Chinese action star Jackie Chan is in favor of allowing more Hollywood movies in China so local filmmakers would be pressured into improving their movies. In 2016, foreign movies made up 58 percent, or $3.8 billion, of the total box-office receipts in China.
New Agreement Expected
For 2017, the U.S. and China are expected to have a new agreement on showing more foreign films in the Asian country which is currently the second-largest movie market in the world after North America. If China did not have any competition from foreign movies, the share of Hollywood films in China’s box-office earnings would not have been that large, Jackie Chan said, according to Associated Press.
Jackie Chan is part of the official advisory body on cinema to China’s national legislature. The law-making body is scheduled to meet this week. The five-year agreement reached in 2012 by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping specified that each year, 34 foreign movies would be shown in China on a revenue-sharing basis, VOA reported.
Higher Annual Quota, Higher Ticket Share
The new deal which would be negotiated in 2017 would likely add 10 more foreign movies to the annual quota, according to state media reports. But even without a new agreement, several Hollywood movies were allowed to be shown in 2016 beyond the 34 annual quota when box-office results of local movies plummeted as Chinese moviegoers looked for better quality movies, resulting in slower growth of the country’s 2016 box-office receipts compared to the first half of the year.
But if China would agree to the exhibition of more foreign movies, Hollywood executives hope their share in ticket sales would go up from the current 25 percent which is 40 percent in other markets.