Directed, co-produced and co-written by Stephen Chow, the $60-million comedy-fantasy “The Mermaid” stars Deng Chao, Show Luo and Zhang Yuqi, with a brief appearance by Tsui Hark and Kris Wu. (Photo : Han Hyun-joong/YouTube)
Chinese movies rise above the challenges of capturing the global market.
Released in February, “The Mermaid” grossed $548 million worldwide, according to The Numbers, making it “the highest box-office film gross for a Chinese film,” said the Guinness World Records on its website.
Some 2015 Chinese movies that hit it big in the international arena include “Detective Chinatown” (foreign gross: $125 million), “Dragon Blade” ($116 million), “Go Away Mr. Tumor” ($146 million), “Goodbye Mr. Loser” ($227 million), “Ip Man 3” ($154 million), “Lost in Hong Kong” ($253 million), “Monster Hunt” ($384 million), “Mr. Six” ($135 million) and “Wolf Totem” ($110 million), according to The Numbers.
The recent bold steps of a prime mover and shaker in the Chinese film industry empower the country to reach a broader audience and further penetrate the U.S. and world market.
Dalian Wanda Group will open Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis, a $10-billion film and television industrial park set on some 408 acres in July 2017, according to the website of Wanda Studios.
It will be bigger than two legendary Hollywood studios combined.
According to their respective websites, Paramount Studios occupies a 65-acre lot. A 230-acre ranch was converted into a film studio now known as Universal Studios.
Not to be left behind, of course, is “Chinawood.”
Built in 1994, the Hengdian World Studio in Dongyang, Zhejiang Province, is so far the biggest of its kind on the planet at more than 2,500 acres, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Vanity said that the strength of Hengdian--calling it the “Hollywood of the East”--lies “in its moviemaking infrastructure.”
Even before the Chinese New Year hit the calendar this year, Wanda Group opened 2016 with a bang. It announced on its website in January that it acquired Legendary Entertainment for an incredible $3.5 billion in cash.
Legendary Entertainment produced a long list of box-office phenomena, such as “Jurassic World” (2015), “Interstellar” (2014), “Man of Steel” (2013) and “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012).
According to its website, Wanda Group’s AMC Theaters, the second largest film operator in America, acquired Carmike Cinemas, the fourth largest, for $1.1 billion.
Wanda Pictures co-produced the 2015 sports drama “Southpaw,” the company’s first Hollywood investment. Starring huge celebrities such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams and Forest Whitaker, it grossed some $91.7 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
Jack Ma’s Alibaba Pictures’ first “international journey” took place in Hollywood when it invested on Paramount Pictures’ Tom Cruise-starrer, “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation” (2015), which pulled in $2 billion, according to the company website. It also invested in “The Mermaid.”
As of April, Forbes has listed Wanda’s 61-year-old chairman Wang Jianlin’s net worth at $33.6 billion and 51-year-old Jack Ma's at $23.3 billion.
According to Asian film consultant Artisan Gateway, Chinese movies made more than $4 billion in 2015, reported CNN.
Film director Zhang Pu’an told CNN that it’s bound to happen as “people are getting richer” and can now afford to spend “more and more money on entertainment.”
The Chinese Film Producers’ Association said that the country’s movie box office grew to an estimated $4.9 billion in 2014, reported Bloomberg.
In 2010, the domestic box-office revenue reached $1.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Bloomberg said that if domestic box office will continue to surge, “China will overtake the U.S. as the world’s biggest movie market by 2017.”
