Why The American And Chinese Film Markets Should Cooperate
China, as a noun, has been talked and shown in many areas, especially in the film market.
In 2015, the box office in the whole year was above $ 7,035,600,000, which had been the second biggest film market in the world. The number of screens in theaters was about 31,627 in 2015 and the number still keeps growing even in 2017. If we only take screen number into consideration, the numerous screens have encouraged China to become the biggest movie market today. At the same time, there were more than 1,260,000,000 audiences that walked into theaters, sat down and watched a movie in the year.
That’s why more and more Hollywood filmmakers and studios or small film companies are trying to find some ways to cooperate with Chinese film companies. At the same time, Chinese companies also try to build a bridge with Hollywood, because the world in Hollywood can help them build up their international influence. Companies like Wanda and Huayi Brothers both want to attract more attention from all over the world by connecting with Hollywood. In other words, Hollywood, the noun, sometimes is a brand name for high quality, big box and professional production.
Generally speaking, there are two types of cooperating patterns between Chinese companies and Hollywood. The first one is to accept Chinese film companies’ investment when Hollywood plans to produce their movies. For example, Spotlight got some investment from the Chinese company Alpha Group Co., Ltd. Cloud Atlas, invested by Dreams of the Dragon Pictures Co., Ltd. In 2015, Chinese company Hunan TV & Broadcast Intermediary Co., Ltd. had a contract with Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation that they would cooperate with each other to finish 50 movies in three years.
The second one is to use Chinese actors to play at least 1/3 main characters in Hollywood movies; the Chinese investment takes up at least 20% in the whole production budget and creates some Chinese elements in these movies. Hollywood must meet the demands of the three requirements. Not one can not be lacked.
What’s the different between the first way and the second one?
The first one also gets some money from Chinese companies, and the movies produced by Hollywood only can be released in China as import movies. However, if Hollywood chooses the second way, these movies can be defined as cooperated movies, which means that Hollywood can get a lot of benefits from the Chinese government including cutting down some taxes, bigger releasing space and so on. In other words, these movies produced in the second option can be treated as domestic movies in Chinese film market. That’s why Cloud Atlas is an import movie, but the Great Wall is not.
Undoubtedly, this two kinds of teamwork both can bring benefits for Chinese companies and Hollywood. Firstly, Chinese companies can learn the advanced VFX and professional production from Hollywood. And Hollywood also can get the ticket to enter the Chinese big film market and make a great profit. Comparing the two choices, of course, the second definitely is better than the first one because it is a kind of deeper cooperation, which not only can improve cultural communication between two countries but also maximize the advantages of both sides, such as Chinese big film market and Hollywood film technologies.
However, the drawbacks are also obvious. In the second pattern, Hollywood usually tries to put a lot of Chinese elements in their scripts so that they can cut down their taxes or get more support financially from China, but the majority of these elements actually are not necessary for the story. These elements not only can’t push plots ahead, but also may have an influence on story development negatively. Moreover, the Hollywood movie production system or the overarching rules are different from China. There are usually a lot of barriers and conflicts in teamwork. For example, in China, the director is the dominant figure in film production; they have the most power to make decisions about the movie. However, in Hollywood, producers control the whole process from creating a script to distribution and exhibition. As such, there is still a long way to go for Chinese film companies and Hollywood to find out a more appropriate road to work together.
As for my personal opinion, however, I think for whatever path can be used by film companies in the two countries, the most important thing is the content. Story is always the key for each filmmaker to attract their audiences.
