Spiderman may be a hero to many, but his total conquest of
China's cinema screens has raised ire in the nation's film
industry.
During the week-long May Day holiday, the Shanghai Wanyu Cinema
showed Spiderman 3 on all six screens after it opened on
March 2.
The cinema manager surnamed Yan said the cinema always decided
its "now showing list" according to audience demand.
"Most people like Hollywood blockbusters, so we decided to show
Spiderman 3 on our screens all the time," Yan said, adding that
cinemas were "under financial pressure" to do so.
"Spiderman 3" is already the most lucrative movie in the Chinese
market this year, with box office takings 103.65 million yuan
(US$13.5 million) by Sunday, according to main distributor Huaxia
Film Distribution and the China Film Group Corporation, the other
local distributor.
But many in the domestic film industry attribute its success to
its saturation coverage, which has triggered a debate on the state
of Chinese film and the efficiency of protection measures.
Chinese-born Hollywood actress Vivian Wu, who found fame in
The Last Emperor, described the blanket penetration of the
US blockbuster as a "colonisation" of China's cinemas.
"If Chinese cinemas are occupied by foreign big-budget films, no
one will dare to invest in Chinese films," said Wu, who debuted her
Chinese-language Shanghai Red in Beijing last month. The
film was co-produced by Shanghai Film Group Corporation and Vivian
Wu and her husband's company.
She and writer-director husband Oscar L. Costo had anticipated a
robust box office, but found Chinese audiences had almost no access
to Chinese films.
"We feel sad and wonder why Chinese don't watch their own
movies," said Wu. "It's unreasonable that almost all screens in all
cinemas show 'Spiderman 3 '."
"Shanghai Red," which opened on April 29 and is expected to be
on show for up to two months, had by Wednesday taken 2.2 million
yuan, much less than "Spiderman 3," but already better than other
Chinese films showing simultaneously, such as "Ming Ming" and "Kung
Fu Fighter."
"In the United States, cinemas usually devote only half of their
screens to big-budget films, and leave the other half for other
types of films," Wu said.
Han Jie, of the Beijing Forbidden City Film Company, the
distributor of "Shanghai Red" in Beijing, said, "A mutual
understanding between film distributors and cinemas is urgently
needed.
"As a distributor of small-budget domestic films, we do hope
cinemas give more screen time to domestic films. But it's quite
understandable for us that they allocate prime time slots,
especially during May Day holiday, to big-budget films, as they
face financial pressures. Hopefully, cinemas can understand our
difficulties and prolong the showing time of small-budget domestic
films from one month to two months. I think it's a feasible
solution to increase revenue for homemade small-budget films."
Chinese director Jia Zhangke, who won the Golden Lion Award for
Best Film at the Venice Film Festival with Still Life, echoed Wu's
concerns.
"Cinema managers always say the market and audience decide what
they show, but it's not true," Jia said.
"The truth is cinema managers speculate on which films might be
profitable and which are not. They make feature lists based on
their assumptions and let audiences follow, which results in
domestic small-budget films always being shown at the worst
times."
Jia said China should learn from South Korea and establish a
protection mechanism for its domestic films, requiring cinemas to
guarantee a set proportion of days for domestic films to nurture
audience interest.
Every cinema in South Korea was required to show homemade films
for at least 146 days a year from 1996. The strict quota system led
to a boom in the country's film industry and increased influence in
Asia and the world.
However, in April the US government complained to the World
Trade Organization (WTO) that China's market access restrictions on
films, books and audio-visual products had lead to rampant
piracy.
Chinese officials have refuted the accusations, saying they "do
not bear serious scrutiny."
The Chinese government promised to import 20 foreign movies when
it entered the WTO in 2001, but the real number of imported foreign
movies far exceeded that figure, said Wang Ziqiang, spokesman of
China's National Copyright Administration (NCA).
From 2000 to 2004, China imported 4,332 films, 40 to 50 percent
of them from the United States, statistics from the Ministry of
Culture showed.
Zhang Weiping, one of China's leading film producers and a
collaborator with director Zhang Yimou on many films, including
Hero and The House of Flying Daggers, said
Chinese film-makers should strive to improve the quality of films
and promotion strategies rather than only relying on government
support.
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(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2007)