Background information
«Fantastic Beasts 3»: Hollywood is bowing to Chinese censorship – again
by Luca Fontana
Down with Hollywood: China’s long road to becoming a world power in film
29.10.2020
Translation: Veronica Bielawski
China's film industry is overtaking Hollywood. Industry experts are concerned. Hollywood could now bend even more to the will of a human-rights-violating government that’s not even its own. How did it come to this?
It's official: China now has the largest box office in the world. For the very first time. That’s what current box office figures say.
They’re from Artisan Gateway, one of the most influential agencies in China's motion picture industry. Specifically: in 2020, Chinese movie theatres made 1.99 billion dollars. North America is at 1.94 billion dollars. And the gap between the figures is expected to widen considerably by the end of the year.
No surprise there. At least not for industry experts. According to them, it was only a matter of time before the most populous country in the world had the biggest box office in the world. That’s basically the consensus summed up.
But: a pandemic was key in flipping the top of the pyramid.
Hollywood's pandemic-ridden accounting
Hollywood’s struggling. So is the box office. Especially in North America, where rising infection numbers are forcing more and more movie theatres to close their doors again, after having reopened just over a month ago.
The fact that Hollywood itself has decided to postpone many of its most important blockbusters until next year isn’t helping. Like «James Bond: No Time to Die» or «Dune». And «Black Widow». From the Hollywood accountants’ point of view, however, these are necessary postponements. Because how else are multimillion-dollar, large-scale productions supposed to even begin to recover their costs?
«Tenet» has shown that it’s simply not possible with barely filled movie halls; the sci-fi espionage clusterfuck, directed by Christopher Nolan, was also something of an experiment to see if there’s still a cinema audience during the pandemic. At least outside of China.
For Hollywood, the lesson to learn from this is clear: there’s no time like the future. Procrastination is the way to go. Even if it’s at the cost of the box office itself.
The collapse of the US motion picture
Hollywood's current pandemic-imposed strategy is making the US box office bleed. John Fithian, chief executive of the National Association of Theatre Owners, is deliberate with his words in this interview with the New York Times.
If the studios continue postponing all their releases, the movie theatres aren’t going to be there for those postponed releases.
Meanwhile, Regal Cinemas, the second-largest movie theatre chain in America, has announced the temporary closure of 663 cinema halls in the USA and Great Britain due to the pandemic. And Cinemark, the third-largest cinema chain after AMC and Regal Cinemas, is apparently not yet closing any movie halls, but is considering operating only a few hours a day, a few days a week.
If one of two things doesn’t happen, either Congress gives us substantial support quickly or New York gets open and the movies come back and the patrons come back, most of our companies are going to go under.
Fithian's call for help has not been received well in New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s office. The fact there’s been no evidence of an increased risk of coronavirus transmission in cinemas – or at least not to the same extent as in bars or clubs – is apparently not a valid argument.
The picture emerging for cinema operators is a gloomy one.
Will China become Hollywood's most important market?
This is another reason why film circles are now referring to China as Hollywood’s soon-to-be most important market. And then there are the streaming services, which have also been booming even more thanks to the coronavirus. So, who even needs the American motion picture anymore?
While the world is busy with the pandemic, China's box office is continuing to flourish. It’s even stealing the crown. Let's put it apolitically: the Eastern Kingdom has contained the pandemic more effectively than other countries. Fact is fact. And this particular fact is a blessing for the domestic film industry and box office.
Because over there, tens of thousands of movie halls are operating again at 75 percent of their typical capacity, despite protective measures. That’s not a bad percentage. Especially in comparison to North America, where regional protective measures allow an average maximum seating capacity of 20 to 40 percent. And then there’s the Chinese audience, who don't have too many COVID concerns and flock to the cinemas in droves.
«Bad Boys For Life», which previously topped the charts, was released before the lockdown in January. It currently stands at 427 million dollars. And that number won’t increase much more.
You don't need a degree in business administration to interpret the evidence: China is about to become the most important box office for Hollywood's film industry. But not only that: China could also soon be the most important box office in the world. If, due to the pandemic, it isn’t that already.
This is exactly what the experts fear.
