Indie filmmakers struggle to rewrite the script in Chinese cinemas
Between the censors and a preference for blockbusters, it’s a battle for art-house films to reach a wider audience in China
Competing against all the blockbusters dominating Chinese cinema screens in August, Oscar-winning drama Manchester by the Sea was a surprise hit.
Indie director Kenneth Lonergan’s 2016 film, which won two Academy Awards in February, has racked up more than US$1.2 million in ticket sales in China so far, according to online database Box Office Mojo.
That was just a small proportion of the movie’s foreign box office takings of close to US$30 million, but it is still considered a good performance for an indie film in China, where most cinemas tend to stick to the big-budget crowd-pleasers.
China, the world’s second largest film market, now has more screens – over 41,000 – than the United States and that number is expected to go beyond 80,000 by 2021, according to a report from accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
But unlike countries where the market is more developed and there are independent movie theatres, most Chinese cinema chains will not give up a two-hour slot for a low-budget indie film when they can screen a blockbuster that is sure to sell tickets. And if they do, it will be screened at an unpopular time, when few people can go.