China Screens

Panelists: Jeffrey Chan (Bona International Film Group), Wang Lifen (Umiwi Technology)
Moderator: Joshua Cooper Ramo (Kissinger Associates)

China, a country that finds a lot of media attention, is in many parts very different from what Europe and the US are used to. Ways of consuming media can differ on many levels, one of them is which movies are being made and how they are being consumed. Or how Jeffrey Chan from the Bona International Film Group says is, that DVDs are often released before the movie reach the cinema, so nobody is going to watch films in a cinema. But some movies become a cultural phenomenon and generate a different excitement in the society. It goes so far, that the Chinese government sometime tries to limit the exposure to some films by trying to reduce the amount of cinemas which are showing those films.

Joshua Cooper Ramo is saying that he sees a transformation. Sometimes, one needs to wait two days before getting a ticket for the cinema and Hollywood films are increasingly popular in China. Avatar performed very strongly.

Revenues are rising as well. The growth rate of the film industry is rising unprecedentedly. It is expected that the market will rise every year since 2008 until 2012 by 35% yearly.

Chinese cinema goers have some similarities with other markets too. According to Chan they prefer big blockbusters, but they also do consume a very big amount of romantic comedies - more so than others. Another trend is, that Chinese films are full of product placements, which is another source of revenue for the industry.

The number one TV show in China is a dating show, which are over all very popular. Beside those, soap operas are becoming also lucrative. Wang Lifen of Umiwi Technology thinks, that this a somewhat not contemporary trend.

Production values have transformed very rapidly in China, but they are still lag behind others, say Ramo. Lifen, who agrees that the production values are different, but she says that not everything is adaptable in China and that the industry needs to do a lot of R&D to see what works for the mainstream in China. Still, the level of production and writing are very matured. Chan states, that some of Chinese productions are being adopted by Hollywood.