Part of the construction site of Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis, which is being built by Wanda Group [Photo: IC]
There were flashlights and screams of fans, with Hollywood superstars gathered on the red carpet, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicole Kidman and John Travolta, along with executives from the world's top film studios.
But this was not for an event at the Academy Awards show in the US or Cannes in France, but in Qingdao, a coastal city in East China's Shandong Province.
They had gathered for the announcement on Sunday by commercial property and entertainment conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group that it will invest 50 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) to build the world's largest film and television industrial park in the city.
The 3.76 million-square-meter Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis will include a film studio, a film museum, a wax museum, a film exhibition center and other recreational facilities.
When the project is completed in 2017, it will have the world's largest production studio and the world's only underwater studio.
Wanda's huge investment and the presence of so many famous people at the ceremony reflect growing domestic and international interest in China's film market.
Box-office promise
Compared with 6 percent year-on-year growth in the global box office, China's box-office sales grew by 36 percent year-on-year in 2012 to $2.7 billion, surpassing Japan to become the world's second-largest cinema market after North America, according to the 2012 Theatrical Market Statistics Report released by the Motion Picture Association of America.
China's box-office in 2012 was equivalent to one-quarter of the North American market and accounted for 7.78 percent of the total global box revenue of $34.7 billion, the report said.
Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin said China's box-office receipts will surpass those of North America by 2018 and double them by 2023.
However, China's film industry is not strong despite its fast development, Wang said.
"We don't have a film industry center like Hollywood, global blockbusters or well-known international film festivals like the Oscars," Wang noted, but this gap means there is "huge potential."
Wang said the new industrial park will host the annual Qingdao International Film Festival from 2016, which will invite 30 international superstars and directors each year. The festival is still waiting for government approval.
Wanda said it has reached preliminary agreements with global film and television firms on shooting and producing 30 foreign films and TV series per year at the industrial park after it is completed.
The company also plans to bring in more than 50 domestic firms to produce at least 100 homemade films and TV series each year.
Wanda first stepped into the film production sector in 2011 and in 2012 it invested in Keanu Reeves' directorial debut, Man of Tai Chi.
The company is now the world's largest cinema chain, after purchasing American chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc for $2.6 billion in 2012. Wanda and AMC have over 6,000 screens worldwide, accounting for 10 percent of the global market.
Wang said he is still looking for acquisition targets in the cinema sector. He also told reporters that his AMC film chain has shown three Chinese films in the US in 2012 and five so far this year.
If the park can produce films with international influence, it will be more pioneering than China's existing film bases at Hengdian, East China's Zhejiang Province and Huairou in Beijing, Chen Shaofeng, deputy dean of the Institute for Cultural Industries at Peking University, told the Global Times Tuesday.
The Qingdao project will have supportive facilities including recreation, tourism and commercial properties, making it a cultural and tourism site rather than just a film base, Hou Tao, vice president of entertainment industry consultancy Entgroup, told the Global Times Wednesday.
China currently has Beijing, Shanghai and Changchun international film festivals, but they have limited international influence, Hou said. It will be the same for the Qingdao festival if it just offers the same combination of stars, film promotions and awards.
Wanda could invite more people from the industry to participate, such as movie producers, and could host more industrial forums to make the film festival more competitive, Hou suggested.
Cooperation potential
The production values of China's homemade films still lag behind Hollywood films, partly due to a lack of experience, but also because of an insufficient budget, Wang Zhongjun, chairman of domestic film producer Huayi Brothers Media Corp, told a forum after the launch ceremony Sunday.
"We can produce better films if we have bigger budgets as our technology is good enough," he said, noting that the most expensive film his firm has produced cost $30 million, much less than most Hollywood blockbusters.
Wang Changtian, president of producer Beijing Enlight Media Co, said that the budgets for Chinese films will increase along with the market expansion and internationalization, and will eventually pose a greater challenge to Hollywood blockbusters.
However, Chen said Chinese films are still not competitive in terms of special effects and production.
Meanwhile, many Hollywood films have involved "Chinese factors" to attract more Chinese viewers, such as featuring Chinese actors and actresses like Zhou Xun in Cloud Atlas and Wang Xueqi and Fan Bingbing in Iron Man 3. Some of the films have scenes shot in China as well.
Imax CEO Richard Gelfond told the forum Sunday that these are good short-term measures to attract Chinese consumers, but they will not be so effective in the long term.
Hollywood wants to cater to Chinese audiences because of the country's fast-growing box office, but better methods are needed, he said. For instance, Kung Fu Panda used a Chinese theme rather than just Chinese factors, Gelfond noted.
Hollywood studios have bought the movie rights for well-known Chinese novels such as Wolf Totem and Secrets of a Grave Robber, according to media reports.
US director James Cameron set up a joint venture in Tianjin in 2012 to invest in 3D film projects, and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc also announced last year it would build a studio in Shanghai to produce Chinese animation.
Enlight has bought the adaptation rights for a new version of the famous Chinese movie Shaolin Temple, which was popular across China in the 1980s, and the rights to four martial arts novels by Louis Cha Leung-yung.
"I think they can be adapted into an oriental version of The Avengers, but the Americans are good at such films," said Wang Changtian.
Although both Chinese and Hollywood producers are eyeing each other's markets, there is actually a common and expanding market for both parties, and both sides can succeed through cooperation, he noted.
Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of Hollywood studio Weinstein Company, said at the forum Sunday that his company wants to make movies in China, but it has limited knowledge of the market, so it needs to work with companies that have such knowledge.
Films should not just be popular in their local market, but in the global market as well, Weinstein said.
Enlight will discuss cooperation with Hollywood studios for five to six projects, but the films will be produced in China and target the Chinese market, Wang Changtian said.
"Increasing cooperation between Chinese and foreign firms will be a good thing for Chinese viewers, as they will see more good films," Chen noted.