Artistic Alliances

【前言】Artistic Alliances由文秘帮小编整理而成，但愿对你的学习工作带来帮助。In April, media company Seven Stars Entertainment announced it would be drawing from its US$12.7 billion fund to build an 800,000-square-meter film and media headquarters outside of Beijing called the Chinawood Global Services Base. The hub will in...

Step into a Chinese movie theater on an average weekend in 2012, and you are likely to find yourself in a new building packed with multi-colored lights, glossy posters, and long lines snaking back from the ticket counter. For major premieres, like Titanic 3D or The Avengers, even the daytime showings consistently sell out, and many theaters shut down online ticket purchasing systems to prevent scalping.

In a nation where massive growth numbers can seem mundane, the cash cow that is the Chinese film industry still stands out. According to statistics from China’s State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT), revenue at the 2010 box office was 64 percent higher than in 2009. Last year, the jump was a “mere” 29 percent, enough to push the yearly total over US$2 billion, placing the Chinese among the top three largest movie audiences worldwide. Outpacing box office returns in 2011 was the nearly 50 percent growth in the number of cinema screens nationwide, installed at a rate of over nine new screens per day, many of which were equipped with the newest IMAX and 3D technologies. With numbers like these, countries all over the world are scrambling to get their films released in China, one of the last heavily-restricted media markets in the world.

Over the past few months, a series of big announcements from governments, film funds and production companies have jump-started discussions about a new era of open cooperation between China and foreign film producers, especially the US.

In February, DreamWorks Animation, makers of the wildly popular Kung Fu Panda series, announced plans to partner with the Shanghai Film Group and two local investment companies to build a new studio, dubbed Oriental DreamWorks and valued at US$330 million, outside Shanghai.

Just a few days after the DreamWorks announcement, US VicePresident Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping released statements announcing a revision of China’s film import policies. The highlights of the pact included raising the number of yearly imports from 20 to 34 and nearly doubling the revenue split that returns a portion of each ticket’s price to production companies.

In April, media company Seven Stars Entertainment announced it would be drawing from its US$12.7 billion fund to build an 800,000-square-meter film and media headquarters outside of Beijing called the Chinawood Global Services Base. The hub will include financial, technical, and creative companies dedicated to co-productions between China and other nations, local film financing, and 3D film conversion.

Also in late April, Disney-Marvel revealed plans to make Iron Man 3 a Chinese co-production by partnering up with the Beijing-based DMG Media group. Scheduled to begin shooting in China later this summer, the budget for the film is expected to easily surpass US$200 million.

These partnerships represent billions of dollars in joint investments between Hollywood and China. In the past, relations between the two have been shaky. Films about Tibet have earned Chinese industry insiders lifetime bans from movie making, and editorials in China’s State media regularly rail against the effect of “Hollywood ideology”on the moral fabric of Chinese society. Now, more money than ever is at stake, and the two sides appear to be playing nice. But to clearly understand the dynamics beneath this relationship today, one must look back to its origins 18 years ago.

If you stepped into a Chinese movie theater on an average weekend in 1994, you’d likely find yourself in an aging building with posters advertising a meager number of State-sponsored films. You would rarely need to stand in line for a ticket. Though economic reforms had revolutionized other sectors of the economy, they had not yet reached the film industry, which still prohibited any private investment in film production, distribution, or exhibition, making domestically produced films the only option, most of which had barely progressed from the overt propaganda of the 1950s.

Although the government wanted to maintain its strict controls over media, the film industry had reached a crisis point. The spread of TV to Chinese homes, the advent of VHS piracy in China, and a succession of unpopular, loss-making local movies had led local viewers to abandon movie theaters. Attendance in 1994 was less than one-fifth of the total in 1990.

Rather than continue subsidizing a fast-fading local industry, the Chinese government decided it had to break a nearly 45-year-old ban and open its doors to the media capital it had painted as a villain for decades. Allowing Hollywood access to local screens is dangerous for any domestic movie industry, regardless of the target nation’s politics. Nations all over the world have dropped import barriers, allowed LA’s movie moguls in and then watched, helpless, as their native movie industry was steamrollered by US blockbusters.

In 1994, a new policy lifted the decades-old ban on American films and an import quota of 10 foreign films a year was set. While negotiating details, China used the promise of huge potential profits to keep the initial pact tipped in its favor, with the government insisting on full control over which films to allow in and what scenes to censor. Even more crucially, Chinese industry leaders would control each film’s distribution, decide on which day a film would open, how many screens it would show on, and when its run would end. This ensured that no important local products, specifically nationalist epics, would go headto-head with international blockbusters. Moreover, if the government felt that a foreign film’s gross was getting embarrassingly high, even a popular picture could be suddenly removed from theaters.

Early Offerings

The first American movie to hit Chinese screens after the Korean War was The Fugitive, which was soon followed by blockbusters like Jurassic Park, Speed, and True Lies. Though the government insisted it would only select films of “high cultural standards and technical excellence,” proven box office appeal appeared to be the primary key for entry.

Unsurprisingly, American films began to consistently top box office charts, but an overwhelmingly favorable revenue split gave the vast majority of profits to the government-controlled distributors. Film scholars like David Bordwell have pointed out that, slowly but surely, Spielberg, Cameron, and Bay were actually helping fund the development of Chinese studios, film funds, and marketing. Profits from foreign films were large, but in order to save face, the Chinese government continued to use its control over distribution to give local films uncontested theatrical runs. And Chinese films have continued to take at least 50 percent of total box office revenues every year since imports began, admittedly due to the skewed release ratios.

Despite the industry’s incredible growth since the mid-1990s, the balance of power between China and Hollywood has remained consistent up to the present day. Economic reforms have favored freer import policies while exploding revenues have kept China’s negotiating position strong, and the government’s authority over film content remains near-absolute.

A closer look at the announcements listed at the start of this article reveals this continued dominance. Despite its name, Oriental DreamWorks will be majority-owned by the three Chinese companies DreamWorks is partnering with, ensuring the government has the largest voice in the partnership. Rumors already abound that, to please local authorities, Iron Man 3 drastically altered the portrayal of its villain “The Mandarin” and added a “positive” Chinese character to its plot.

The quota increase and revised revenue split appears to favor Hollywood for the first time, allowing more films in and sending more money back to producers. Motion Picture Association of America chairman Chris Dodd referred to the old revenue agreement as “woefully below normal commercial terms.” But even this decision is a limited concession, coming more than a year after China missed a WTO deadline insisting that it end the government monopoly on the distribution of foreign media. By bringing the case to the fore, America had hoped to create room for non-State distribution partners who would base release dates, screenings, and marketing on profit motives rather than political mandate, a course which would likely place local films in direct competition with foreign blockbusters. Although China has admitted it has no legal authority to prevent private distribution, so far, no viable alternatives to the State-controlled duo China Film Group and Huaxia have emerged.

Ultimately, though moves like the increased import quota, newly announced international projects, and possible distribution revisions have changed the position of some pieces in this chess match between the world’s largest market and the biggest media producer, at this point, the strategies and strengths of the two players remain the same.

Bolstered once more by its ability to utterly dominate the conditions of its domestic market, China has begun attempts to establish itself as a producer of international media with Chollywood a prime example of its grand ambition. Though Chinese content has struggled to find international audiences, one can be sure the government won’t shy away from aggressively pursuing its interests.