Changes likely to bring liberalization
By CLIFFORD COONAN
BEIJING - China is on the cusp of a golden era of growth, which will see it become the world's second biggest film market and bring with it more market liberalization, a report by the China Film Association Research Center shows.
The report is due for release in coming weeks and weighs in at a hefty 560,000 words, divided into an annual report, a special topic section and market research.
As well as becoming the second biggest film market in the world, by 2015 the market will see an end to monopoly control of the biz by state-owned groups, cinema-construction will spread to the second-tier and third-tier cities, there will be better branding of cinema chains and animation will become a big part of the biz.
This could be a reference to a loosening of the quota system, which allows around 20 overseas pics a year into China, but which biz figures insist is becoming less strict.
"The figure of 10 billion yuan ($1.54 billion) box office last year is one of the highlights of our report, but we are not only interested in the headline figure, but also the positive way in which the whole industry developed, and the focus on structure," said Liu Haodong, director of the China Film Association Research Centre and chief editor of the report.
Production, financing, cinema construction all expanded in 2010, and the scale of the industry grew significantly, the report said, while 3D and Imax technology also performed strongly.
The report notes that the make-up of the auds is changing, with more and more middle-aged people going to the movies, whereas previously cinema-going had been largely the preserve of 20- and 30-somethings.
Also a flurry of mid-sized cinemas in central and western China were helping boost the industry.
Film themes remained limited, the report said, so there needed to be more genres.
Zhou Tiedong, prexy of China Film Promotion International, said the report showed that Chinese films have little market abroad.
"We are now at the same stage of development as the US in the 1970s, and it's time to start promoting overseas sales. We've been connected with the international industry, except in marketing.
ing period as 1970s in US, and now it's time to promote the foreign-market development. We've been connected with the international film industry in a lot ways, except the marketing way.
"All the film productions which could go to the international market now are co-productions, and many are not representative of China's industry. We have 526 film productions, and almost 500 of them are stopped at the gate," he said.
Thank you Variety
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