that’s simply where the industry’s growth is. No other market, especially during the pandemic, comes close. “So in some ways it’s a problem with the American model,” Kokas said. “Can you make a product that is profitable without being in the Chinese market?”

    The answer, it seems, is no. So much of Hollywood’s business today resides on shaky ground. The pandemic’s effects, the streaming wars, the consolidation of studios, the expansion of franchises into theme-park attractions—they’re all unpredictable variables. Yet even as China’s investment in Hollywood has slowed amid a trade war with the U.S., Chinese moviegoers provide a rare constant for studios: a market for guaranteed profit, as long as Beijing approves. Tager suggested to me that perhaps Hollywood studios could band together to rewrite the rules, but few experts offered measures that would fundamentally change an asymmetrical relationship between the world’s largest producer of films and its most lucrative audience. In the end, Schwartz observed, “I don’t think we’ll ever really draw a line in the sand.”


    Shirley Li is a staff writer at The Atlantic​, where she covers culture.
    threads
    Chollywood-rising
    Eternals
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  8. #398
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Still not in PRC

    Marvel's 'Shang-Chi' was made with China in mind. Here's why Beijing doesn't like it.
    "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" is the latest movie to run into trouble in the country as nationalism and U.S.-China tensions rise.

    Simu Liu in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings."Marvel Studios
    Oct. 3, 2021, 1:30 AM PDT
    By Rhea Mogul
    HONG KONG — David Tse recalls being overcome with pride as he walked out of a British movie theater after having watched "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," Marvel's latest superhero film.

    "Our community has finally arrived in the West," Tse, a British Chinese actor and writer, said by telephone from Birmingham, England. "Every Chinese person around the world should be immensely proud of Shang-Chi."

    The film, Marvel's first with a predominantly Asian cast, has been a hit with global audiences, having earned more at U.S. theaters than any other movie during the coronavirus pandemic and grossed more than $366 million worldwide since it was released early last month.

    But despite its box office success and the overwhelmingly positive reaction of Asian communities worldwide, it isn't playing on a single screen in mainland China, which last year overtook North America as the world's biggest movie market. It's the latest film to run into trouble in the country as nationalism and U.S.-Chinese tensions rise.

    From the beginning, "Shang-Chi" was made with China in mind. Much of the film's dialogue is in Mandarin, and the cast includes some of Asian cinema's biggest names, including Michelle Yeoh and the Hong Kong superstar Tony Leung, making his Hollywood film debut.


    Marvel's first movie with a predominantly Asian cast has been a hit with global audiences. Courtesy of Marvel
    Simu Liu, a Chinese-born Canadian actor who also starred in the Netflix sitcom "Kim's Convenience," plays Shang-Chi, a reluctant martial arts warrior forced to confront his father. The film has been widely praised as a major step forward as Hollywood tries to improve representation of Asians and Asian Americans.

    "Finally we see a strong character that isn't stereotyped the way we have been for generations," Tse said. "Our young people are desperate for more of them."

    "Shang-Chi" hasn't gotten the same welcome in China, where movies are strictly censored and the number of foreign releases each year is limited. That hasn't stopped Marvel in the past — in 2019, "Avengers: Endgame" earned $629 million from mainland Chinese audiences, more than any other foreign film in history.

    Officials haven't said why "Shang-Chi" has no release date, and the propaganda department of China's ruling Communist Party, which regulates the country's film and TV industry, didn't respond to a request for comment.

    Experts point to the deterioration of U.S.-China relations, rising Chinese nationalism and the character's racist comic book past.

    Rife with stereotypes

    Marvel debuted the Shang-Chi character in 1973 amid growing American interest in martial arts movies. The early Shang-Chi comics were rife with stereotypes about Asians — the characters were portrayed in unnatural yellow tones. Shang-Chi's father, a power-hungry villain named Fu Manchu, has been criticized as a symbol of "yellow peril," a xenophobic ideology originating in the 19th century in which Asians, especially Chinese, were viewed as a threat to Western existence.

    Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has emphasized that Fu Manchu is no longer a character in Marvel comics and that Shang-Chi's father in the film, played by Leung, is a completely different character named Xu Wenwu. But for some the connection persists.

