359 Chinese films lost chance for theater release
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 24, 2015
A total of 359 Chinese films were not released in theaters in 2014, according to a research report released during the 5th Beijing International Film Festival from April 16 to 23, 2015.
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A movie theater in China [File photo] |
The Research Report on the Chinese Film Industry 2015, compiled by the China Film Association and the Motion Picture Arts Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, examined many aspects of the Chinese film market in 2014. China's film market was the second largest in the world, generating 29.63 billion yuan (US$4.78 billion) at box offices last year.
There were 38.75 million screenings in Chinese theaters in 2014, and 830 million tickets were sold, 34.52 percent more than what were sold the previous year.
The report stated that Chinese film studios and filmmakers made a total of 618 feature films, only 259 of which were seen in theaters. The other 359 films missed the chance to be screened in theaters, and nobody knows what has happened to most of these films.
There were also 70 foreign films screened in Chinese theaters.
Thus, on average, there was approximately one brand new film released in China per day. The number of Chinese-made films has increased hugely. A decade ago, there were only about 100 Chinese domestic films screened every year.
However, many new films chose to debut during festival seasons such as Christmas, Valentine's Day or Spring Festival, so that there were sometimes 10 new movies released on a single day. The intensity of competition during some of these seasons had a very negative effect on many of those films' box office results.
But the more serious issue is that 359 films never made it to theaters. This figure was even higher in 2013 when 388 lost films were never seen by audiences. The number of films screened in China is much smaller than that screened in South Korea. There are about 1,000 movies screened in South Korea every year, three times more than in the Chinese market, even though the number of screens in South Korea is just one-tenth of those in China.
Where have these lost films wound up? The report indicated this is a rather complex issue. Some of these films were backed by investment from local governments and enterprises and were not intended to be released in theaters. Some were made for TV, while some were produced despite a lack of money for distribution and promotion. Some were of such poor quality that no cinema executives were willing to accept them.
The research report also noted that there were more than 23,600 screens in China by the end of 2014, nearly 70 percent of the total number in the United States. The number of screens continues to increase; 10 more screens are added to the total every day, meaning that there will be more than 30,000 screens in China within the year. The China Film Association said during the Beijing International Film Festival that the total number of screens in the country has already surpassed 27,000.
The total number of screenings per day in China will reach more than 180,000, giving screen time to more new films and providing audiences with more choices.
The report also claimed that the gross income of the Chinese film industry will reach more than 100 million yuan (US$ 16 million) a day in 2015.
The report's study of the top 10 highest-grossing films of 2014 showed that the movies that made the most money came from a variety of film genres -- they were not all big-budget or majorly hyped films, as was the case in the past. This means that Chinese audiences are becoming more mature and do not just flock to blockbusters.
The report also said that China's film industry has witnessed its biggest changes as Internet giants have begun playing a role in the industry's financing, production, distribution, promotion and copyright and intellectual property trade. The Internet is no longer just a promotional platform -- Internet websites have started to reconstruct the film production chain and have become strategic partners and investors, changing the shape of China's film industry.
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