China’s cinema owners bullish about industry’s prospects despite falling box office receipts
The first three months of this year saw the opening of 36 new screens a day in China, but the film business faces a slowing economy and challenges from Hollywood
Four years ago, I went to Shenzhen on an ordinary Tuesday morning to catch one of the first screenings of Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai’s martial arts film The Grandmaster on its opening day in China. Given the need to file a review immediately afterwards, I opted for a four-screen cineplex just a few hundred metres from the Futian checkpoint on the border with Hong Kong.
The cineplex was eerily empty – of customers, of course, but also of staff. First, there was a 10-minute wait before someone appeared at the ticketing booth; another 10 minutes passed before the audience – me and three middle-aged men – were allowed to take our seats. It took another 15 minutes for the lights to dim and the projection to finally begin.
Then, about 15 minutes into the film, the image stuttered and came to a halt. A few minutes later, an usher came in and instructed us to leave, as the screening was cancelled due to “technical problems”.
As I and my fellow film-goers lined up for a refund, a woman who was hanging around the doors to the cineplex rushed over; somehow already aware that we hadn’t got to see The Grandmaster, she asked whether we would like to spend some time at her nearby massage parlour while we waited for the next screening. (I didn’t take up the offer, and went to see the film in another, more bankable cinema instead.)