    "Chinese audiences cannot accept a prejudiced character from 100 years ago is still appearing in a new Marvel film," the Beijing-based film critic Shi Wenxue told the Global Times, a state-backed nationalist tabloid.

    Liu, 32, who emigrated to Canada with his parents in the 1990s, has also drawn public ire over past comments critical of his country of birth.

    In a 2016 Twitter post, he described Chinese government censorship as "really immature and out of touch."

    The next year, in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that has since been taken down, Liu described China as a "third world" country where people were "dying of starvation" when he and his parents left. A screenshot of his comments has circulated on Weibo, a popular social networking platform in China, with one user commenting: "Then why does he play a Chinese character?"

    Michael Berry, director of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, said Liu's comments had been "taken out of context and politicized."

    "Once a cyberattack is waged against a film or individual in China, there are usually a series of talking points that are manufactured and then leveraged to take advantage of rising nationalist sentiment," he said.

    'Reclaiming our culture'

    The anger over Liu's comments echoes that of an earlier episode involving Chloé Zhao, the Beijing-born director of "Nomadland," who made history this year when she became the first woman of color to win the Academy Award for best director.

    "Nomadland" had been scheduled for a limited mainland release, but then a 2013 interview with Filmmaker magazine resurfaced in which Zhao described China as "a place where there are lies everywhere." She was targeted by online commenters who accused her of smearing the nation, and the film was never shown.

    "Eternals," a coming Marvel film directed by Zhao, could also be denied a release date in mainland China.

    Berry said the treatment of Liu and Zhao was a "great tragedy," describing them as China's "best hope for better cross-cultural understanding between China and the West."

    Many moviegoers elsewhere in the region have celebrated "Shang-Chi" for promoting that understanding.


    Officials have not said why "Shang-Chi" has no release date, and the propaganda department of China's ruling Communist Party, which regulates the country's film and TV industry, did not respond to a request for comment. Courtesy of Marvel
    Adrian Hong, 22, a student who has seen the movie twice in Hong Kong, which has its own film regulator, said it spoke volumes about the "beauty and grace of Chinese culture."

    "The beauty of martial art, the concept of yin and yang, the incredible mythical creatures all add to the film," he said.

    Some commenters on Weibo have also questioned the mainland government's apparent decision not to show the film.

    "Why do some people say 'Shang-Chi' offends China?" one user asked. "The movie doesn't offend China, but promotes traditional Chinese culture instead."

    For Tse, the actor and writer, "Shang-Chi" is all the more important because of the rampant anti-Asian racism, discrimination and violence unleashed by the pandemic.

    "This is a pushback for all the Asian hate crimes against us. It's an answer to all the bigots who have been against us for decades," he said. "'Shang-Chi' is us reclaiming our culture. It says globally, culturally, this is a new tide of history."

    Threads
    Shang-Chi-and-the-Legend-of-the-Ten-Rings/
    Chollywood-rising
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  9. #399
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Battle bests Bond

    China’s ‘Battle at Lake Changjin’ beats James Bond at box office with $203 million
    “No Time to Die,” the latest movie in the James Bond franchise, made $119 million at the global box office last weekend.

    Moviegoers arrive to watch “The Battle At Lake Changjin" on Saturday, in Wuhan, China.Getty Images
    Oct. 5, 2021, 2:30 AM PDT / Updated Oct. 5, 2021, 3:13 AM PDT
    By Variety
    China’s “The Battle at Lake Changjin” was the highest grossing film anywhere in the world over the past weekend, with a $203 million haul.

    That score was fractionally lower than the combined total earned by “No Time to Die” ($119 million in international markets) and by “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” ($90.2 million in North America).

    The film was the far away winner in mainland China, where it was released on Thursday, a day ahead of the October 1, National Day holiday. Over four days on release, it earned $234 million, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway.

    Additional data from local provider Ent Group showed that “Battle” enjoyed a massive 157,000 screenings per day and was watched by 25.5 million ticket buyers between Friday and Sunday.

    That put it ahead of “My Country, My Parents,” which earned $70.6 million over the weekend proper and a “Venom”-like $90.4 million total over four days.

