Box office earnings reach US$2 bln in 2011
- By Liu Yi & Zhang Rui
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China.org.cn, January 11, 2012
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Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War" took in US$88 million to become the top grossing domestic movie of the year in China while imported "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" grossed US$170 million in the world's fastest-growing major movie market. [China.org.cn] |
The year 2011 was a good showing for China's film industry, scoring over 13.1 billion yuan (US$2.07 billion) in the box office, a 28.93 percent increase from 2010, a top film official said Monday.
Domestic studios in 2011 produced 791 films in various genres, taking in 7.03 billion yuan (US$1.11 billion) at the box office, accounting for 53.6 percent of total ticket sales, said Tong Gang, head of the movie bureau at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).
However, during the China Film Directors' Guild Award launch ceremony held in Beijing on Sunday, Xie Fei, representing an older generation of Chinese movie directors, said Chinese cinema "only screened 100 homemade movies a year."
Most small-budget films didn't even hit the silver screens.
Nevertheless, China added 803 cinemas in 2011 and an average 8.3 new screens daily. It is also working to bring more film screenings to rural areas.
Tong said domestic production of blockbusters has become more mature, with remarkable improvements in quality. He raised the example of recent hit "The Flowers of War" from director Zhang Yimou, which already grossed over 560 million yuan (US$88.69 million) less than a month after its release.
However, other than the biggest successes, qualities of many films were still worrisome. Various blockbusters continued using the old formula: Ancient Chinese legend, big-name movie stars, Kung Fu elements and grand battle scenes. Movies like "It's Love," "Mural," "The Lost Bladesman" and "White Vengeance" all passed the 150 million yuan (US$23.7 million) box office mark, but audiences ridiculed the plot holes, twisted historical facts and flat characters and gave them low ratings on various film review websites.
On the other hand, some critically acclaimed films did poorly in the box office: "Kuiba," "The Piano in a Factory" and "Return Ticket" had won praises and even awards, but many average moviegoers were not even aware of them.
Some films are edited for censors' approval, which compromises the original quality. One such example was Gu Changwei's "Love for Life" (starring A-listers Zhang Ziyi and Aaron Kwok) that tried to tackle the issue of AIDS.
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