China and Hollywood: The End of the Affair

If Chloé Zhao wins one of the Oscars to be nominated on Sunday night, she will be the first Chinese woman to make history in the top echelons of Hollywood.

Nomadland, A film about Central American Amazon warehouse workers, is seen as the forerunner of the most coveted award: Best Picture. Born in Beijing Zhao she became the first Asian woman to win the Golden Globe for Best Director in February, breaking more records with an Oscar in her belt.

But his rise has caught fire in nationalist China, after commentators dug up a 2013 interview in which Zhaok described the country as a “lie everywhere”. Marketing Nomadland, Published by Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures, has been scarce on Chinese social media ever since.

The Chinese government has told local media this year to reduce Oscar coverage, according to Bloomberg, after a discussion about Zhao and a documentary about the protests in Hong Kong. Several cinemas that have contacted the Financial Times have said they have canceled previously announced screenings Nomadland, the house was set to premiere until Friday.

The freeze shows the two most important film markets in the world years of joint ventures and co-investments, are divergent.

China has improved in making films to create successful blockbusters produced as a result of a decade-long effort. The decade of American filmmaking has declined, leaving Hollywood studios more reliable than ever to earn revenue in the nascent Chinese market. But they are increasingly failing to agree with the Chinese public.

Decoupling is part of a broader rupture in relations between the US and China in recent years, with costly implications for companies caught in the middle. Disney, for example, is one of a list of multinationals that have made efforts to navigate internationally ethical and political mining around China persecutes Uighur Muslims.

There are $ 9 billion a year in the Chinese box office before the pandemic hit the Hollywood game. Streaming is more valuable than ever because earning less money is the main focus of the largest entertainment groups.

“It looks more and more like that [the box office] it will be an additional stream-based income, ”said Jeff Bock, an Exhibitor Relations analyst.“ China will be the main market. ”

But Tinseltown can’t take it for granted that Chinese filmmakers prefer their offerings.

“In a few years, we will be able to present films with a similar production value to the US. So far, I don’t think important studios can be as strong as the Chinese market, “said Shawn Xiang Yue. Detective Chinatown the film, a well-known comedy champion made by Wanda Pictures.

Last year China threw the U.S. out of revenue to become the world’s largest film market. It was partly due to Covid-19, which left US cinemas empty during 2020 Chinese theaters it was reopened earlier.

The results are harsh. The eight Oscar-nominated films for Best Picture won just under $ 35 million at the box office, down from $ 700 million the previous year. Meanwhile, China earned $ 3 billion in movie ticket sales in 2020.

China’s rise in the US was highly anticipated. The Chinese film industry reached a “turning point” around 2016, when technology and storytelling skills became as competitive as Hollywood, says Chinese film expert Aynne Kokas of the University of Virginia.

Chinese producers said it more clearly. “This is a rising market. We’re pretty confident in five years [China] it will certainly be the biggest market whether or not it is affected by the pandemic, ”Yue said.

“When Donald Trump took office, we all saw arrogance, and at the same time, we saw arrogance from Hollywood studios,” said Yue, who declined to specify which company he was talking about. “They pay attention to Chinese money. But they don’t care what the audience wants. The public is angry. ”

Yue has been hiring U.S. production staff to gather experience from the highly talented Hollywood pool, which is more extensive and cheaper than the Chinese one. The U.S. has been making films for a century, and while China began to allow it private producers directing films on their own in 2003, leaving the industry to catch on for the last decade.

He shot it Detective Chinatown 2 In New York, hiring U.S. actors and 600 local camera staff. The film grossed $ 544 million in 2018.

“The financial incentives are there [in China] to do bigger and bigger things, to do their own thing Star Wars or Avengers“, Said Namit Malhotra, CEO of the London-based special effects company DNEG, which won the Oscar-winning film, among others. Creation and Blade Runner. DNEG worked Eight hundred, A Chinese production about the Shanghai war that won the world’s largest team in 2020. It was the first Chinese film to be shot entirely with Imax cameras.

“We’re in the middle of a conversation about a couple of Chinese projects that might be as good as some Western projects, but not bigger,” Malhotra said, emphasizing high-budget science fiction productions “as high as any Hollywood studio would require.”

Over the past decade, Hollywood blockbusters have gone from being the top 10 in China’s box office to having to fight for a place alongside local productions.

According to the management committee of special funds for the development of the Chinese film industry, imported films accounted for less than 16% of the total box office in 2020, less than 36 percent in 2019.

The latest Hollywood films have had a mixed reception in China

$ 40 million

Disney’s “Mulan” is a disappointing amount made in China

$ 25 million

“Wonder Woman: 1984” had a bad performance at the Chinese box office

$ 165 million

“Godzilla vs Kong” has made a respectable amount since its release in March – a gratifying sign

Some big Hollywood movies have been bombed in China lately, for example Mulan, Disney spent several years preparing live action films for Chinese audiences and spent $ 200 million filming in China and New Zealand. The film was met with a nationalist reaction in China and eventually grossed $ 40 million in the country. Wonder Woman: 1984The sequel to the hit film, starring Gal Gadot, grossed $ 25 million in China, down from a whopping $ 90 million in the previous 2017.

Some directors hope that U.S. blockbusters will continue to make big profits in China as Hollywood studios relieve the pandemic after the film is released again. Godzilla vs KongThe Warner Bros. epic has earned an estimated $ 165 million since its release in China on March 26, a gratifying sign.

Imax CEO Rich Gelfond hoped that China would “still have a tremendous passion for Hollywood films.” “It’s an analogy I would say: people want to go to restaurants even though they didn’t leave the kitchens last year,” he said. “It’s hard to generalize about anything last year.”

Hollywood has always had state-imposed limitations on its ability to reach and win over Chinese audiences. The Beijing film industry regulator maintains its share of 34 films imported per year, and the importers manage to keep only 25% of the box office revenue – the rest of the revenue goes to the state-owned China Film Group or Huaxia Film.

Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has reviewed requests for censorship of U.S. films, according to a report last year by PEN America, a nonprofit group that advocates for freedom of expression.

“Those who make decisions in Hollywood are increasingly thinking about the wishes of the PCZ [Chinese Communist party) censor when deciding what film projects to greenlight, what content these films contain, who should work on the films and what messages the films should implicitly or explicitly contain”, PEN warned. 

At the same time, Xi has repeatedly called for Chinese cinema to be a confident expression of the country’s culture, history and society — as interpreted by the Chinese Communist party. “To raise national cultural soft power, we must make efforts to spread . . . the values of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” he said in a speech in 2014.

China has long regarded the Oscar awards as the apex of American culture, said Kokas. “When [the South Korean film] Parasite he won the Oscar [last year], Chinese media were asking: why hasn’t a Chinese filmmaker been winning an Oscar? “

“This is the main challenge facing the Chinese film market. You can make films that are in line with government guidelines and you can make creative films, “he added.” It’s very difficult to make one that meets those two requirements. “

Full coverage of the Oscars

Much has changed at the Oscars since 2008, but some things may be about to turn round, writes FT film critic Danny Leigh awards preview With graphics by Chris Campbell

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