    Both titles are examples of the patriotic triumphalism that has come to typify the Chinese box office since it re-opened, post pandemic in July last year, and both capitalize on the sentiment stirred up around the annual celebrations of the country’s birth, some 72 years ago.


    ‘The Battle at Lake Changjin’ was the highest grossing film anywhere in the world over the past weekend, with a $203 million haul.Getty Images
    “Changjin” earned $12.9 million of its total from Imax giant screens, making it the third biggest Imax opening weekend of all time behind sci-fi title “The Wandering Earth” and Chinese New Year comedy “Detective Chinatown 3.”

    Made with a production budget reported to be over $200 million, the film boasts three of Greater China’s top directors: Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark and Dante Lam.

    It is an epic war film praising the triumphs of Chinese soldiers fighting American-led United Nations forces in the early days of the Korean War (1950-1953). China portrays its involvement in the war as an act of self-defense and one of support for North Korean leader Kim Il-sung. In Chinese, it is called the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.

    The film was produced by Bona Film Group and stars Wu Jing, star and director of the blockbuster “Wolf Warrior” war films, and pop idol turned actor Jackson Yee. (Wu also stars in and is credited as one of four co-directors on “My Country, My Parents”.)

    In a very distant third place, Chinese-made animation “Dear Tutu: Operation T-Rex” earned $3.5 million over three days.

    Artisan Gateway shows the weekend aggregate to have been $295 million or some RMB1.9 billion.

    That advances the year-to-date box office in China to $5.31 billion, a figure that is 27 percent below the same point in pre-pandemic 2019. Over the seven day National Holiday period in 2019, box office takings reached RMB4.5 billion.
    threads
    The-Battle-at-Lake-Changjin
    Chollywood-rising
    No-Time-to-Die
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  10. #400
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Changjin & Be Somebody

    Nov 21, 2021 11:10pm PT
    China Box Office: ‘Be Somebody’ Powers up Weekend as ‘Lake Changjin’ Is Poised for Record

    By Patrick Frater

    Maoyan Pictures
    Crime comedy film “Be Somebody” expanded its box office take by 20% in its second weekend of release in China and joined in a 49% surge in nationwide gross revenues.

    Nationwide box office climbed from $43.1 million in the previous weekend to $64.3 million between Friday and Sunday. For all that, China’s year to date box office haul is now 26% below that of pre-COVID 2019.

    Staying on top of the chart for a second session, “Be Somebody” earned $23.9 million over the weekend, according to data from Artisan Gateway. That gives it a 10-day total of $60.3 million.

    The movie directed by Liu Xunzi Mo is a send-up of crime drama tropes, making fun of the genre through the story of a group of filmmakers trying to please a wealthy patron by creating a sufficiently blood-thirsty crime thriller when things begin to go awry in the mansion where they are cloistered to work on the project. It stars Zheng Yin (“Goodbye Mr. Loser”), Deng Jiajia, Yu Entai, and Yang Haoyu (“The Wandering Earth”). It was produced by Maoyan Pictures.

    In second place with a strong $20.2 million opening weekend was “The Door Lock,” a suspense horror film about a woman living alone in a big city. Produced by Hengye Pictures, the film is a Chinese remake of a 2018 Korean film of the same title. The Korean film was itself a remake of a 2011 Spanish film “Sleep Tight,” but told from a different perspective. The Chinese retread stars Bai Baihe, Adam Fan (aka Fan Chengcheng) and Cici Wang.

    Third place over the weekend belonged to Chinese-made war film “Railway Heroes,” which earned $9.6 million over the weekend. Produced by Huayi Bros., the film is directed by Yang Feng (“The Coldest City”) and stars the evergreen Zhang Hanyu in a WWII tale of Chinese volunteers who band together to destroy Japanese military supply lines.

    The total for “Heroes” is modest compared with that of “The Battle at Lake Changjin,” the Korean War-set actioner that placed fourth over the weekend with an incremental take of $3.8 million. The weekend take lifts its mainland Chinese cumulative since Sept. 30 to $888 million. That score is now the biggest by any film this year, overtaking Chinese New Year breakout hit “Hi, Mom.”

