It’s Hollywood’s big weekend, but after the celebrations the industry will return to work on Monday in the same cash-strapped state it was in before the Oscars. Many in the business — including Christian Bale — are slowly embracing the fact that China is their new frontier.
The speed at which the Chinese film industry has grown has surprised even the most jubilant of optimists. In 2005, the industry was worth just $250 million, compared to Hollywood’s $23 billion. China bulls speculated that its industry might triple by 2010, while naysayers shook their heads. Too much censorship, they said, and not enough artistry. Instead, China’s movie business has more than doubled even the most aggressive forecasts — box office receipts topped $1.5 billion last year, and at its current rate of growth sales could reach $7 billion by 2015.
What the experts seem to have discounted is just how invested the Chinese government is in a vibrant film industry. Movie watching plays a critical role in the development of a consumerist society, something China is working hard to create. Since 2005, the government has invested heavily in infrastructure projects, including new theaters in China’s major cities. There are now more than 6,000 screens in the country — many of them digital — and the government reports that three new theaters are opening every day.
The content appears to be evolving as well. For most of the last decade, Chinese production houses, nearly all of them backed by China Film Group, the country’s most influential state-run filmmaking and film distribution enterprise, produced costume dramas about the history of China that generally followed a very specific political line. In the last two years, more diverse films have emerged, such as Aftershock, an earthquake melodrama, and Let the Bullets Fly, a witty Chinese Western, each made over $100 million in local box office sales.
Even the propaganda films have learned from Hollywood and are evolving artistically — and selling better as a consequence. In 2009, The Founding of the Republic, China’s celebration of Chairman Mao that coincided with the 60th anniversary of the Communist revolution, starred nearly 200 of China’s best-known actors, including Kung Fu legends like Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and was widely praised for its artistic integrity. Now, the scent of commercial success seems to be fueling more investment and turning Chinese film industry growth into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Katherine Ryder, CNN
