A force awakens as Star Wars movie enters a very different Chinese film universe to 1977 original
Relaxation or removal of foreign film quota to pose a challenge for mainland film makers
Not long ago, in a film industry not too far away, the game changed.
Four decades of reform in mainland China has reshaped its film market and given the latest instalment of Star Wars a very different welcome than the first film – which wasn’t allowed in at all.
Hollywood movies were still banned on the mainland in 1977, when the first Star Wars movie hit cinemas around the world. The Cultural Revolution had ended only the year before and the start of economic reforms was still a year away.
The seventh movie in the series – Star Wars: The Force Awakens – is now showing around the world, apart from mainland China. It will debut there next month when fresh quota for foreign films becomes available. There’s been a lot of promotional activity in the lead-up, including putting 500 replica Stormtrooper characters on the Great Wall.
Regulatory reform, growing wealth and lifestyle changes have seen the China film market grow rapidly to an annual box office of 40 billion yuan (HK$47.83 billion) – a figure no one in Hollywood or any other film industry can ignore.
Credit Suisse analysts predict the mainland film market will overtake that of the US and become the world’s largest in 2017. China’s box office has grown by an average of 30 per cent a year for the past decade, while the US saw tickets sales fall 5 per cent last year.