    Local data sources, quoting box office in Chinese currency, also put “The Battle at Lake Changjin” within RMB3 million ($489,000) of the RMB5.689 billion achieved by China’s all-time, all-comers box office record holder “Wolf Warriors II” in 2017.
    threads
    Chollywood-rising/
    The-Battle-at-Lake-Changjin
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  11. #401
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Chollywood rising

    Dec 13, 2021 3:50am PT
    China Box Office: ‘Schemes in Antiques’ Conspires to Hold Top Spot

    By Rebecca Davis

    "Schemes in Antiques"
    Chinese action-adventure title “Schemes in Antiques” conspired to hold its own at the top of the China box office with a $14.7 million second weekend, having opened first last week with a solid $25.6 million three-day debut.

    Originally set to premiere in April, the tale of intrigue around real and counterfeit artifacts from Hong Kong director Derek Kwok Chi-kin (“Wukong”) has now grossed $52 million (RMB331 million) of a projected $66.6 million, according to data from Maoyan. Produced by Hong Kong-based Emperor Motion Pictures, it stars fan favorite Ge You alongside Lei Jiayin, Li Xian, and Xin Zhilei.

    “Schemes” maneuvered ahead of second place comedic thriller “Be Somebody,” which grossed a further $9.85 million in its fifth weekend to bring its current cume up to $133 million.

    Once again this week, a new rom-com took third: a film whose Chinese name translates to “We Who Have Loved Before.” The tear-jerking first feature from newcomer Zhang Xiaolei grossed $3.55 million, far less than first and second place.

    That the top three films of the weekend look so very much like they did last week — the fresher “Schemes,” followed by “Be Somebody” and a $3 million debut of an innocuous, flash-in-the-pan rom-com trailing far behind — is an indication of how stagnant China’s release schedule is at the moment without new major blockbuster releases.

    Viewers were thirsty enough for new content that the upcoming animation “I Am What I Am” came in third off pre-sales, ahead of largely-exhausted war epic “The Battle at Lake Changjin,” which has been in theaters for 72 days since September. The former is set to release Dec. 17, but already grossed $2.33 million this weekend.

    Directed by Wuhan native Sun Haipeng (“Kung Food”), the boldly colored tale tells the story of a young boy and his rag-tag band of companions who dream of winning the country’s biggest lion dance competition with the help of a former star dancer.

    This week, “Battle” earned a further $1.44 million, bringing its cume up to $903 million.

    Meanwhile, “Oh! My Gran” — the first Korean film to be released in China in six years — continues to fare poorly, with hardly any allotted screenings (an average of 0.4% of total nationwide screenings each day). It has grossed just $394,000 (RMB2.5 million) so far since its Dec. 3. debut, and currently ranks outside the top 20 films at the box office.
    threads
    Chollywood-rising
    The-Battle-at-Lake-Changjin
    I Am What I Am
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  12. #402
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    China risen

    This Year, Hollywood’s China Relationship Finally Unraveled
    It doesn’t matter how accommodating the industry may be — the next phase of the Xi Jinping era may be defined by less space for Western content.

    BY TATIANA SIEGEL, PATRICK BRZESKI
    DECEMBER 20, 2021 5:00AM

    THR ILLUSTRATION / ADOBE STOCK
    In 2014, when Warner Bros. drafted LeBron James to star in its Space Jam sequel, the film was tailored to appeal above all else to the mighty Chinese market. After all, James was a huge commodity in the basketball-obsessed country, where his signature Nike sneakers are made. Along the way, the future Hall of Famer avoided poking the China bear, even if it meant drawing outrage when he criticized Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey in 2019 for tweeting his support for Hong Kong protesters, calling him “misinformed” — a notable move given James’ vocal stance on police brutality issues and former President Trump’s so-called Muslim travel ban. At the time, videos of police crackdowns on Hong Kong’s pro-Democracy movement were circulating widely while it was well reported that more than 1 million Uighur Muslims were being held in internment camps.

