China's movie market gains new ground

Industry players have said that the craze of ploughing investment dollars into the movie industry is already cooling down in China, as investors realize that only a few movies among the around 600 made every year turn a tidy profit. Though the domestic blockbuster Wolf Warrior II made history by earning a whopping 5.6 billion yuan in box offices to become the highest-earning Chinese film ever, many local productions fail to make an impact.

During a forum at the festival, Wang Changtian, president of Beijing Enlight Media Co, one of the leading film production companies in China, said he foresees some challenges for the local film industry. "Quite a number of film studios are having difficulty raising funds. Meanwhile, production costs have continued to grow while copyright sales are falling," Wang said.

Li from Fosun notes that it is natural that the capital market undergoes periods of highs and lows and urges industry players to focus on quality instead of quantity.

"We will ultimately be recognized for our efforts and be able to create good films that resonate with the audience if we continue to prioritize the production of good content," he says.

In August, the first major Studio 8 production Alpha, a fantasy adventure aimed at family audiences, will be released in the US. Another feature film by Studio 8, White Boy Rick, will also land in the cinemas in the US later this year. The film is a crime drama based on true events in the 1980s.

It has taken longer than planned for Studio 8 to take off, Robinov said.

"There is a gap in the industry that small to medium-sized films can fill, and that's in the lower-budget genre film segment - this is where we can fit in," he said.

After all, there have been instances where low-budget Chinese films have achieved success. In 2017, Twenty-Two, featuring the tales of "comfort women" - wartime sex slaves - had the honor of becoming the first Chinese documentary to hit 100 million yuan at the box offices. Another example is Seventy-Seven Days, a film aimed at outdoor enthusiasts and art lovers, which earned in excess of 100 million yuan.

"In recent years, more and more Chinese audiences are calling for diversified movie content," Li Jifeng, producer of Seventy-Seven Days, told Xinhua.