1 Million Yuan Minimum Box Office of Chinese Films Shown Overseas to Qualify for Award

Encouraged no doubt by the impressive local box office performance of Stephen Chow’s "The Mermaid," an institution under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) would soon award Chinese films that performs well overseas.

The agency apparently is testing the waters if foreign audience would also like made-in-China movies the way that Chinese viewers are now developing an appreciation of Hollywood movies. In a notice published on Wednesday, the National Film Industry Development Special Fund Management Commission placed a minimum box office of 1 million yuan, or $153,400, to qualify, reported China Daily.

The award would be given to a Chinese agent authorized to handle the overseas distribution of a domestic movie or a Chinese producer who meets that floor box office. No specific amount was announced by the commission, but it placed a cap of not exceeding one percent of the movie’s foreign box office receipts.

Besides the box-office award, the commission would also recognize each year 20 Chinese movies that have good “social and economic benefits.” The award would not exceed 6 million yuan. Selection would be done by a commission to be created.

The SAPPRFT said the awards want to guide more Chinese films into the global stage and encourage the production of movies that would perform well abroad.

The last local movie that wowed foreign movie goers was in 2001, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” A Chinese film, “Monster Hunt,” which was a monster hit in China n 2014, was a monster flop in the U.S. “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny” opened in late February in the U.S. with a box office take of $21 million, reported Comicbook. The amount is not a record-breaking gross, but did better than the original which performed well in the U.S. then but flopped in Hong Kong and China.