    Despite attempts to make it past China’s censors, Space Jam: A New Legacy never received a release in China this summer and scored just $162.8 million worldwide — a so-so figure even given the coronavirus pandemic. Still, Space Jam wasn’t alone. Disney received the same cold shoulder when it came to its Marvel tentpoles Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and The Eternals, films that were built around Chinese talent in order to make a giant showing in the market. But to no avail. Neither film was given a release in the country that continues to take heat for reported human rights abuses. Hollywood’s silence on those abuses has become deafening as other industries and entities have begun to confront China.

    In fact, 2021 — with its diminishing economic returns in the country — might mark the year that finally cooled the Hollywood-China romance. “I think we’re still feeling our way through that [new paradigm],” WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group chair and CEO Ann Sarnoff told THR, in a wide-ranging interview in October, in regard to Space Jam and the dearth of Hollywood tentpoles getting a bow in China. “Obviously there’s been a lot of geopolitical meta issues happening with changes of our government and trying to figure out what the new relationship’s going to be with the Biden administration. China’s clearly building its own local theatrical business. The numbers are very large, and we would like to believe we’re going to be a big part of their future. But we’re honestly taking it one movie at a time. I’m not making any grand predictions because I don’t know, but it’s something we’re very, very aware of and front burner because when you do your ultimates and your green lights, China was a big chunk of it.”

    The reversal of fortunes in China has begun to accelerate in the past year. In 2021, just 25 U.S. movies were released theatrically in the country, many of which were minor indie titles instead of studio tentpoles. By contrast, some 45 Hollywood movies were shown on Chinese screens in 2019. That is forcing the major studios to pivot on their China ambitions, mostly because there is little to no growth to be attained in the country in the current climate. U.S.-China diplomatic relations simply have deteriorated to such an extent that it no longer matters how accommodatingly Hollywood comports itself in the market — the next phase of the Xi Jinping era is likely to be defined by less space for Western cultural content.

    Despite China’s success in keeping COVID-19 cases close to zero, the theatrical film market is still far from whole. As of Dec. 13, China’s total box office earnings in 2021 were $7.05 billion, down 26.2 percent from $9.56 billion during the same stretch in 2019. In the past, whenever multiplexes needed a sales boost, regulators would simply turn on the tap of Hollywood releases to juice sales, even if that meant releasing more than the 34 U.S. revenue-sharing titles Beijing was required to allow into the market under a past trade agreement. That hasn’t happened this year. Instead, bankable Hollywood titles have sat on the shelf because of perceived political slights or for no perceptible reason at all. Among them: Black Widow, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and, now, potentially, Spider-Man: No Way Home.

    At the same time, Hollywood has lost any semblance of a moral high ground. It has been lost on few that the industry remained mum when global superstar Fan Bingbing went missing in 2018 (including her agency, CAA). By contrast, the Women’s Tennis Association this month decided to pull all tournaments in China following a similar disappearance of tennis star Peng Shuai. (Some fear the Chinese doubles champion may be in some sort of detention after making allegations of sexual assault against a former Communist Party leader.)

    “As Hollywood’s risk-reward calculus for China starts to get muddier and muddier, there’s a move for an entity, whether it’s a celebrity, athlete or company, to essentially do what Muhammad Ali did, which is to take a direct hit, short-term, on revenue but longterm create a brand that’s bigger than what they were originally known for,” says Blockers producer Chris Fenton, whose 2020 book, Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, & American Business, explored the China minefield.

    Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter Freedom, for one, has seized that opportunity, blasting Xi for the country’s treatment of Muslims and calling out James for looking the other way. “Money over Morals for the ‘King,’” Kanter Freedom tweeted Nov. 18 before a Celtics-Lakers game. “Sad & disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice. They really do ‘shut up & dribble’ when Big Boss says so. Did you educate yourself about the slave labor that made your shoes or is that not part of your research?” On Dec. 14, Kanter Freedom appeared on MSNBC wearing a T-shirt that read, “Taiwan is not China.” (China has banned Celtics broadcasts in the country.)

    Meanwhile, the planned U.S. diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics will only escalate China’s growing enmity toward U.S. culture. The question now remains whether Hollywood will continue to kowtow in the face of little financial upside. But Fenton insists that taking the China losses now will open new avenues of growth and expand fan bases. He adds, “Global consumers will prove that capitalism can coexist with doing the right thing.”

