Film Publicity in China - Case Study Example

Mr. Jiang released a movie known as ‘Let the Bullet Fly’ in in an attempt to invent a genre on Chinese Western Culture. He is an actor and director of stars of China Film Business. In this movie, Jiang portrays a bandit who poses as a mayor for the remote Chinese Town. The government never appreciated how the movie portrayed illegitimate leader who gulled the masses. However, the film became wildly popular. It is anticipated that ‘Gone with the Bullets’ shot in 3D will be able to open up theatres both in China and worldwide by end of 2014. Cost wise, the film has been pushing the boundaries with a budget of $50 Million. The film has incorporated American dancers and choreographer. Basically, as it is being said ‘China is Where it Is’ in film making. In 2013, China had overtaken Japan and became the second largest market in films from America with the box-office receipt of over 17 billion Yuan, an equivalent of $2.8 billion. Projections in five years indicate that the film market in China would be the worlds biggest. Most young people find this exciting, with films forming their central consumption and courtship. There has been turned around in the film industry with 3D films and IMAX screen being the major rage in big cities. Screens have been flickering around the country. In 2012, more than ten screens a day were erected but currently, 18000 are erected, and this is four times more than the number that was erected five years ago. Therefore, this paper seeks to investigate China as an emerging film market. Various concepts have been drawn from different sources on budgets, publicity and business. Introduction At the moment, China can be regarded as the second-largest film market in the world after U.S.A. There has been ‘build-first and demand follow strategy in china for movies. This has apparently worked as the number of screens has quadrupled in China from 2009 to 2013. There has been a huge supply that has enhanced affordability of movies. The prices for tickets have been flat, especially over the last decade despite tripling of the urban income. The group on websites has generated more demand through enhancing offloading of the tickets at huge discounts (Jacobs 214). The increased supply has made movies affordable. The ticket prices have been relatively flat for some time despite triplng of urban incomes. Group on-type websites also helped generate demand by offloading tickets at big discounts. China is supposed to be adding 5000 screen years in next few years to give a rough estimate of 30,000 screens by 2015. However, compared to the growth trends in the film industry, this is still 10,000 screens fewer than in America. The downside lays on higher costs for real estates and increased competition that implies a longer earn-back period for the theatre costs like moving to less-affluent venues implies waiting for craze of movies to reach the cities (Jacobs 215). There has been a huge investment in domestic content. For instance, ‘Journey to the West movie has seen a rise of 180 percent investor’s darling after it quadrupled the first-half profit. Also, the Beijing Enlight Media that lost in Thailand had been able to rise by 74 percent in the past one year. It is noted that money has been extracted from properties and other resources like coal to invest in the film industry (Huiqun 323). Film Publicity in China Roy Lu, the president of Starlive Inc. notes that, previously, going for a movie was considered as a luxury in China, a belief that is currently completely dead. The Chinese people at the moment are considering movies as a family event where the theatres are not crowded. Hollywood has been a major beneficiary of the trends in China, especially since the Chinese studios are doing quite well. However, Hollywood has been relying on special-effects blockbusters while the local directors focus on movies with low-budgets for local Chinese societies, and which resonate better with the viewers. This has seen the box-office revenue doubling in one year and hitting $ 1 billion in first six months of 2013. As a result, for the first time, Chinese films have topped the foreign offerings. Fig 1: Scene from "Avatar." Photo by Associated Press In 2012, the ‘Lost in Thailand’ comedy that whose production cost was over $5 million had been able to earn over $200 million in China; this is almost the same as the Avatar budget by Hollywood. Red-hot movie industry is considered a gold rush by movie studios, banks and private-equity investors (Jacobs 216). Despite the movies in China losing money through piracy and few people make it to theatres, most people have developed love of films and gambling, hence money has been racing into the movie business. Chinese films are specially adapted for their markets. For instance, the four extra minutes in the film are reserved for introducing Chinese actors. This is a good way of creating publicity. Investment in Film Industry in China Jack Ma, Alibaba founder, is among the major investors in Shenzhen-listed movie by Huayi Brothers Media Corporation. He commented of his increased investment if the film industry. For investors wanting to benefit from new trends in consumption, there are many avenues to do so. For instance, this can be done through investment in real estate developers who own and establish shopping malls and theatres for film watching. Fig 2: China film value chain Previously foreign ownership of the Chinese films was at 75 percent. Currently, this is relegated to the minority stakes with the local companies being allowed up to 100 percent ownership. Beyond the box office revenues, the intellectual property for the film industry has been generating revenues from the various media distribution outlets. The post theatre distribution revenue in china comprise of the multiple box office revenues. The industry has generated profits and losses. However, china has never relinquished its control over the distribution of the film. This has generated spill over even in MPAA local films and blockbusters (Kong 227). While the film industry is tremendously positive, the distribution is currently highly concentrated. Avoiding it or managing it has been crucial for profitable growth. For instance, the richest man in China, Wang Jianlin, announced his intentions of putting