ChinaFile Recommends
09.08.15China Accused of Fraud as Government-Backed Film Outperforms Terminator: Genisys
Guardian
The state allegedly offered money for bogus box-office data for "The Hundred Regiments Offensive."
ChinaFile Recommends
08.25.15Warner Bros. in Talks to Make Movies in China
Wall Street Journal
The joint venture would produce local-language films for Asian audience.
Culture
08.20.15
Banned in China, Independent Chinese Films Come to New York
Three years ago this week I watched the 9th Beijing Independent Film Festival crumble under the weight of official fear—fear that the gritty low-budget, experimental dramas and documentaries screening in a remote Beijing suburb reflected a touch...
Culture
08.18.15
Has Chinese Film Finally Produced a Real Hero?
“This Is an Era That Calls for Heroes”—the boldface Chinese characters scream from a publicity poster for the Chinese animation film, Monkey King: Hero is Back, which made headline news in July for breaking the animation box-office record in China...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.02.15Local Filmmakers Must Raise Their Game to Compete With Hollywood
Hollywood Reporter
Chen Kaige says that while the movie industry booms in China, local filmmakers need to raise their standards to compete with Hollywood.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.02.15Foreign Films Rise Again at China’s Box Office
Wall Street Journal
China’s movie market is booming, with $3.3 billion worth of ticket sales in the first half of the year, up nearly 50% from the same period in 2014.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.24.15China's Alibaba Pictures Investing in Paramount's 'Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation'
Hollywood Reporter
Alibaba Pictures says 'Mission: Impossible 5' will be its first Hollywood investment.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.28.15Wang Jianlin, a Billionaire at the Intersection of Business and Power in China -
New York Times
Wang tends to present himself as the pragmatic face of big business in China.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.14.15Sources: Nicolas Cage’s ‘Outcast’ Has Chinese Release Date Delayed Again
Hollywood Reporter
There have been a host of theories about why Outcast is being delayed. Some distribution sources said in September that YFG was unhappy with the number of screens made available for the film.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.21.14Los Angeles Mayor Presses China to Allow More Hollywood Films
Reuters
Hollywood producers, eager to build ties to the world's second-largest film market, have embraced an influx of Chinese capital in recent years, leading to a series of high-profile partnerships.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.21.14“Hunger Games” China Release Date canceled, Likely Due to “Revolutionary” Political Content
That’s
The film's sudden withdrawal may be due to the film's apparently incendiary content, depicting a fictitious revolution aimed at toppling a dystopian future government. It's feared that movie-goers might draw parallels to Taiwan's...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.14.14As Chinese Adoptees Return Home, a New Genre Tells Their Tales
Wall Street Journal
"Ricki’s Promise” a documentary about a Seattle teen’s summer spent with her birth family in China, began showing on the U.S. film festival circuit this month. Next month, the U.S. cable network SundanceTV will premiere “One Child,” a fictional...
Culture
11.07.14
‘The Training Wheels Are Coming Off,’ But That’s Not Necessarily A Good Thing
Making a movie is a wild ride no matter where you are in the world, a process fraught with ego and pride; wobblier, riskier, yet potentially more lucrative, the bigger and faster it gets.With U.S. gross sales of movie tickets basically flat, up just...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.14Why China Chose a French-Directed Film as Its Oscar Submission
Wall Street Journal
“It’s a mild, breezy, accessible, feel-good drama which really pictures China as a harmonious, wonderful place where conflicts of various stripes—across age, class or geographical divides—could easily be reconciled,” said Clarence Tsui, a film...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.14Dispatches From Xinjiang: The Uyghur Blockbuster “Money On The Road”
Beijing Cream
The comedy Money on the Road (Money Found on the Way in Chinese) features an ensemble of stars, including a cameo by the famous singer Abdulla. It follows the misadventures of three Uyghur farmers who come to the city as migrant workers to...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.24.14China’s Alibaba Reportedly Eyeing 37 Percent Stake in Lionsgate
Hollywood Reporter
The New York Post reported on Friday that the chairman of Lionsgate is looking to unload his influential stake in the mini-studio, with Ma in line to possibly buy it.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.08.14China’s Wanda to Create Movie Fund to Attract Hollywood Productions
Hollywood Reporter
Wanda's billionaire chairman, Wang Jianlin, said the planned fund would work with the private sector to recreate Hollywood in China.
