Following a lengthy marketing campaign and a premiere attended by beauty queens, champion kickboxers and royalty, Thai action drama Beautiful Boxer opened at the top of the Thai box office last weekend. Based on the real-life story of a kickboxer who fought to earn money for a sex-change operation, the film fended off competition from Hollywood releases such as Kill Bill Vol 1 and Intolerable Cruelty to grab top spot. The film is one of many local productions that have topped the Thai box office this year, including martial arts picture Ong-Bak - Muay Thai Warrior, feel-good drama Fan Chan and Iron Ladies II.
However, unlike most other Thai productions, Beautiful Boxer wasn't released by a Thai film company but by the local arm of a Hollywood studio - Twentieth Century Fox. Although the film was produced and financed by a Thai company, Fox acquired the local distribution rights and is also considering buying rights for other countries in Asia. This marks the first time Fox has bought a local Thai movie, but not the first time it has picked up a local-language Asian film. The company released Zhang Yimou's Hero in several Asian countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and also buys films in India and South Korea.
'We buy films both for release in their country of origin and, if it's appropriate, in other Asian territories,' says Fox senior vice-president, Asia Pacific, Bob Girard. 'It helps us keep an eye on what's happening in each country and whether there's any talent that could cross over to the west.'
United International Pictures (UIP), which distributes films for three Hollywood studios - Universal, Paramount and DreamWorks - is also stepping up the number of Asian movies it buys. It recently released Andrew Lau's horror film The Park in Singapore and Malaysia, and has picked up Taiwanese animation Leon & Jo - The Butterfly Lovers for distribution in Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China.
As nice as it might be to imagine that the Hollywood studios are keen supporters of Asian cinema, their motives are not entirely altruistic. Apart from talent-spotting, the studios have noticed that in Asia - perhaps more so than in Europe - local films are standing their ground against the onslaught of Hollywood blockbusters.
Of course, in a region as vast and diverse as Asia, the picture differs hugely from country to country. In South Korea and Thailand, local films have only recently bounced back after losing ground to Hollywood and now account for about 30 to 40 per cent of the overall cinema market. In India, Bollywood reigns supreme and holds more than 95 per cent of the market, while in Taiwan local films have a pitiful 1 to 2 per cent share.