up in Qingdao the largest film-studio complex in the world, with an estimated capital of $8.2 billion. Foreign producers are limited on at most 25 percent share of the box-office revenues. Nevertheless, foreigners are desperately looking into their way through China film market. On the other hand, Hollywood has been pushing in but only 34 films on big-budget category and few foreign ones can enter into China in a year. To gain foothold in China’s film industry, the Hollywood studios are funding production of films or co-producing them. For instance, ‘Gone with the Bullets movie was backed by Sony, which is a Hollywood studio while Oriental Dreamworks jointly worked with Shanghai Media group to produce an animated film (Su 93). The American influence in the film business, in China, has been immense. Yu Dong, the Bona Film Group boss, noted that everything that their learnt in film production and theatres can be attributed to Hollywood before they were compelled to divest in china after the Supreme Court ruling. As a result, the differences were obvious as the film industry in China lacks the technical sophistication of Hollywood movies, like style party scenes, location and power, making even the costly Chinese movies appears amateurish. Hollywood has been the dream-maker worldwide but Chinese government is insisting on their in house makes based on socialist cultural superpower. Role of Chinese Government in Film Industry Government in China have been having twin ambitions in promotion of the film industry; domestic and global. In domestic ambition, the government requires that people in China see films that inculcate the value and culture of the country voluntarily rather than watch propaganda films. Globally, the government desires that the film spread attractive images for the country as hosting Olympics. China punches well against its weight in the film industry and this has made it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes once only for the “Farewell My Concubine” which was later banned in China. The government had been in the forefront to change that through organizing the events in order to showcase the Chinese films in Cambodia, New York and Fiji (Huiqun 325). As for Olympics, government may feel uncomfortable in leaving to chance the creative elements. With exception of 1930s, the film industry in China has been thriving and has concentrated on the Shanghai and has been operating with little interference. Political climate had confined and defined the film industry. After the acquisition of shanghai by Japan, private studios were dissolved in 1937. After communist party had taken over power in 1949, there was recognition of the film industry. Government studios invented films full of propaganda ad peasants and wheeled the mobile projectors to people in rural areas in their mode of publicity. They used to give out tickets at work place compelling many people to attend. The independent movies resumed in 1970s after which they sputtered along. There are currently few independent studios operating within constraints of the state-controlled system (Huiqun 327). The censorship head had described the films made currently as ‘trashy . The best producer in the world is from china; Mr. Yu, and he has been involved constantly in negotiating between government and the film market. Despite the country not having the sex-violence ratings, the censors at State Administration have to sign-off the films before screening. Censorship board has turned around many members explicitly or implicitly of sexual objects, drugs or violence. The overt politics commentary remains unacceptable; hence the reason why most films describe the past experiences (Sklar 50). Censors require revision of multiple scripts before screening and ensure that some scenes are eliminated. This has been accepted and outraged by many filmmakers. For instance, in his speech, Feng Xiaogang complained of the torment implicated to the film industry by censorship. Even after being given the go ahead, censors may change their minds (Sklar 51). Producers in Hollywood drum up a lot of interests in the film industry but in china, this goes unnoticed. Censors have been considered to be loosening up where some scenes are cut while others are left out. Therefore, the Chinese government has been using subsidiary and censorship to ensure the quality of the films produced. This has been achieved by forking out many propaganda films that comprised of 10 percent of the films made annually. For instance, the Founding of a Republic film produced to celebrate 60th anniversary of People’s Republic of China saw some stars being eliminated in the final version. The government cannot be said to be getting what it needs in filming. Far from the inculcation of masses with the Chinese values and culture, the successful films have been adaptations of the Hollywood hits. The Lost in Thailand comedy comprises of many male friends reminiscent in Hangover film from Hollywood. Also, the Tiny Times film on materialistic friends in China was received well in tier 3 and 4 cities that comprised of citizens who aspire to become fashionable and rich, and they feel good watching homegrown characters. One of produces in Ann An of the Desen International Media noted that the film targeted the overworked ad stressed audiences by providing a two-hour dream for them. According to the film maker, head of the censorship board had described the films like trashy (Jacobs 220). Reception of Film Industry The Chinese movies have been travelling and selling quite well. For instance, Lost in Thailand film earned a gross of $192 m in china, and only $60,000 in America. Some audiences in Hong Kong and Taiwan have expressed their interest in mainland films. The acting tends to be dramatic and plot blunt. The Flowers of War were a costly movie on Nanjing Massacre with starring Christian Bale, who is a Hollywood actor, and it was meant to go global. However, the film fell flat globally and failed in winning any award and critical acclaim that was hoped for by the officials. Some movies are considered as too familiar or too foreign for many audiences abroad. For instance, Finding Mr. Right romantic comedy feels modern and relevant only for Chinese audiences. For foreigners, this seems normal as it echoes many scenes of Sleepless