The Chinese government is giving away rewards for movie theater companies and chains who favor local movies over Hollywood films as another wave of Beijing’s protectionism.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, China will be providing rewards for movie distributing firms who favor Chinese-made movies in the form of "sizable tax rebates."
Cinemas that ensure Hollywood films do not take more than a third of the country's total box-office earnings will be granted such, the China Film Bureau announced last week.
Interestingly, the International Business Times noticed that movies made in China are not making very much progress with the American audience even if China emerges as one of Hollywood's fastest-growing movie markets.
Because of this seemingly unfair situation, the Chinese government decided to protect their own by making sure that Hollywood movies remain at their feet in their own territory.
Two years ago, a Chinese top producer has already revealed plans of imposing an import quota that would restrict the number of foreign movies to be shown in the country.
"The China import quota share will open up in 2017-2018. Chinese filmmakers should be ready for that," China Movie Channel CCTV-6 Vice President Lu Hongshi told a panel during the 2014 Beijing International Film Festival as cited by THR at the time.
Apparently, the Chinese regulatory board was not able to impose such quota because it was still under a five-year contract with the World Trade Organization that began in 2012.
Lu further explained that while they are confident at the quality of films made in China, there is no question that local filmmakers cannot compete with Hollywood as equals and need as much boost as they can get.
"The top people from the Film Bureau understand that we won't succeed if we try to compete with Hollywood on special effects," he explained. "We can only compete on story and emotions. Only this way can we help domestic films."