Culture
08.27.14
Standing Up for Indie Film in China
In July, Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth in the action-packed series of Hollywood films about trucks turning into giant robots to save the world, became the first film to sell more than $300 million in tickets at China’s box office...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.05.14China’s Alibaba Pictures Confirms Zhang Qiang as CEO
Variety
Zhang, whose appointment was unofficially announced by the media last month, makes the unusual switch from public sector to private. Since 2011 has been vice president of China Film Group, the state-owned enterprise that dominates film imports and...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.23.14China’s Wanda Plans to Buy ‘One or Two Large International Entertainment Companies’
Hollywood Reporter
Amid consolidation chatter in the U.S., the owner of exhibition giant AMC says it plans to become a “real” multinational company and “intensify” its investment in the entertainment sector globally.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.30.14‘Transformers’ Breaks Box-Office Records in China
Los Angeles Times
“Transformers: Age of Extinction” broke multiple box-office records in mainland China in its first weekend of release and appears to be en route to displacing “Avatar” as the top-grossing film ever on the mainland.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.18.14Chinese Directors on Winning Global Box Office: ‘Attacking Hollywood Is the Best Way’
Hollywood Reporter
At the Shanghai Film Festival's most popular forum, leading local film figures debate whether Hollywood is friend or foe.
Media
03.01.14
China’s Oscar Challenge
On January 3, the film critics of The New York Times published their Oscar nominations wish list. Many of their wishes came true and on Sunday night, March 2, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will broadcast its annual celebration of...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.08.13Imax, China’s T.C.L. Unveil Home Theater Joint Venture
Hollywood Reporter
Imax C.E.O. Richard Gelfond told the New York Times that he chose to partner with the Shenzhen-based electronics giant because he expects China will be the largest market for the pricey home theater systems.&...
Media
11.05.13
China and Hollywood by the Numbers
Consider this: Hollywood studios now make more money selling movie tickets in China than in any other market outside North America. Wanda, China’s largest real estate developer, bought AMC, the second-largest movie theater chain in the United States...
Video
11.05.13
Small Part, Big Screen
Every morning outside the imposing gate of the Beijing Film Studio, a throng gathers to try to find a way inside. These aren’t fans, exactly. Look at their faces, the practiced way they crane their necks or square their shoulders when the man with...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.28.13Hollywood Must Think Bigger About China
China Daily
In the period from January to June, domestic films in China outperformed imported ones by 65 percent. That was a major reversal from the same period last year, when proceeds from imported films almost doubled those of domestic productions.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.23.13China Box Office Worth $5 Billion to Film Studios by 2017
Variety
BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research estimates the Chinese box office could yield $5 billion in value potential for Hollywood studios by 2017 including imported and local productions (with this figure potentially doubling under further relaxed...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.08.13Back to 1942 Represents China at Oscars
Film Business Asia
China has chosen Feng Xiaogang’s Back to 1942 as its representative at the Academy Awards. The choice was revealed on the Academy’s full list of submissions for the Best Foreign Film award.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.04.13Warner Bro.’s: New Financier to Pursue China Films
Hollywood Reporter
The fledgling financing arrangement between Warner Bros. and RatPac Entertainment, a partnership between filmmaker Brett Ratner and Australian media chief James Packer will aim to produce movies in China, local...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.04.13Will Wanda Buy Its Way Into Hollywood?
Variety
Chinese companies have an unfortunate habit of announcing deals before they are signed, or even agreed on, but Wang’s past dealings and current success give him the credibility that some other wannabe film moguls do not have.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.24.13Is China Outgrowing Hollywood Film, TV Industry?
Variety
While Western media loves to trumpet its successes in China, with the strong showing of Hollywood blockbusters, it’s clear that China audiences aren’t just sitting and waiting for the next Hollywood blockbuster.
Sinica Podcast
09.14.12
Hollywood Comes to China
from Sinica Podcast
When Xi Jinping headed to the United States earlier this year in what everyone assumed was a pre-coronation victory lap, one of the more surprising outcomes of his visit ended up being a stopover in Los Angeles, where China agreed to increase the...