Clockwise from top left: "The Painted Veil," "Kill Bill II," "The Forbidden Kingdom," "The Secret of the Magic Gourd" and "Trail of the Panda" are either Sino-US co-produced films, or filmed, partially or fully, in China. [China Daily]

Hollywood is fast tracking deals with companies and individuals in China to profit from the fastest-growing film market in the world.

Jackie Chan is mentoring Jaden Smith, the 11-year-old son of Will Smith. The boy plays a student of Chan in a remake of "The Karate Kid," produced by his father and China Film Group (CFG).

CFG's arch-rival, the privately owned Huayi Brothers, has joined forces with Fox International Productions and Star Television Asia Ltd to produce and distribute the romantic comedy "Hot Summer Days."

Paramount Pictures, producer of the "Transformers" series, opened its first office in China in July, two months after Disney's second co-produced film, "Trail of Panda "(Xiongmao Huijia Lu), premiered in the country.

"China is on the front page of foreign media at least once a week, for good or bad, but it is there, in people's minds," says Jean Chalopin, co-producer of "Trail of the Panda." "It is both known and unknown to foreign countries. The reasons why US studios come to China is a mix of creative, production and distribution interests."

China's box office revenues reached 4.3 billion yuan (US$635 million) in 2008, a 30 percent rise over the previous year. The gross has risen by more than 20 percent every year for the past five years, according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT).

"China is the most populous market and is growing very fast," says Huang Qunfei, general manager of theater chain New Film Association Company. "Although the box office gross is small compared to the US$9.8 billion of the United States, China is a market with continuous and strong growth."

Yet the country allows just 20 foreign films a year - those from the US and other countries - for theatrical release. State-owned CFG is the only importer of foreign films and shares distribution rights with Huaxia Film Distribution. Co-productions between China and other countries, however, are free from the quota and enjoy the same status as domestic films.

"Co-production is definitely a short cut, especially when the Sino-US dispute over audio-visual products is still an outstanding issue," Huang says. "It provides not only money but more opportunities."

In August, the WTO partially upheld US complaints about Chinese restrictions on the importation of films, books and other audio-visual materials. The monopoly of CFG and Huaxia in channeling foreign films was a contentious issue. China appealed the ruling in September.

Producers of a co-produced film take 43 percent of the box office revenue in China, far more than the 13 percent US studios get if their films are among the 20 imported pictures.

On the production side, China has many advantages over other countries, such as sets, facilities and cheaper crews.

Sets include Hengdian in Zhejiang, Chedun in Shanghai and Huairou in Beijing, all of which have proven capable of handling extravaganzas such as "Red Cliff" (Chi Bi), "Lust, Caution" (Se Jie) and "Mummy III." These bases offer favorable inducements, such as free studios or low taxes.

Shooting films in China is free from the strict regulations of American labor unions, too, which also decreases costs.

"For me, from Hollywood, where there are unions and 5-to-6-day work weeks, it is impressive that the Chinese crews are able to work such long hours and for so many days," says Jennifer Liu, co-producer of "Trail of the Panda." "They had one day off for every 10 days of work, and that was already considered a light schedule given that many productions work straight through until the shoot is complete."

Bill Kong, producer of co-productions such as "Mummy III" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (Wohu Canglong), reportedly says if Jet Li's "Fearless" (Huo Yuanjia) had been shot in American studios, the costs would have been US$60-70 million, but in Shanghai, it cost just half this.