in Seattle from Hollywood classics (Kong 227). Therefore, a lighter touch by censorship board might be critical in producing films that are more authentically Chinese and which are artistically interesting. This would also prevent embarrassing moments. Of late, Touch of Sin Chinese movie has generated significant attention in the West as it portrays gloomy art-house of modern china. The film won award of the best screenplay but was banned by government from journalists interviewing and cinemas. Probably, many people from the West have seen such reports, hence created the need to see the film (Kong 228). In china, films have been going for at most $1 making many people flock in theatres. This indicates positive reception and the willingness of Chinese people to spend a lot of many in the entertainment. Nevertheless, the movie industry is having more misses than hits. This is similar to other film industries in most parts of the world. For instance, among the 745 movies produced in china in 2012, only 231 succeeded to theatres. According to Ms. Yang, the failure to make it to theatres results in unlikely recouping of investments since china has few ways of generating the income outside box-office. The Chinese movies have not been doing quite well abroad. There is the high probability of people investing in just one movie to fail due to the hit-driven business. According to Mr. Xu, the industry needs to modernize in order to adapt to investor interest. This can be enhanced by ensuring that there are a lot of theatres and increased institutionalized efforts in project development, management of risks and diversification of the product offerings (Jacobs 221). Film Market in China In the past decades, economic growth rate in China has been enormous as compared to most developed countries economy. The growth has been evident in film market. By 2012, china was the second largest consumer worldwide in feature films in terms of box office. In the same period, the film market in America was experiencing stagnation and little increases in admissions. It is predicted that if the trend continues, then china will surpass America which is the leading film market in the world. The Chinese film market grew over five times its GDP in the last decade. The growth has been quite impressive. For instance, the box office in china grew by 43 percent annually between 2005 and 2011, while that of America grew by 2.2 percent. Such a difference is remarkable. The growth occurred despite dramatic increases in market prices in china, when the average price for film admission multiplied by 3.5 times, the equivalent of 253 percent increases in the same period while that of America increased by 23.8 percent. The decline in America film market for both admissions and box office began in 2005, 3 years before the start of global economic crisis (Jacobs 223). Despite the remarkable increases in ticket prices, the Chinese spectators have continued to flock the theatres. Despite the increase in multiplexes, China has lacked enough screens to host all its spectators. By 2012, the country had 9286 screens and 2000 theatres. This was an equivalence of 136000 spectators per screen. On the contrary, USA had an approximate of 40 screens, hence the equivalence of 7000 people per screen. This implies that China requires over 170,000 screens to have the same screen density as USA. The figure 3 below shows that growth in the film industry in china is so high that it is predicted to surpass USA by 2020. Fig 3: Comparison of growth in Film Industry between USA and America At this growth rate, the box office in china is predicted to be 50 percent higher than that of USA by 2025. The cinema admission in china has been on the increase due to prodigious economic growth as well as the improved living standards and disposable income among the middle classes. The created wealthy nation can readily afford to pay for cinema and enjoy foreign and national movies. The growth has spurred rapidly and continuous establishment of theatres, which has seen the creation of at least 10 screens a day (Su 97). Conclusion The Analysis in the current paper has portrayed the unique trends in Chinese film industry. China is currently the second-largest film market worldwide after America.There has been a huge investment in domestic content. The Chinese people at the moment are considering movies as a family event where the theatres are not crowded. Despite the movies in China losing money through piracy and few people make it to theatres, most people have developed love of films and gambling, hence money has been racing into the movie business. Many people have been investing in the film industry. The film industry is tremendously positive with distribution highly concentrated. Government in China have been instrumental in promoting the film industry; domestic and global. Censors require revision of multiple scripts before screening and ensure that some sex-violence scenes are eliminated. The Chinese movies have been travelling and selling quite well. In china, films have been going for at most $1 making many people flock in theatres. This indicates positive reception and the willingness of Chinese people to spend a lot of many in the entertainment. Despite the remarkable increases in ticket prices, the Chinese spectators have continued to flock the theatres. The growth has spurred rapid and continuous establishment of theatres, which has seen the creation of at least 10 screens a day. Works Cited Huiqun, L. "Opportunities and Challenges of Globalization for the Chinese Film Industry." Global Media and Communication 6.3 (2010): 323-28. Print. Jacobs, J. Bruce. "Rethinking Transnational Chinese Cinemas: The Amoy-dialect Film Industry in Cold War Asia, by Jeremy E. Taylor." The China Journal 67.1 (2012): 214-29. Print. Kong, Shuyu. "Genre Film, Media Corporations, and the Commercialization of the Chinese Film Industry: The Case of “New Year Comedies”1." Asian Studies Review 31.3 (2007): 227-42. Print. Sklar, Robert. A World History of Film. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002. Print. Su, Wendy. "Cultural Policy and Film Industry as Negotiation of Power: The Chinese States Role and Strategies in Its Engagement with Global Hollywood 1994–2012." Pacific Affairs 87.1 (2014): 93-114. Print. Read More