China: from zero to hero in under 10 years
Ignoring the pandemic, the «China-is-now-taking-over-the-box-office» trend is not new. It can be seen in the revenue from cinema tickets sold in different countries, i.e. the total revenue per year.
Coronavirus or not.
One of the Chinese box office’s strengths could actually be the lack of competitors like Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+. We have geoblocking to thank for that; all streaming services enter into licence agreements with the content creators. They can then only stream their content in countries in which they have an active licence.
For industry experts, one thing is clear: Hollywood is dependent on China. It has been for a long while. And now, with the pandemic ravaging Hollywood's domestic market, all the more so.
That right there is the crux of the matter.
The new reality: Hollywood's dropping its pants
These examples are the rule, not the exception. Especially for large-scale productions; large-scale productions that would have torn bloody financial holes in Hollywood’s bookkeeping, if not for the Chinese market – which, a mere ten years ago, didn’t even exist.
It’s a kind of censorship with a serious disregard for human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
China's censorship body knows no bounds, no matter how absurd; even outside of political issues. For example, «James Bond: Skyfall» was only shown in China once references to prostitution in Macau were removed from the film, and all reference to Chinese police violence was removed from the subtitles. There’s no such thing as police violence in China, after all. Nor in Hong Kong.
And where’s Hollywood in all this? Busy making absolutely no effort to oppose the censorship-blah of the Chinese Communist Party. In fact, quite the opposite. For there’s simply too much money to be made in the Land of Silk.
Why, I’m glad you asked. China, of course.
These reports detail over one million people having been detained for the purpose of «re-educating» Muslim minorities. Who are possibly still being re-educated. Against their will. On the agenda: forced sterilisation, abortion, birth control, torture and political indoctrination. All this, according to a regional campaign, to «create grounds for castigation and eradicate the spread of religious extremism».
Meanwhile, China has decided to ban any coverage of the film. Just like that. The nation should, of course, hear as little as possible about anti-humanitarian castigation camps in their own country.
And this is the way to go about it.
The irony of it all is that Hollywood has brought this on itself.
Hollywood brings its own bogeyman into being
The goal: to simplify Hollywood's entry into the Chinese market. From the studios’ point of view, in order to max out ticket sales. From the US government's point of view, perhaps to increase its own cultural influence on China. If people in China watch American movies featuring American products often enough, they may want to buy them.
The plan works. China relaxes its regulations. Ever so slightly. And just like that, the big studios are allowed to show their movies in China. With a pinch of censorship here, and a dash of financial support from shooting in China there.
It turns out, blockbusters like «Iron Man 3», «Fast & Furious» or «Independence Day» do, in fact, delight the Chinese enough to increase demand for new movie theatres. Over the span of just a few years, thousands of cinemas, multiplex chains and even IMAX halls are built all over the country. The Chinese box office is booming.
Which leads us to the first thing Hollywood failed to consider: the boom is also helping China’s film industry. Because more cinemas mean more income to invest directly in domestic film productions. Productions such as «The Wandering Earth», which is the first major Chinese-produced live-action sci-fi epic. A milestone in China's film industry.
And yes, the movie is on Netflix.
For the very first time, Hollywood has a true competitor to reckon with.
Because the Chinese audience seems to have become fed up with America’s putting on airs. The viewers prefer local productions and local actors they can identify with. Productions representing the values and propaganda of the Chinese government, financed by the revenues of former US blockbusters. Irony? What? Where?
And that brings us to the second thing Hollywood didn’t consider. Not even for a second. Namely, it’s not the Chinese government that will ban Hollywood films from its own cinemas. It’s the Chinese audience itself.
There goes the negotiating power. Poof.
What now?
Let’s summarise: China has replaced North America as the world's largest box office market. At least for the time being. Praise be to COVID.
What’s the probability of North America regaining the top position once the pandemic is over? Slim. On the one hand, because the pandemic will cause lasting damage to the box office, at least outside of China. And on the other hand, because Hollywood itself has made the Chinese film industry so strong.
What awaits at the end of this road?
Luca Fontana
Senior Editor
Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.chI write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
Background information
Interesting facts about products, behind-the-scenes looks at manufacturers and deep-dives on interesting people.
Show all
