China is becoming a desirable location for the production of entertainment due to its low cost/high quality facilities. China has an enormous population and has only just developed a ‘middle-class’ who have disposable income to spend on entertainment.
Two months ago, I wrote an article entitled “The Rise of Asian Cinema”. I’m revisiting this area again for a number of reasons. Most notably, one of my clients may be shooting a film in China, and also, it is becoming more and more apparent that entertainment generated revenue levels are stagnating in the US and new frontiers must be explored (especially China and India).
The China Film Co-Production Corporation is a production company and distributor. It is a subsidiary of the omnipotent China Film Group Corporation, which is the largest and most influential state-run film enterprise in China. It was founded in 1979 and has established trade relations with more than 50 countries including the US, Britain, Japan and Germany.
There is a good reason why my client wishes to shoot his movie in China and why it is vital for US producers to begin exploring possibilities in China, if they haven’t already. The cost of shooting a film/TV show etc in China is significantly lower than in the US, which obviously equates to increased affordability and increased profit. In addition to this, the quality and professionalism of entertainment-related services is very high. The China Film Co-production Corporation website states:
“China’s massive geographical coverage such as river basins, valleys, mountain ranges, deserts, grasslands and forests, provide vast choices for filming locations … In addition, abundant labor resources and other materials are available at a low cost for the construction of filming sites, manufacture of props and costumes, and filming of majestic scenes”.
The Chinese Film Group received a major boost in 2008 when XFMedia, a leading Chinese media group, announced a strategic alliance with China Film Group. XFMedia has partnered with David U Lee, an expert in US-China co-productions, to establish new subsidiary Xinhua Media Entertainment as a full service film production and investment company based in Beijing, with a satellite office in LA.
Furthermore, according to statistics from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, between 2003 and 2008, the movie box office in China grew at a compound annual rate of approximately 38%. Compared to a mature and saturated market such as the US where annual box office revenues have fluctuated between US$9.2 and US$9.6 billion over the same five year period, Chinese box office revenue is projected to continue its rapid growth. This is because countries such as China are only beginning to develop a middle-class which has disposable income available to spend on entertainment. Furthermore, Nielsen have predicted that China will become the largest market for cinema after the US and Japan.