Chinese films explore ways to compete with Hollywood

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For Hollywood, the Chinese film market presented a splendid box-office report this summer.

And among the top five box-office hits of all time in China, three are from Hollywood: "Avatar" with 182 million U.S. dollars, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" with 145.5 million dollars and "Kung Fu Panda 2" with 91.5 million dollars.

Poster of "Legend of a Rabbit" [File photo]

However, "Legend of a Rabbit," a 3D animated movie produced completely by a Chinese team and aimed at competing with the best of the West, grossed only 16.2 million yuan (2.5 million dollars) in the Chinese market last month after its release on July 11.

The 18.8-million-dollar 3D production, which took more than 500 animators three years, on Sunday shared the Best Animation Award of Huabiao, China's highest government honor in the film industry, along with three other animations.

The different performances of China's "Rabbit" and the United States' "Panda" in the world's fastest growing movie market, whose box office gross increased by 64 percent last year to 1.5 billion dollars, also mirrored the wide gap between the box-office receipts of the two countries' films in each other's market.

In the last few years, China has become a key destination for big Hollywood films. "Avatar," "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," "Inception" and "2012" all grossed more ticket numbers in China than they did anywhere else outside the United States.

However, Chinese films, even the blockbusters at home such as the earthquake drama "Aftershock," could not make a success on the U.S. market.

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