Chinese films struggling to gain profit overseas

[mdo7]

We've brought up about how Kung fu genre is dead or dying or losing it's global relevence. But it goes beyond that. I found out that Chinese films overall regardless of what genre is struggling overseas when it come to profit. Despite Mainland Chinese cinema market being #2 on the global market, their domestic films are not winning international fanbases compared to the global popularity of Korean TV dramas (and K-pop).

I saw these 2 articles about how Chinese films are struggling overseas:

2015 article from Hollywood Reporter: Chinese Movies Still Struggle Overseas Despite Kung Fu's Global Appeal, Survey Shows

Chinese Films Struggling To Find An Audience Abroad

This isn't nothing new, it has been acknowledged since 2011 that Chinese films are struggling overseas despite the appeal of Kung fu film, and the popularity of Korean pop culture.

2011 article


2013 article

2013 Washington Times article

2015 article from South China Morning Post

Some reasons has been cited why Chinese films are struggling overseas:

"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."

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.”

I do somewhat agree about what is said above, but I could add one more reason: the global popularity of Hallyu/Korean Wave could be overshadowing Chinese films from gaining popularity and overseas profit. It might explain why Korean films are gaining more international attention outside of Asia then any big-name Chinese films. I don't see any similar article above for Korean films, so I have to assume they're doing very well.

What do you think is causing Chinese films not to gain audiences overseas when Korean pop culture like K-pop and K-dramas are winning more global audiences?