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A GIFT: Film director James Cameron (first left) presents a poster of Titanic to Liu Qi, Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, at the Beijing film festival on April 24 (GUO YANBING) |
Cameron and Pace jointly created Avatar, which grossed nearly $2.8 billion at the global box office, with the Chinese market contributing nearly $200 million.
In addition, Cameron signed a cooperation deal with Shandong Film Studio to supervise the 3D effects of upcoming Chinese epic The Art of War. Cameron said he will bring the most advanced 3D cameras and technology to China for the project. He said he is confident that China will become the world's top user of 3D technologies as it is now one of the world's largest film markets.
Cameron met with many top Chinese filmmakers, such as Zhang Yimou, seeking for cooperation in the future. "The festival will prove to be a milestone in the history of Chinese film development," Cameron said.
Both the Chinese and international film markets have benefited from a series of agreements to loosen restrictions of foreign film distributions in China, attracting more business from studios abroad.
According to a newly reached Sino-U.S. memorandum, China will introduce 14 more IMAX or 3D films each year. The box-office share for foreign distributors will increase to 25 percent from previous 13 percent.
For Chinese moviegoers, the opening market will allow them to see more American movies at cinemas, particularly blockbusters with heavy use of special effects which generally resonate more strongly with international audiences. Chinese audiences are sophisticated enough to choose which movies they want to watch, said Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America.
For Chinese filmmakers, competition in the domestic market will intensify due to the increase of foreign films. They will be forced by pressure of competition to improve film quality constantly. Many insiders think it is good for the long-stifled Chinese film industry.
Gao Qunshu, a Chinese film director, commented that the import agreement will push domestic moviemakers to make better films to compete at the box-office. "It is time to wake up for domestic film directors," he said.
With its huge market potential, more international film giants are looking to China for opportunities. Animation giant DreamWorks Animation announced in February that it planned to build a joint venture, Oriental DreamWorks, in Shanghai with China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group (SMG) in concert with Shanghai Alliance Investment.
With an initial investment of $330 million, the joint studio will develop original Chinese animated and live-action movies, TV shows and other entertainment catering to the domestic market. Shanghai Animation Film Studio, a subsidiary of SMG, will gain lots of experiences from DreamWorks.
Another top U.S. animation company also plans to break into the Chinese market. On April 16, Walt Disney Co. and its Marvel Studios subsidiary announced that Iron Man 3 will be a co-production with China, as the Burbank Movie Co. teamed with DMG Entertainment of Beijing to co-finance and distribute the film.
The Iron Man series grabbed more than $1 billion worldwide and $42.8 million in China by two films. Filming of the third installment in the United States begins in May, and will shoot in China later this summer. The movie is slated for release in May 2013.
"Our collaboration with Disney and Marvel marks a milestone in the global entertainment landscape, as this signifies the first multi-billion-dollar franchise to be produced between Hollywood and China," said Dan Mintz, CEO of DMG.
Just some days before the announcement of Iron Man 3, Disney said it would join an initiative with China's Ministry of Culture and Tencent Holdings Ltd., one of China's largest Internet service providers, to develop the Chinese animation industry. Disney said it would offer its expertise in areas such as story writing and market research to its Chinese counterparts.
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