|
Media and Advertising
Missing Chinese moviesPosted by Joel Martinsen on Saturday, April 22, 2006 at 6:43 PM
Figures from SARFT show that 260 films were produced in China in 2005, up from 212 in 2004 and 140 in 2003. These numbers might be surprising, because it certainly didn't seem like five movies opened every week last year - and in fact, only 60 domestic movies made it to the screen.
Beijing's Mirror evening paper calculates that between 1995 and 2003, an average of 100 films were produced annually. Only 20 were released to theaters each year, leaving somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 movies that fell into distribution limbo, including some that won prizes in overseas competitions. What happens to films that don't make it to the big screen in China? Here's a list of outlets from the Mirror report (some movies fall into multiple categories):
Liu Hao estimates that the domestic market can support the screening of 120 domestically-produced films each year. Though production in 2005 overshot that amount by 100, the movies that actually screened represented just half of that capacity. The Mirror quotes a few market observers who identify several obstacles to increasing that screening rate. A survey of audiences in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Hangzhou found that 46.6% of respondents thought that low quality was the primary reason for poor reception. Few distributors are willing to put smaller films up against blockbusters, both foreign and domestic, for fear that they'll play to empty theaters. But another school of thought says that the problem stems from a general shortage of theaters - if China had more than its current 2680 screens in 2000 theaters, then people would watch more movies. Links and Sources
|
Partner Links
Jobs in China
Recent Comments
Henry on
The Eurasian Face
Caroline W on
Big in China
Michael on
Julia Lovell on translating Lu Xun's complete fiction: "His is an angry, searing vision of China"
Brandon K. on
Clueless academic takes on popular fantasy novels
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
The latest recommended blogs and new media
From 2008
Books on China
The Eurasian Face : Blacksmith Books, a publishing house in Hong Kong, is behind The Eurasian Face, a collection of photographs by Kirsteen Zimmern. Below is an excerpt from the series:
Big in China: An adapted excerpt from Big In China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising A Family, Playing The Blues and Becoming A Star in China, just published this month. Author Alan Paul tells the story of arriving in Beijing as a trailing spouse, starting a blues band, raising kids and trying to make sense of China.
Pallavi Aiyar's Chinese Whiskers: Pallavi Aiyar's first novel, Chinese Whiskers, a modern fable set in contemporary Beijing, will be published in January 2011. Aiyar currently lives in Brussels where she writes about Europe for the Business Standard. Below she gives permissions for an excerpt.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ Korean history doesn't fly on Chinese TV screens (2007.09): SARFT puts the kibbosh on Korean historical dramas. + Religion and government in an uneasy mix (2008.03): Phoenix Weekly (凤凰周刊) article from October, 2007, on government influence on religious practice in Tibet. + David Moser on Mao impersonators (2004.10): I first became aware of this phenomenon in 1992 when I turned on a Beijing TV variety show and was jolted by the sight of "Mao Zedong" and "Zhou Enlai" playing a game of ping pong. They both gave short, rousing speeches, and then were reverently interviewed by the emcee, who thanked them profusely for taking time off from their governmental duties to appear on the show.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky
or Feedburner |





