The accumulated domestic box office sales exceeded 10 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) in August. The number seems impressive but can be misleading. The domestic market performed not as well as imported films in China, and Chinese films abroad performed even worse.
According to the 2011-12 China Film Industry Report by China Film Association, imported movies occupied around 65 percent of the box office in the first six months of 2012, though nine out of the top 10 most watched films were Hollywood blockbusters. Then, of the 52 Chinese films that were distributed internationally last year, 50 of them were co-productions.
Tuning out, not in
Liu Jia, one of the writers of 2011-12 China Film Industry Report, was quoted in the Shanghai Financial News as saying that the market in China is attractive to foreign filmmakers but the influence of Chinese film outside the domestic market is minor. It is still very difficult for Chinese films to appeal abroad. Foreign audiences' understanding of Chinese culture is still limited.
Shelly Kraicer works for Vancouver International Film Festival's acquisitions team. Kraicer commented in Beijing Youth Daily that there used to be cinemas in Toronto's China Town screening Chinese films only. But now they have all disappeared.
According to an annual report about 2011's Chinese films' international performances, released in June this year by the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture (AICCC) and Huaxia Film Distribution Co., Ltd, the foreign income of the Chinese film industry was about 2 billion yuan, a 43 percent decrease from the previous year.
The report is the result of research based on audiences in nine countries including the US, Canada, UK, France and Germany, which suggests that only a very limited number of Chinese films were screened in mainstream foreign cinemas. The research said that 55 percent of foreign audiences watch Chinese films on video or DVD, while 32 percent did not watch a Chinese film in the year.
The report indicates more than one-third of foreign audiences have no knowledge of Chinese films at all.
Huang Huilin, director of AICCC, said the Chinese economy is the second biggest in the world. But Chinese films still play a very small role in the world cultural market. China's cultural development does not match the speed of its economic performance.
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