Current situation and future trend of Sino-foreign film cooperation: opportunities and challenges coexist

How to seize the opportunity to systematically promote the international dissemination of China films and competition in overseas markets in terms of talents, paths, content production and capital, build China film companies and brands with international competitive strength, occupy the position of beacon of world civilization through "going global" China films, spread China culture, and promote the process of building a global film community is an urgent requirement and responsibility.

Original title: Opportunities and challenges coexist

, facing important choices and opportunities.

China films are in a golden period of rapid development of the local market and cooperation between Chinese and foreign films. The rapid rise of China's film market has provided important choices and opportunities for the international dissemination of China films and competition in overseas markets.

China's film market has been strong in the past 10 years, and the level of China's films has generally improved. However, unlike the North American film market, which has remained stable and has few major ups and downs, when more domestic films are introduced to the market, they are directly facing global film competition and the rapid upgrading of new communication and information technologies, showing volatility and uncertainty.

The number of screens in mainland China has exceeded 40,000, surpassing the United States to rank first in the world. China is likely to overtake North America to become the world's largest film market in 2017, which is particularly important for the world's major film producers, especially Hollywood, which relies on China's growth to boost the stagnant U.S. domestic market and declining home entertainment revenue. However, in 2016, 729 films were released in the North American film market, with a cumulative box office of US$11.3751 billion. The visibility and contribution of China films were almost negligible. This situation is not commensurate with China's influence and status as a major film country in the world.

The focus and thinking on film "going global" includes the trend of China's film market, and also includes Sino-foreign film cooperation, especially Sino-US cooperation, as well as dialogue, strategies and trade implementation measures in the competition of domestic films in overseas markets. In recent years, in Hollywood, some corporate giants from China have been at the forefront. In 2012, Wanda acquired AMC for US$2.6 billion. In early 2016, Wanda Group announced that it would acquire Legendary Pictures for an amount of no more than US$3.5 billion. Wanda also acquired Dick Clark Productions, the American company that produced the Golden Globe Awards. Under the direction of Jack Ma, e-commerce giant Alibaba invested in Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners and invested in blockbusters such as "Mission Impossible" and "Star Trek". China's private and state-owned film companies are cooperating more and more with six major companies: Hollywood Disney, Fox, Warner, Paramount, Universal, and Sony Pictures.

Competition, cooperation and win-win results are inevitable trends, and films from China, the United States and other countries and regions are becoming increasingly mixed and integrated. The boundary between Hollywood films and China films has gradually been broken. The cross-regional market integration and cooperation between Chinese and foreign films has brought the possibility of multi-dimensional evolution for China films to "go global". However, it should be noted that the "going global" of films is often at the level of "cultural exchanges", and foreign cultural trade and market competition are lacking. Many of the interconnections in film technology, art and content still need to be further unraveled. The inconsistent needs of Chinese and foreign audiences have resulted in high cultural discounts for China's film and television products in the world market, especially in the European and American markets. Of course, Sino-foreign exchanges, cooperation and trade in films are necessary. Sino-foreign cooperative production has become the most widely implemented film cooperation and even trade method in the world's film industry because of its advantage of fully integrating resources from all parties and minimizing costs. The diversification of film cooperation and film trade has largely confirmed the development trend of the global film industry.

Co-production films have entered the

new century with warmth. In the context of China's WTO accession, the industrialization process of China's film industry has accelerated. With the intensification of reform and opening up in China's film industry, the co-production market can be said to be warm and warm. In addition to integrating resources and carrying out cooperation with Hong Kong and Taiwan, the vision of China's film industry has expanded to the world. From the revised Film Management Regulations in 2002 to the current promulgation and implementation of the Film Industry Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China, the overseas cooperation space for domestic films is expanding, rapidly extending from South Korea, Japan, India and Iran to Europe and the United States.

The important changes are that from simply providing venues and staff, to obtaining film copyright and profits, to China's beginning to establish new rules of the game, co-productions have shifted from superficial "collaboration" to deep "cooperation." China has increased its investment and gained increasing rights to supervise the creation and shooting of screenplays.

