Chinese movie triumphs fail to lift studio's spirits
Despite rising box-office takings, Huayi Brothers says the Chinese market is still not big enough to sustain domestic producers
Chinese filmgoers' appetite for movies drove up box-office takings last year but was unable to lift the optimism of Huayi Brothers, the mainland's leading studio.
Behind the silver screen, the company is seeking to position itself as a big film distributor providing a stage for local films and film stars to shine.
"The mainland's movie market is not as promising as you think. There are just a few movies that can arouse discussion and are able to earn big box office," Huayi chief executive Wang Zhonglei told the South China Morning Post.
Huayi, which produced seven blockbusters last year - including Painted Skin: Resurrection, Back to 1942, CZ12, Love, Tai Chi 0 and Tai Chi Hero - posted box-office takings of 2.1 billion yuan (HK$2.6 billion). Only three films earned more than 300 million yuan.
"Every year, there are quite a lot of movies with a box office of just over 1 million yuan," Wang said, arguing the mainland's movie market was unable to sustain domestic filmmakers.
The mainland box office rose 30.2 per cent last year to 17 billion yuan, 48.5 per cent of which was from locally produced movies and the rest from imports, which boasted higher takings than local films for the first time in a decade. Domestic filmmakers produced 893 movies last year.