This year, the number of imported films has exceeded the quota, and the market is open. How can domestic films cope?

Recently, two films produced by 20th Century Fox,"The Spy Next Door" and "Miss Pei's Fantasy Castle", have set their release dates in the mainland in the form of separate accounts. As a result, the number of branch accounts introduced this year has exceeded the prescribed 34. This makes people wonder whether this is preparing for the liberalization of imported film quotas? Once the domestic film market is fully liberalized, will the local film industry usher in a cold winter? Will this be a good thing or a bad thing for the audience?

Original title: The market is open, how domestic films can withstand domestic films to support the box office has come to an end. The second half of October is almost the world of imported films: "Ben Xu","Dream of Dreams","Mechanic 2: Resurrection","Hero Detective Jack: Never Looking Back","Dante's Code" and "Assassination Game" and other imported blockbusters appeared together. Unfortunately, the momentum could not support the rise in the box office and ultimately failed to get out of this year's domestic box office downturn.

Just recently, two films produced by 20th Century Fox,"The Spy Next Door" and "Miss Pei's Fantasy Castle", set their release dates in the mainland in the form of separate accounts. As a result, the number of branch accounts introduced this year has exceeded the prescribed 34. This makes people wonder whether this is preparing for the liberalization of imported film quotas? Once the domestic film market is fully liberalized, will the local film industry usher in a cold winter? Will this be a good thing or a bad thing for the audience?

Homogenized production of imported films "lost their powder" and opened the film list in the past two weeks after National Day. Imported films accounted for half of the country, and the lineup cannot be underestimated: there are "movie wizard" Spielberg's first collaboration with Disney in "Dream of Dreams","Mechanic 2: Resurrection" starred by Hollywood sexy tough guy Jason Stenson,"Hero Jack: Never Looking Back", and "The Da Vinci Code" IP sequel "starring the Oscar-winning gold group" Dante Code "... However, judging from the box office in the mainland, this series of numbers is far less eye-catching than the celebrity gimmick.

"Jack the Hero: Never Looking Back" took 6 days to recover 60 million yuan in box office; while "Dream" took 12 days to reach 138 million yuan. The single-day box office of the above two new films is not comparable to "Operation Mekong", which has been in theaters for 27 days. "Mechanic 2: Resurrection", which has the best rise so far, has box office exceeding 200 million yuan in six days after release. However, it still needs to make progress in the future if it wants to break through 1 billion yuan and become a "hit".

Some insiders believe that there are many reasons for the downturn in the box office of imported films: Objectively speaking, the box office of movies has not yet emerged from the decline this year. With the reduction in ticket subsidies, audiences still prefer to choose other entertainment methods rather than spend high prices to watch movies; and subjectively, the decline in the quality of imported films has led to audience aesthetic fatigue about these "Western films."

"Fundamentally speaking, the types of 'blockbusters' are very single. They are either superheroes saving the world, or spaceships flying all over the sky, or the sky collapses, houses collapse, and large-scale action stunts or wars... For the audience, this has caused visual and aesthetic fatigue." A senior film critic expressed the thoughts of many viewers.

When Ishikawa, a professor at the School of Film and Television of Shanghai University, talked about the cold weather situation of imported films in the China market, he believed that behind the decline, there was a bottleneck in the unchanging genre and taste of imported films. In his view,"large accounts sharing" has gone through nearly 20 years, but the simplification of types has become increasingly obvious.

The increase in imported films will change next year. Although the box office is showing a "low profile", the number of imported films pouring into the domestic big screen is still endless.

Marvel's "Doctor Strange", Rowling's "Where are the Fantastic Animals" and Ang Lee's much-watched new film "Billy Lynn's Midfield Battle" are scheduled for November. "The Spy Next Door" and "Miss Pei's Fantasy Castle" set the release dates in the mainland in the form of separate accounts.

After careful calculation, it is not difficult to find that the number of sub-account pieces introduced this year has reached 39, exceeding the stipulated number of sub-account pieces that can only be introduced into 34 sub-account pieces each year. According to a person familiar with the matter, the quota of 34 films has not changed because some films are released in "cultural exchange projects" outside the quota and are not included in the quota of divided films.

According to the reporter, in February 2012, China and the United States reached an agreement on a memorandum of understanding to resolve WTO film-related issues. China's government has agreed to increase the quota of 14 part-account films in addition to the annual quota of 20 overseas part-account films, but they must be 3D films or IMAX films, and their box office share will also increase from the previous 13% to a maximum of 25%.

However, after the "Memorandum" expires in 2017, the two sides will still hold negotiations to see whether China's film market will be fully open? Is the quota for imported films about to become history? This heated rumor is currently inconclusive.

"Eliminating the quota system should be a good thing for most movie fans, because they can see the foreign movies they want to see in theaters faster, giving them more room for choice. For China's film industry, at the rate of adding 10 to 15 big screens every day, China will become the most important film market in the world." Senior film critic Lu Jianguo said.

The maturity of domestic films brings the possibility of liberalization. However, more industry insiders are worried that after Chinese mainland cancels its film quotas, it will, like Taiwan and South Korea before it, be completely unable to withstand the onslaught of Hollywood films, and eventually the local film industry will collapse.

However, Lu Jianguo expressed optimism about this. He analyzed that the current scheduling of domestic films adopts a review system rather than a filing system. For example, whether it will be released at a good time during the holidays or on the first day after the long holiday, whether several imported films will be released in a cluster or postponed for public release, etc., It is all up to the film management department to decide. The most typical example is last summer's domestic film protection month."Monster Hunt" set a box office record for a China movie. Later, the film was extended for one month.

On the other hand, due to lack of publicity and cultural differences, high-level Hollywood films such as "Les Miserables" and "The King's Speech" are often not acclimatized when they hit the China market. On the contrary, domestic films are even more attractive to "young people in small towns" than many imported films. The fast-growing box office in third-and fourth-tier cities has also created a "golden age" for domestic films.

The results of the competition between domestic and imported films in recent years can also explain the problem: in 2011,"33 Days of Lovelorn" invested 15 million yuan to pick three Hollywood blockbusters,"Rise of the Planet of the Apes","Steel Boxing" and "Shocking God of War", which ended with a total box office victory of 360 million yuan. The box office of countless Hollywood blockbusters such as "007: The Sky Break","The Hobbit","Resident Evil 5" and "Die Hard 5" have been "The Lost in Thailand" and "To Our Will Will Eventually Die". Youth "and" Journey to the West: A Troubles in Heaven "and other domestic films are" trampled on ".

"Against the background of the increasingly mature domestic films, even if the quota for imported films is cancelled, whether they can ultimately get a piece of the market cake will still depend on the quality of the film. However, there are too many people coming over, which will inevitably dilute the share." Lu Jianguo analyzed.

"Link" What is the movie import quota system?

Our country currently implements a strict film import quota system-now, there are 34 "import split" films (divided films) and about 30 "import buyout" films (approved films) every year.

The difference between "split accounts" and "batch films" is that the former is a new North American film produced by international first-tier companies. The import quantity is limited, and foreign film dealers have to participate in the share of China's box office. The latter is introduced in multiple batches, and its one-year quota accounts for nearly 50% of the import quota. Domestic film dealers buy out the screening rights of international films from foreign film dealers at a fixed price, and foreign film dealers do not participate in the share of China's box office.

Editor: yvette