China’s film industry may be spitting out movies like never before, but less than half of what it produces is making it onto the big screen, a new report shows.
Among the 745 feature films produced in China last year, only 315 – or 42% — played in cinemas, media-research firm Entgroup says in its recently released annual survey of the country’s film industry.
That number puts China far behind the U.S., where nearly three quarters of the 818 feature films produced in 2011 were released in theaters, according to the most recent statistics from the Motion Picture Association of America (pdf).
The report comes at a time when things are looking up for China’s film industry. China recently overtook Japan to become the world’s second-biggest movie market behind the U.S., according to the MPAA. Meanwhile, The recent success of domestic hits “Lost in Thailand” and “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” – both of which broke box office records this year – has many in China feeling optimistic that local filmmakers may finally break Hollywood’s choke hold on the market.
But the failure of so many Chinese films to make it into theaters serves as a reminder of the limitations the industry still faces, analysts and observers say.
Among the most basic of those limitations, according to Entgroup researcher Kady Yang, is a shortage of screens. “The capacity of China’s cinemas is very limited and their movie schedules are tight,” Ms. Yang said, noting that China is home to 3,680 cinemas with 13,118 total screens. The U.S. has more than 39,500 screens, according to the MPAA.
But it’s not just the number of theaters that’s a problem, according to well-known film critic Raymond Zhou. Some of the blame, he argues, should fall on state-funded propaganda films pushing other movies off the screen. “Local governments may spend 5 million yuan in making films for propaganda purposes, like paying tribute to a virtuous man or praising their good work,” Mr. Zhou said.
Among the most widely disliked films in recent Chinese film history are two state-commissioned, star-studded propaganda epics – 2009’s “The Founding of a Republic” and 2011’s “The Beginning of the Great Revival” – both of which dominated screens nationwide for extended periods.
More recently, a trio of recent bio pics about Lei Feng, a Mao-era model citizen, have taken up screen real estate in theaters across the country despite completely failing to sell tickets in some cases.
Yet another problem, according to Tsinghua University media scholar Yin Hong: the near total absence, outside major cities, of small venues for non-mainstream films. “China lacks for art theaters that can include those alternative movies that are not fit for ordinary cinemas, like what the U.S. does,” he said.
The stakes are high for Chinese filmmakers fighting to get their movies seen. Total box office revenues grew from less than 1 billion yuan ($160.8 million) in 2002 to more than 10 billion yuan in 2010, according to government statistics. Last year, total revenues hit 17.1 billion yuan, a 30.2% increase from the year before, and are poised to top 23 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) this year, according to the Entgroup report.
While foreign films have traditionally accounted for the lion’s share of ticket sales, there is reason for Chinese film producers to be optimistic: Entgroup says the number of Chinese films making it into theaters increased a record 33% year-on-year in 2012
The report adds that people went to a cinema to watch a movie 467 million times in China in 2012. That’s the highest number since 2000, though still well short of 1979, when pent-up demand from more than a decade of Cultural Revolution restrictions pushed movie attendance to 29.3 billion, according to state media.
In the absence of more quality Chinese films, analysts say, many people choose to watch movies and TV shows at home – meaning there’s big potential for growth.
“Many well-off people in non-first tier cities have not watched a single film in cinema for years,” said Mr. Zhou. “If they can be attracted to cinemas by high-quality films instead of watching pirated DVDs at home, the market can be gigantic.”