Outside In | China’s filmmaking ambitions are no match for Hollywood
China has made an impressive push into cinema, but it will take a while before the mainland box office can match the magic of the Hollywood studio system
Carrie Fisher’s death in the dying days of 2016 could have provided a dark but fitting theme for this my last Inside Out of 2016. So many people have died – including my own father. And it is a year marked by so many experiences that deserve mourning – like Trump, and Brexit, and Syria.
But let’s use her death for more positive purposes. As Princess Leia of Star Wars fame she provides a feisty glimpse into the always vital, often escapist, world of cinema – a world that for all of my lifetime has been dominated by the US and Hollywood.
But on the cusp of 2017, and with China becoming such a potent force in so many parts of the global economy, is it reasonable to ask how much longer this will remain so?
With the world’s largest population of cinemas and cinema-goers... how soon before China and China’s film-makers become global box-office forces like George Lucas or Stephen Speilberg?
George Lucas’ Star Wars, first released almost 40 years ago, is still today one of the world’s most commercially successful films – ranking third in inflation-adjusted terms, at US$2.8 billion in box office earnings, compared with Gone with the Wind at US$3.4 billion and Avatar at US$3 billion.
In a list where nine of the top 10 box office earners of all time have been made in Hollywood (Dr Zhivago the only exception), Hollywood still seems firmly entrenched as the world’s dominant film maker. And just as Hollywood seems still to reign supreme, so the Star Wars franchise retains an awesome globe-dominating appeal. The latest Lucas Films offering – Star Wars: Rogue One – has earned an estimated US$573 million since its release in the US and Canada just two weekends ago.
So it is maybe premature to talk about Hollywood’s demise. But as in so many areas of economic activity, there are rumblings from China that force the question: how soon before this dominance is eroded?
The question occurred when I read earlier this month that China has this year overtaken the US in terms of its total of cinema screens. With an estimated 27 new cinema screens being opened every day, China is now home to no less than 41,500 screens – compared with just over 40,000 in the US.