    This story first appeared in the Dec. 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
    Can't help but wonder how these films would've done with the PRC market, especially Shang-Chi.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  13. #403
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    $7.3B in 2021

    China Retains Global Box Office Crown With $7.3B in 2021, Down 26 Percent From 2019
    Chinese studios bounced back with force in their home market, but revenue for imported Hollywood movies remained down by 70 percent compared to the year before the pandemic.


    BY PATRICK BRZESKI
    Plus Icon

    JANUARY 3, 2022 8:32PM

    COURTESY A REALLY HAPPY FILM

    For the second year in a row, China ended 2021 as the world’s largest theatrical film market.

    Total movie ticket revenue in the country clocked in at $7.3 billion (RMB 47.3 billion, assuming an average annual exchange rate of RMB 6.45 to $1), more than double last year’s total and down just 26 percent from a pre-pandemic high of $9.2 billion (RMB 64.3 billion) in 2019, according to data from regional box office tracker Artisan Gateway.

    Ticket sales at the domestic North American box office, meanwhile, where the industry faced much harsher disruption and fallout from the pandemic throughout the year, revenues are estimated to have remained nearly 60 percent behind 2019 at $4.5 billion.

    Worse still for the U.S. industry, Hollywood’s foothold in China’s huge and rapidly recovering marketplace continued to erode over the past year. U.S. movies accounted for just 12 percent of China’s total box office sales, or $899 million (RMB 5.8 billion), down from a 30 percent share in 2019 and total sales of $2.8 billion (RMB 19.4 billion).

    During much of the China box office boom era of the late 2000s and 2010s, the Hollywood studios saw their revenue grow in China every year, while they commanded annual market shares as high as 30 percent to 50 percent.

    The foremost problem for Hollywood in China in 2021 was simply a dearth of product hitting local screens, analysts say. Just 20 revenue-sharing U.S. titles were released in Chinese cinemas last year, compared to 31 U.S. tentpole releases in 2019 (during China’s peak pandemic year of 2020, there were still 17 studio releases).

    Hollywood’s own pandemic-related release postponements were the chief hindrance for the studios in the first half of the year, but by summer their distribution pipelines were pumping again. By then, however, local politics surrounding the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party dictated that Beijing regulators would leave American product on the shelf in favor of patriotically themed Chinese fare. Surging nationalism and political sensitivity among the local public, encouraged by the fraught diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington, later derailed the release prospects of several bankable Hollywood movies in the final stretch of the year. The casualties included Disney’s Marvel tentpoles Black Widow, Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; Warner Bros.’ Space Jam; and Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home — all fan-favorite properties that collectively could have earned hundreds of millions.

    The domestic Chinese industry, meanwhile, continued its remarkable post-COVID recovery (or mid-COVID, depending on how 2022 unfolds…). Some 472 Chinese movies were released in 2021, exceeding the 428 titles the country put out in 2019 before the pandemic. And total sales revenue for Chinese films reached RMB 39.9 billion ($6.19 billion), just shy of 2019’s total of RMB 41.2 billion (about $6 billion according to exchange rates at the time).

    Eight of the top 10 biggest films of the year in China were local, led by record-setters The Battle at Lake Changjin ($899 million), Hi, Mom ($822 million) and Detective Chinatown 3 ($686 million). Hollywood’s top earners were Universal’s F9: The Fast Saga ($216.9 million), Legendary and Warner Bros.’ Godzilla vs. Kong ($188.7) and Disney’s Free Guy ($94.8 million).

    Many of the biggest Chinese hits of the year, such as the leading title, Korean war epic The Battle of Lake Chongjin, were “main melody” films — propagandistic stories celebrating the glory of China and its leaders — released around the occasion of the CCP’s 100-year anniversary.

    “The success of ‘main melody’ films has had a virtuous cycle effect for local films,” says Rance Pow, president of Artisan Gateway. Pow sees three factors driving the commercial resurgence of Chinese cinema over the past year: “The Chinese audience’s growing perception and pride in its nation’s success and position in the global context, homegrown films that cater to local tastes, and a growingly sophisticated film production, marketing, and distribution ecosystem that is backed and overseen by the central government.”

