China has surpassed the 20-billion-yuan mark for total gross of films earlier than last year. (Photo : Reuters)
With the sudden investor interest on China's ever-booming film industry, financial companies are beginning to take notice, reported CRIENGLISH.
The industry raked in 2.2 billion dollars for 35 projects in signed contracts in the recent Beijing International Film Festival, getting companies like Shanghai Sova Capital to seriously consider film as a viable investment.
"Finance is a part of the film industry. Many major studios in Hollywood also possess finance and investment capabilities. But China's film industry is rudimentary, it's small and there are many irregularities that impede the entry of financial capital," said He Xiaoqiu, vice president of Sova.
While the focus on the world of cinema as a profit-making stock option is new to China, companies like Film Finances have been doing it for decades. Film Finances, which was founded over 60 years ago, is among the pioneers in gathering investors to fund film and cinema projects, the latest being "Kingsman: The Secret Service" in 2015.
Film Finances has entered the Chinese cinema economy, with April Ye as the CEO.
According to Ye, "everything here has just recently become industrialized. The film industry and also the people who are interested in doing films are new, a lot of them are from outside the industry."
While this recent financial excitement over Chinese cinema is considered by most filmmakers, others like director Jiang Jun worry about its effect on the quality of movies that would be produced.
"Filmmakers above all need to help themselves. It costs almost nothing to write a really good story, and keep coming up with good stories is what helps filmmakers go further in their career," Jiang quipped.
