From Lost in Russia to Legend of Hunter and Dreams of Getting Rich, China’s online movies are booming like never before
- China’s online movie industry got a huge boost during the coronavirus pandemic, with releases over the past year breaking a host of sales records
- The boom has seen many new players enter the market, while more movies featuring A-listers are skipping cinematic releases completely
When Hong Kong’s king of comedy Stephen Chow Sing-chi announced in June he had signed a deal with Tencent Video to make online movies, he followed a long line-up of A-list talents, including director Stanley Tong Kwai-lai and martial arts superstar Donnie Yen Ji-dan, who have ventured beyond cinematic releases to stream their films as well.
A week after Chow’s announcement, Dirty Monkeys Studio – founded by director Ning Hao of Crazy Stone (2006) and Crazy Alien (2019) fame – announced online movie making deals with Chinese streaming giant iQiyi and video platform Bilibili.
This boost to China’s online movie industry comes after a year of streaming movies breaking box office records in the country.
Released in April, Tencent Video’s Legend of Hunter, about the exploits of a ghost hunter set in the Republic of China period, grossed 5.5 million yuan (US$849,000) on the first day of its release, breaking the record for online revenue in China. So far, the film has earned the producers over 40 million yuan after splitting proceeds with online video platforms.
According to a report by China’s entertainment industry analytics firm Enlightent.cn, a total of 295 online movies were released in the first six months of 2021. Of these movies, 33 earned profits of over 10 million yuan; eight of those earned over 20 million yuan and two earned over 30 million yuan. The combined profits of the 33 movies were 562 million yuan. This is a huge increase on 2019 figures, when of the 438 online movies released, only 15 earned profits of over 10 million yuan, and their combined profits came to 197 million yuan.
The boom in online movies has seen many new players enter the market, such as Befun Film and TV Production, which set up a subsidiary to specialise in making online movies last year. Its first two online movies, Feng Sheng Lei Zhen Zi and Sniper 2, are in pre-production and will be released later this year.