Star Wars Shanghai Fan Event (Photo : Getty Images)
Every few weeks, Chinese entertainment media report of a particular film breaking a box office record. The broken record could be a weekend receipt such as the $27.1 million earned in China during the last weekend of May by “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”
It is the constant breaking of box office records that has made the Chinese movie industry observer jaded about predictions of a golden age for cinema in China. That explains why the prediction of the local movie industry hitting 150-200 billion yuan box office in five to eight years failed to excite the industry.
The forecast was made by Yu Dong, founder and president of Bona Pictures, at the 2016 Beijing International Film Festival. It was premised on 6,000 new screens being added annually, reported China Daily.
However, his prediction had its 15 minutes of fame the next day and forgotten afterward.
The Chinese daily noted that the engines for the takeoff of China’s film industry has been revving at the turn of the millennium when “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” harvested awards in the international arena 16 years ago.
But it almost lost to television which explains why many Chinese aged 50 and above have not been inside a movie house the last 30 years and get surprised to discover the entrance fee now is 50 yuan. While multiplexes in shopping malls brought back Chinese viewers to the theater, majority are young people which explains why movies that make a killing at the cash register are geared toward a youthful audience.
Although China’s box office grew 50 percent, so far, in 2016, it still has a long way to go before reaching its full potential. According to Forbes, the ration of movie houses in China is 23 theater per 1 million residents in comparison to 100 cinemas per 1 million in the U.S.
