Image Credit: AP
The next time the Avengers assemble on the big screen, don’t be surprised if you see them touch down at some point in China. Given the rapid, almost Hulk-like growth of the film market in that country over the past few years, Avengers director Joss Whedon is half-expecting to get a call any day now asking whether he can set part of the superhero sequel in a Chinese locale. “I’m working on the script right now, and if someone came to me and said, ‘We’re looking into doing a chunk of this in China’—well, I’d have to think about it,” Whedon says. “China is on my radar. It can’t not be at this point.”
As North American movie theater owners gather in Las Vegas this week for their annual convention, CinemaCon, the state of the domestic movie business isn’t looking so rosy, with this year’s box office revenue running 12 per cent behind 2012 and 3-D ticket sales continuing to slide. But pan across the globe to China, and the picture couldn’t be more different. If America’s long love affair with movies seems to have cooled somewhat lately, China is in the first blush of a passionate new romance. How passionate? Put it this way: When James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar opened in December 2009, there were only 13 IMAX screens in all of China. Today, there are 110, with some 140 more scheduled to open in the near future. “When I go to China, people will ask me for my autograph,” IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond says, adding drily, “That typically doesn’t happen in other places.”
With box office revenues rising 30% last year to $2.7 billion, China has now edged out Japan to become the second-largest film market in the world following the U.S. New movie screens are sprouting up across the country at a rate of roughly 10 per day, and some project that China could surpass the U.S. as the world’s top film territory within five years. It’s no surprise that Hollywood is eager to capitalize on that torrid growth as much as it possibly can. “China is on most producers’ minds all the time now,” says Barry Levine, producer of the sci-fi film Oblivion, which opens Friday. “It is a giant market if you can reach it. But you have to play it smartly.” READ FULL STORY »