As a product of the reform and opening up of China's economy and film industry, co-production films have a completely different growth and development environment from the past. This has also become the background and highlight of the ever-expanding and colorful picture of competition in the overseas market of China films in the present and future. Sino-foreign cooperation in film production is serving as a strong trend, guiding China films to overseas markets, attracting overseas capital, drawing on excellent overseas film experience and achievements, helping China films continue to grow through exchanges and integration with world films, and leading China from a big film country to a powerful film country.

From the perspective of the development of the global film market, the United States is the leading country in the world's film industry, while China is a rising country. The current U.S. agreement to distribute films in China was announced on February 17, 2012, when relevant government departments agreed to renegotiate the terms five years later. Renegotiate the agreement, including more comprehensive terms, may stipulate the number of films distributed, restrictions on marketing, and the box office share returned to the film company. For the development of national film art like China, how to apply for it and strive to gain a dominant position in global films is now both an opportunity and more a challenge.

Many Hollywood blockbusters in recent years have domestic private and social capital in China. In Hollywood films such as "The Rescue of Mars" and "Extreme Agents: The Ultimate Return", more and more China faces are particularly prominent. "Warcraft" grossed more than US$200 million, much higher than the US$30 million it earned in North America. "Extreme Agents: The Ultimate Return" was released in China for two days, and the box office has surpassed North America for three weeks. Alibaba and Tencent have set their sights on Hollywood. The investors of "Great Wall" involve two major film and television companies, Wanda Films and LeTV Pictures. As an important part of the film industry, cultural exchanges and dialogues actually have increasing development needs and broad prospects.

The key to enhancing is competitiveness

. With Trump's coming to power, the policy changes of the new U.S. administration have attracted widespread attention in the world. As of now, since Trump took office, he has signed multiple executive orders one after another, which has been controversial. However, policies and decrees related to culture have not yet been promulgated, let alone policies directly related to films. Trump's administration has made it difficult to interpret the direction of U.S. diplomacy, economy, culture and even globalization. The influence of China's market under globalization is increasing day by day, and containing the trend of protectionism is an inevitable strategy to move towards a movie power. As far as the development of China's film art and the film trade relations between China and the United States are concerned, cooperation must outweigh unprovoked disputes.

As the attractiveness of China market increases and Hollywood becomes increasingly active in China, it is expected that Sino-US film trade relations will maintain a high level of development. However, how to strengthen and deepen strategic partnerships, enhance the existence and competitiveness of China films in the North American market, and enrich practical cooperation still needs to be done in the future. Considering the Trump administration's inward-looking economic policies and policy goals of solving employment, requirements may be placed on the filming area of the Sino-US co-production and the creation of job opportunities for the United States. Trump's background as a businessman must have a sense of cooperation. It is expected that Trump's trade policies will not have much impact on the continued cooperation between Chinese and US filmmakers.

A series of acquisitions by China film companies have attracted the attention and tension of relevant people in the United States. It is possible for the Trump administration to implement stricter reviews under urging and pressure. Under the economic orientation of giving priority to economic interests and "America first", Trump will inevitably make Hollywood films the focus of American cultural products exports, and may even use policy tilt to consolidate and expand the market share of Hollywood films around the world. If China films want to reduce the impact and compete in the global market, the key is to enhance the competitiveness of national films, establish a competitive brand image and overseas market competition strategies. This is the most important thing.

The advent of the Trump era does not mean a reversal of the globalization of movies. China films will cater to and adapt to the changes in world development in the era of economic globalization and mobile media, embody the cultural coding of commercial films suitable for global audiences, and realize sharing of benefits and responsibilities. Its symbolic influence will become more and more deeply rooted in people's hearts. How to seize the opportunity to systematically promote the international dissemination of China films and competition in overseas markets in terms of talents, paths, content production and capital, build China film companies and brands with international competitive strength, occupy the position of beacon of world civilization through "going global" China films, spread China culture, and promote the process of building a global film community is an urgent requirement and responsibility.

Editor: yvette