Before the coronavirus outbreak disrupting the Lunar New Year holiday — the most lucrative period for film distributors and theater operators — China was set to become the world’s biggest film market in 2020.
However, Covid-19 has disturbed everyday life as well as businesses well beyond China. Thousands of Chinese movie theaters and film studios might have to close their businesses if the situation worsens. Due to uncertainties, Hollywood, which prioritizes the Chinese market, has also canceled highly anticipated screenings and premieres.
While all industries are trying to survive the long winter plagued by the coronavirus, the film industry’s struggle is one of the many examples that reflects the challenges of doing business in China.
Chinese box office generated US$9.2 billion last year, pushing the global record to US$42.5 billion, an all-time high. With a much large population, China’s moviegoing audience will inevitably outgrow that of the United States. China could have reached the top even faster by inflating the reported cinema numbers, a common fraud for the industry. But the untimely coronavirus epidemic has delayed China’s hopeful dream to dominate the global film market.
The government lockdown will not only impact box office records, but also the entire business cycle in the cinema industry. Hengdian World Studio, the famed film studio in the Zhejiang province, was reopened on February 13 yet almost none of the film crew has been approved to resume production. Due to expired encryption and canceled screenings, Chinese movie theaters will also have no movies to show even if the shutdown is lifted.
For Hollywood productions that involve Chinese investment, the potential cancellations would deal an extra blow to China’s cinema business. Polybona Films, a production company funded by Alibaba and Tencent, was down on its luck last year with China’s banning of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood due to the offensive depiction of Bruce Lee. The upcoming release of Bloodshot, also co-produced by Polybona, is again facing the uncertainty of cancellation.
Underlying problems have resurfaced among discussions on the already struggling cinema industry. Prior to the outbreak, the industry has been struggling with unpredictable state censorship and tax evasion crackdown.
Celebrated filmmakers like Zhang Yimou and Jia Zhangke had their works subject to scrutiny. Chinese authorities fined actress Fan Bingbing US$130 million for tax evasion, a deliberate decision to instill fear among high-profile celebrities and producers. Under the increasing government clampdown, Chinese film productions have been suffering losses both in quantity and quality.
Hollywood’s fixation on the Chinese market is a gamble with increasing risk. An international film would have to somehow bypass China’s limited screening quota and the perplexing censors that confuse even the local filmmakers. Canceled screenings during the Lunar New Year may not find another appropriate slot — or the potential audience would have already accessed them all via piracy.
As the Communist Party approaches its 100th anniversary next year, authorities are pushing for content that promotes nationalism and Confucian morals. Even if the cinema industry returns to work, filmmakers would have to be tread even more carefully at the expense of creativity and quality.
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TNL Editor: Jeremy Van der Haegen (@thenewslensintl)
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