Fan Bingbing (Photo : ALL IN ONE/YouTube)
Despite her stature as the world’s fourth-highest paid actress, Chinese celebrity Fan Bingbing is not discouraged when she is cast in major Hollywood productions as a minor character to bring Chinese moviegoers to the cinema.
She was Blink, a teleporting mutant in “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” and a nurse with no name in “Iron Man 3.” She admitted to Time that the reason she was cast in those roles were to add Asian faces to the film. But the 35-year-old actress is confident that she will bag bigger and even a starring role in decade’s time as heroine of “X-Men.”
China Goes Global
The confidence is linked not only to China’s becoming the world’s second-largest movie market but also Chinese companies acquiring entertainment assets in the U.S. and other countries. Because of these investments, China would have bigger opportunities to dominate not only the distribution of movies globally as Chinese entertainment giants such as the Dalian Wanda Group buy more cinemas but also content if it would succeed in purchasing one of the six Hollywood studios.
Even China’s e-commerce giant, Alibaba, and its largest Internet and games provider, Tencent, are similarly looking for entertainment investments overseas in small studios and funding films such as “Mission Impossible,” “Star Trek Beyond” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.”
Deep Pocket & Big Stomach
Although Hollywood producers have long accepted foreign investors such as the Japanese, Middle Eastern and European, investors from China are different, Li Ruigang, head of China Media Capital, said. He pointed out that China both has deep pockets and a big stomach. Companies have money to spend on production of movies and TV programs which when shown in China would affect the film’s global box-office results. It is what Chinese audience did for “Zootopia” and TV viewership rating such as what happened to “Descendants of the Sun” when iQiyi aired it simultaneously with KBS 2TV in 2016.
Meanwhile, Fan Bingbing served as one of the hosts of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala live presentation on Saturday, IBT reported. In her message, she recalled, “When I was a child, playing with firecrackers was definitely my favourite part. Nowadays, I love being with my family for the big feast while watching CCTV's New Year Gala. We always have a lot to talk about!” She did not announce her wedding to actor Li Chen to whom she has been engaged.
