China to build overseas film distribution networks
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 18, 2016
2015 witnessed milestones for the Chinese film industry. In the domestic market, the total grosses of Chinese and foreign films screened in China was more than 40 billion yuan (US$6.08 billion), breaking various box office records. In the foreign market, Chinese home-made films made 2.77 billion yuan (US$421 million) in total, a 48.13 percent increase from the previous year. "Lost in Hong Kong," "Mr. Six," and "Goodbye Mr. Loser" all made around US$1.3 million.
"It was very hard to distribute Chinese films in previous years," Jiang said. "Chinese films lack international distribution potential and audiences have not established a movie going habit for Chinese films. But we still have faith for future Chinese releases overseas, and we have continued to explore the foreign market for more than five years. Now, we have reached a turning point. The distribution channels we have can already satisfy the needs of Chinese film companies and of Chinese audiences overseas. "
The No.1 Chinese film released in North America is still the Academy-Award-winning "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" with US$128 million income. Zhang Yimou's "Hero" came in second grossing US$53.71 million. No.3 is "Jet Li's Fearless" which earned US$24.63 million while Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle" grossed US$17.1 million. The most recent hit was Wong Kar-wai's "The Grandmaster," grossing US$6.59 million, according to box office tracking website BoxOfficeMojo.com. However, all of these films were distributed by local American distributors.
CMC Holdings wanted a Chinese distribution network. CMC will invest tens of millions of U.S. dollars into China Lion, Xie Li, an executive at CMC Holdings revealed to National Business Daily, "Chinese people in foreign countries are now in a new shape. More and more Chinese people living abroad want to see new Chinese films," Xie said, "We will work with China Lion to build a bigger platform."
However, he confessed that CMC didn't expect to earn much money from the platform. "Domestic Chinese films will not make good money for foreign distributors; they cannot even cover their distributing costs. It's considered very good to see an investment return within three years. However, it is time to place our positions on the map."
After the CMC funds come in, Jiang said China Lion will use the money to focus on exploring European distribution channels, targeting major theater chains.
"The time has come for overseas business for Chinese films," said Li Ruigang, chairman of China Media Capital, "there are 45 million Chinese people around the world who have a great appetite for modern entertainment culture from the Chinese mainland. Especially now, more and more Chinese students are going overseas, and the structure of the Chinese populations in the foreign countries has fundamentally changed as more and more Mandarin-speaking and highly-educated Chinese people are there. They are our audience base for the foreign release of Chinese films."
The growth of the Chinese film market will place rigid demands on foreign release channels while the establishment of the global distribution system will also help Chinese producers to nurture their international senses, he added.
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