    The industry also benefited from increased ticket prices during the year — the average ticket rose to RMB 40.5 ($6.37) in 2021, up 8.7 percent from the 2019 average of RMB 37.1 — despite the fact that total movie theater admissions remained down 29.4 percent from their 2019 peak of 1.7 billion.

    New movie theaters also continued to be built at a rapid clip throughout the year. The country added nearly 6,700 new screens, hitting a national total of 82,248, with most of the new construction taking place in rural areas where Chinese-language films play most powerfully.
    I know, I know... I need to change the title of this thread. Been meaning to do that since the pandemic began but now I'm thinking I'll keep it so until the pandemic is over, just for nostalgia's sake.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  14. #404
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    $901.5 m

    China’s New Year Box Office Grosses May Hit New High
    Leading the charge is 'The Battle at Lake Changjin 2: Water Gate Bridge,' the sequel to the country's top-grossing movie of all time with $901.5 million

    BY PATRICK BRZESKI

    JANUARY 29, 2022 3:31PM

    'The Battle at Lake Changjin' COURTESY A REALLY HAPPY FILM
    As moviegoing in North America and Europe is getting battered all over again thanks to the omicron variant, China’s theatrical film sector is revving up to set a slew of new box-office records.

    The country’s weeklong Chinese New Year holiday period, always a bonanza for local studios and exhibitors, kicks off Feb. 1, and analysts believe a bumper crop of high-profile potential blockbusters — eight local titles are currently scheduled for simultaneous release this year — could lift the market to unprecedented heights.

    During Chinese New Year in 2021, ticket sales totaled a record $1.2 billion, with family comedy Hi, Mom leading the way with an eventual total haul of $821 million (Wanda’s comedy Detective Chinatown 3 wasn’t far behind with $685 million). Ticket revenue during the seven-day holiday amounted to a whopping 16.6 percent of China’s full-year box office total and the full month of February took at 25 percent share of the year’s sales (Unfortunately for Hollywood, Beijing blocks all foreign film releases during the family holiday — a practice U.S. trade negotiators have lamented with little effect for over a decade — so all gains go only to the local Chinese industry).

    Analysts are expecting more of the same for 2022. “This year’s Chinese New Year season could reach a new high-water mark of $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion (RMB 8 billion to RMB 8.5 billion),” says Rance Pow, president of cinema industry consultancy Artisan Gateway.

    Leading the charge is The Battle at Lake Changjin 2: Water Gate Bridge, the second installment in a nationalistic war saga about China’s real-life victory over the U.S. in a key battle during the Korean War. Co-directed by a trio of Chinese hitmakers, Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark and Dante Lam, the franchise’s first film was only released last September and went on to become China’s top-grossing movie of all time with $901.5 million. China’s state-backed Global Times newspaper reported Jan. 23 that the film was leading the ticket pre-sales race with $5.64 million with a little over a week to go before opening day. The outlet went so far as to forecast that The Battle at Lake Changjin 2 would become the first Chinese film to earn over $1 billion (RMB 6.5 billion)

    China’s box office outcomes are notoriously tricky to predict with confidence, however, as frontrunners have often been felled by negative audience reaction within the early hours of their release, and dark horse contenders have then galloped ahead. “Social media word of mouth in China can be a powerful determinant of a film’s commercial success, and the market has shown an adeptness for adjusting to audience preference if the pre-season favorite does not launch quickly,” explains Pow.

    Other top contenders this year include drama Nice View, director Wen Muye’s follow-up to his 2018 hit, Dying to Survive ($451 million); and road trip comedy-drama Only Fools Rush In, from former blogger turned fan favorite director Han Han (his previously release, Pegasus, earned $256 million in 2019); local director legend Zhang Yimou’s Korean War biopic, Sharpshooter; and comedy caper Too Cool to Kill, from relative newcomer, Xing Wenxiong; among much else.

    The only major Western entertainment business that enjoys regular participation in the Chinese New Year earnings sensation is Imax, which operates over 750 screens in the country. Each year, the Canadian exhibitor places its bets by picking one or two titles to covert into its giant screen format. In 2020, Imax has selected three expected winners, Battle at Lake Changjin 2 (which was filmed for Imax), Nice View and Han Han’s Only Fools Rush In.


