Hollywood isn’t the only foreign player eyeing China.
Two major South Korean studios are strengthening cooperation with local players to grab a foothold in the world’s second-largest movie market.
Last month, China’s Huayi Brothers Media Corp. and Korea’s Showbox/Mediaplex Inc. released the $20 million, 3-D movie “Mr. Go,” about a gorilla from a Chinese circus who becomes a baseball superstar in Korea’s major leagues.
Since opening in South Korea on July 17, the film has pulled in about 8.4 billion won ($7.6 million), according to the Korean Film Council, known as Kofic. In China, where it opened a day later, it has pulled in a bit more than 100 million yuan ($16.3 million), according to media-research firm EntGroup Inc.
“It is doing not bad, though not as good as expected,” said Son Jang-hyun, one of the producers of “Mr. Go.”
In June, South Korea’s CJ E&M Corp. struck a deal with state-run China Film Group and Pegasus & Taihe Entertainment International Co., a private Chinese company, to produce a sci-fi fantasy project called “The Fist,” featuring Chinese and Korean actors. In April, it also signed with the two companies to produce a 3-D Chinese historical epic, along with “Avatar” director-producer James Cameron.
“Mr. Go” represents one of the biggest attempts yet by Korea’s vibrant pop-culture industry to make inroads into China. The producers have been promoting it in both countries for months. In China, Huayi Brothers sent Mr. Go dolls to celebrities across the country and got them to pose with the dolls for photos posted to Sina Corp.’s Twitter-like Weibo microblogging service. Kofic, a government-supported body that promotes and supports Korean films, named it as one of the three biggest global projects of Korean-initiated film co-productions for this year.
“ ‘Mr. Go’ is not a cast-driven film, so we had to give the overall marketing campaign a different angle from other local blockbusters,” said Chris Jung, COO of Showbox/Mediaplex, whose company started to promote the film in Korea in early March. “We believe its touching story can emotionally draw both markets.”
“It is the first time that Huayi has co-produced with Korean companies, so it would be great if it can pull in more than 100 million yuan in China,” Wang Zhonglei, chairman of Huayi Brothers, said prior to the film’s opening. “We are confident that this film will gross high in Korea, so the earnings can cover the cost even without China’s market.”
“We will have a sequel of ‘Mr. Go’ with Huayi Brothers and are working on the script,” said Kim Yong-hwa, the director of “Mr. Go” and founder of Dexter Digital, a Korean visual-effects studio. “I am also thinking about finding Chinese partners to produce films like ‘Transformers’ in the future.”
Korean dramas have long been popular in China, as they are elsewhere in Asia. But as with U.S.-China co-productions, Chinese co-productions with Korean studios have been a mixed bag. Since initial cooperation in 2000, films co-produced by the two sides haven’t been embraced as much as backers hoped. In 2012, “Dangerous Liaisons,” an adaptation of the 18th-century French novel starring Zhang Ziyi and Jang Dong-gun, pulled in just a little more than 60 million yuan in China, according to Kofic, less than half of its budget.
However, another recent Sino-Korean co-production, the romantic tearjerker “A Wedding Invitation” released in April, earned 192.2 million yuan ($31.3 million), according to EntGroup.
CJ E&M has ratcheted up its ambitions following “A Wedding Invitation,” with big plans specifically for “The Fist” with its Chinese partners. “This movie aims at the Pan-Asia market and will be released world-wide,” said Jeong Tae-sung, CEO of the film division of CJ E&M.
CJ E&M is also developing 10 more co-production projects with China, one-third of which will be launched next year, said Mr. Jeong, whose company held a Chinese film festival in Korea in June with the Chinese government. Its ambition is beyond production. “We will help introduce China’s local films to the world by our distribution network in Asia and the U.S.,” he said.
CJ E&M opened its office in 2005 in Beijing, where its staff has grown to 60 people from seven initially. It previously invested in the 2011 state-commissioned, star-studded propaganda epic about the Communist Party, “Beginning of the Great Revival.”
Besides the two major studios, many small and midsize Korean production companies are going to China to look for financing, according to Kofic. “They don’t know where to find money here, and many are trying to enter the local market by joining local film festivals,” said Zhou Jianwei, a prominent researcher on Korean film based in Shanghai.
Financing isn’t the only difficulty when tapping into the market. “Rules in China are not that explicit, so you have to try, fall flat and then you may get it,” said Ms. Zhou. “It is more difficult to co-produce in mainland China than with Hong Kong and Taiwan partners, as censorship here starts from the script writing.”
“Korea shares culture and geographical proximity with China, and our film industry is well-developed,” said Kim Pil-jung, manager of Kofic’s China office. “Compared with Hollywood, we charge much less from Chinese companies in co-productions.”