Silver screen enters a new golden era

Reform will help further develop China's thriving movie market

Imported Hollywood movies have influenced the development of the contemporary Chinese movie market. China reformed its film industry in 1993, bringing about rapid development.

Between 1995 to 2001, China imported 10 foreign movies each year. After joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, that number increased to 20 a year. The figure was raised further to 34 in 2012.

Since 1993 the Chinese film industry has experienced miraculous growth. Apart from the increase in the number of films produced every year, annual box office returns jumped from 950 million yuan ($138 million; 129.4 million euros; 111 million) in 1995 to 45.71 billion yuan in 2016 - 58 percent of which came from Chinese movies. And the total number of movie screens in China has risen to 40,917, the highest in the world.

Foreign movies have not only influenced the Chinese audience's aesthetics and satisfied demand in the country but have also stimulated China's movie production business. They have been the catalyst in the transformation of the Chinese movie production model from extensive to industrialized and high-quality products. They have provided higher reference standards and better learning materials for Chinese moviemakers in terms of technology, material selection and distribution.

Moreover, along with the gradual but steady increase in cooperation between China's movie industry and Hollywood, Sino-US cultural exchanges have become more frequent. Chinese culture has spread in the United States through an increasing number of Chinese cultural symbols, products and stories in Hollywood movies and TV shows.

The emergence of new patterns in the movie market has stimulated systemic innovation. In 2004, Chinese movies for the first time generated higher box office returns than their Hollywood counterparts and have maintained that comparative advantage since.

The main reason the Chinese film industry has flourished and Chinese movies have made more money than Hollywood flicks is the government's policy, which, among other things, limits the number of new foreign movies that can be screened in the country in one year, puts a cap on foreign investment in cinema chains and has zero tolerance toward movie piracy.

The Film Industry Promotion Law, which came into force on March 1 this year, however, signals the beginning of a new era. The government will now adhere to decentralization, combine tight and loose policies, simplify the examination and approval process for films and lower the barriers for entry into China's movie market.

The Chinese movie market is one of the largest in the world. The increasing number of Chinese-foreign co-productions has injected vitality and enabled the rapid development of the film industry. Chinese film companies and studios are ready to participate in co-productions with foreign filmmakers and movie companies for win-win results.

The author is a fellow at the Center for China and Globalization and a researcher at the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of China. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily European Weekly 04/07/2017 page10)