    SOURCE: ARTISAN GATEWAY
    For the record, I circled back and reviewed part 1.

    threads
    The-Battle-at-Lake-Changjin-2-Water-Gate-Bridge
    Chollywood-rising
    Year-of-the-Tiger
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  15. #405
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy

    Feb 7, 2022 3:28pm PT
    ‘China Has Ghosted Hollywood’: How the Fallout Will Affect the Film Industry

    Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel's new book "Red Carpet" offers a timely look at increased tensions between two dominant forces in the movie business

    By Rebecca Rubin


    Amazon
    At some point in the past decade, Hollywood stopped looking at the burgeoning Chinese box office as found money and instead embraced the theatrical market’s windfall for what it has become: a necessity.

    Today, whether or not blockbuster plays in China could mean the difference between hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket sales. That reality is downright painful at a time when China has continued to deny releases for Hollywood’s biggest 2021 movies, such as Disney’s “Black Widow,” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Eternals,” as well as Sony’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.” And the few films that were given access to Chinese movie theaters, including MGM’s James Bond sequel “No Time to Die” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” remake, earned far less than their studios had expected.

    China has always been strict about the number of foreign films it allows to screen across the country’s thousands of venues. But recently, there has been increased ambiguity about why the world’s largest theatrical market has all but closed the door on U.S. project — and if it will change in 2022 and beyond.

    “China has ghosted Hollywood,” says Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel. His new book, “Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy,” hits shelves on Tuesday and offers a timely look at long-standing tensions between the two dominant forces in the movie business. “About a year ago, I would have said we’re looking at a future where China needs Hollywood less and less, and Hollywood should start taking steps to prepare. But over the past year, it’s been drastic.”

    Ahead of the release of “Red Carpet,” Schwartzel spoke to Variety about China’s growing influence on Hollywood — and what it means for the film industry.

    China hasn’t granted access to many major Hollywood movies, but it recently approved Woody Allen’s romantic comedy “A Rainy Day in New York,” which is three years old. What’s the reasoning behind these decisions?

    The Woody Allen thing almost feels like trolling at this point. There’s a lot of theories. One is there’s a broader trend toward Chinese moviegoers preferring Chinese entertainment. You’ve seen American movies making up a smaller and smaller share of the box office over the past couple of years. This feels more charged than that. It feels like an effort to punish America as tensions rise. A lot of the people making decisions on what movies get in, they’re also interested in keeping their jobs. Sometimes the risk assessment is pretty easy. If you know that tensions between the U.S. and China are relatively high, do you really want to be the state bureaucrat who lobbies to let an American movie in and risk sticking your neck out?

    There also seems to be an effort within China to stir nationalism and keep outside influence out. One thing that surprised me when I was writing this book is just how often China will turn on or turn off that spigot. There have been numerous examples throughout history when China, for whatever reason, maybe it’s a Communist Party anniversary, will say, “We’re going to cut back on the number of foreign films we let in.” And not only that, but “we also want state TV stations to start showing Chinese war movies, something that will bolster bolster patriotism.” What we’ve seen in the past year with all these major movies not getting in is the most consequential pattern that we’ve ever seen. There are a lot of studios with a big fat zero in a column they were expecting some money.

    Are Marvel movies or “Fast and Furious” installments, which have always been enormously successful in China, waning in popularity? Or does the Chinese government have outsized influence on which movies do well?

    It’s such a chicken-egg question. The controls that were put in place several years ago, like blackout dates or stacking movies so they cannibalize one another’s grosses, are still used, but less necessary — in part because Chinese movies, often with the help of Hollywood, have gotten better. People [in the U.S.] lament you can’t make any movie that’s not a superhero tentpole anymore. In China, there’s actually a pretty robust moviemaking operation of comedies, dramas and science fiction and original stories. And they’ve been doing really well. China is always going to want controls that ensure it looks to be the preferred option. But I also think that it is becoming more and more the preferred option. I don’t know if studios should have been as surprised as they were that eventually Chinese people would prefer to see Chinese stories and Chinese movie stars.
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •