Hollywood meets China

The opening ceremony for a studio complex draws A-listers including Nicole Kidman and Leonardo DiCaprio to Qingdao. Photos provided to China Daily

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Nearly a month before Hiddleston and Jackman came to China, Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman were in Qingdao, the port city in East China's Shandong province. They were there to add luster to a ceremony announcing the launch of a studio complex by Chinese real estate giant Wanda Group.

"It was not even a film promotion, it was just an event," Yan says. "But the fact that Wanda owns the biggest theater chain in China and had bought AMC theaters is enough reason for the stars to consider supporting the event.

"We used to have to persuade the stars, but now they are more willing to come themselves. The change has been very obvious since last year," says a Chinese staff member of one of the big six Hollywood studios.

But in China, it is never easy to campaign with Hollywood star power, even when stars are willing. The biggest difficulty is the uncertainty regarding release dates.

China imports 34 foreign films a year for theatrical release, but even the powerful Hollywood studios have no distribution rights in the country.

The State-owned China Film Group has the monopoly in deciding when to release imported films and it shares distribution rights with another local company, Huaxia Films.

"We often get very short notice of when we can release our films, and CFG would suggest we hold the events in venues they own," says the anonymous staff member. "It is not an enforcement, but often the studios would follow the advice just to maintain goodwill with CFG."

Universal's Fast and Furious 6, for example, was scheduled for mid-June. The studio's mainland partner Edko had collected interview requests in early June for the cast, including Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. Both actors had planned to come to China.

But the film was put off again and again until July 26, two months after its North America premiere. By then, the actors had moved on to new projects and their trips were canceled.

While studios could plan a star-studded event months in advance in many other countries, they are used to changes all the time in China.

"We have to move fairly quickly if we plan a campaign in China," says Sunder N. Kimatrai, senior vice-president of 20th Century Fox International in Asia Pacific.

"Movie stars are busy, they cannot appear in two places at the same time. But even so, China is absolutely our top priority in Asia now, no doubt about that."

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