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Commentary: Chinese moviegoers may have outgrown Hollywood

Chinese audiences are no longer as fascinated by Hollywood films as they were 20 years ago and are increasingly embracing homegrown movies, says a media studies professor.

Commentary: Chinese moviegoers may have outgrown Hollywood

FILE PHOTO: A cleaner walks past screens promoting Disney's movie "Mulan" as the film opens in China, at a cinema in Beijing, China September 11, 2020. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo

RIVERSIDE, California: Though film industries are market-based and profit-driven, they cannot escape the constraints of the political structures, ideology or cultural value systems in which they are situated. 

Nor can they be removed from diplomatic relations and geopolitics.

So, as US-China relations reach their iciest point in decades, Hollywood and “Chinawood” are caught in the middle.

The Hollywood-China relationship has alternated between a competitive and collaborative dynamic over the last four decades. In the 1990s, Hollywood’s near monopoly of the Chinese film market caused a crisis in China’s domestic film industry.

Renowned art house filmmakers, such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, decided to take Hollywood’s approach and began producing commercially viable genre films. This resulted in domestic Chinese films generating record high box office revenues.

READ: Commentary: Did Chinese censors just cancel Oscar-winner Chloe Zhao's Nomadland?

By the early 2000s, China had used Hollywood resources to modernise its film industry. Up to mid-2017, the partnership entered an unprecedented honeymoon period, marked by a reverse flow of inpouring Chinese capital, the acquisition of Hollywood studio shares and a record-high number of film co-productions.

This trend culminated in the first half of 2017 when Chinese capital funded 25 per cent of Hollywood exports to China.

READ: Commentary: The problem with saying Asian women filmmakers have finally ‘made it’

A TURNING POINT

But 2017 marked a turning point in the Hollywood-China relationship.

Amid the Trump administration’s trade war and Republican politicians’ heavy criticism of Hollywood’s kowtowing to Beijing, films and co-productions, such as Disney’s 2020 remake of Mulan, fell prey to politics.

The COVID-19 pandemic further devastated US-China relations and brought the fear of a possible all-around decoupling between the two countries.

Beyond politics, the Chinese audience’s taste has also changed. China surpassed the United States to become the world’s biggest movie box office in 2020.

Imported movies now account for only about a sixth of China’s total box office – a nearly 55 per cent decrease year-on-year – with China’s homemade movies outperforming Hollywood imports like The Tenet, Wonder Woman 1984 and Mulan.

People wearing face masks watch a movie in a cinema as it reopens following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Shanghai, China July 20, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song

READ: Disney's Mulan battles mixed reviews and media muzzle at Chinese launch

An executive at one of Beijing’s leading distributors claims that “the whole culture has changed”. Pessimists begin to wonder about a future of a Hollywood without China, or a China without Hollywood.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE SINCE 1994

Hollywood is facing its biggest challenge since it re-entered China in 1994. Chinese audiences are no longer as fascinated by Hollywood films as they were 20 years ago and are increasingly embracing homegrown movies.

China’s rising status on the international stage and the changing global balance of power have played a major role in this shift – reinforced by China’s successful containment of the COVID-19 pandemic and swift economic recovery.

When revenue-sharing Hollywood movies first re-entered mainland China, they were enthusiastically embraced by a Chinese audience longing for reform and modernity. Hollywood films were emblematic of the US way of life and an idealistic liberal democratic society.

READ: Commentary: Some soul-searching needed in China’s fresh push to make friends and influence people

The status that Hollywood films enjoyed in China was closely related to the status of the United States as “a city on the hill” and a beacon of democracy.

But after 25 years of immersion, the Chinese audience is no longer obsessed with repetitive blockbusters. The failure of the United States to control the pandemic has also greatly disillusioned the Chinese audience, shattering their pre-existing good faith in the US system.

At the same time, their obsession with US movies, culture and values has diminished.

HOLLYWOOD’S PLACE IN CHINA

What will the future hold for the Hollywood-China relationship?

(Photo: Reuters/Jason Lee)

Hollywood will still have a place in China. The major reason lies in the basic nature of the film industry as a market-based and profit-driven business. Politicians come and go, geopolitics intervenes and withdraws, but audiences are here to stay.

The market logic ultimately rules and serves as the foundation that sustains the Hollywood–China partnership.

The special effects and entertaining value of Hollywood movies also provide unmatchable visual pleasure and psychological catharsis for hard-working Chinese audiences, especially Chinese youth trapped in the real world’s life struggles.

READ: Commentary: Cinemas are on life support – and could look vastly different soon

READ: Commentary: How blockbuster The Wandering Earth captured China’s heart and smashed box office records

The latest market success of Fast and Furious 9, Godzilla vs Kong, the nostalgic re-release of old Hollywood imports Avatar and Lord of the Rings, and the Chinese audience’s enthusiastic viewing of Friends: The Reunion testify to the lingering influence and glamour of Hollywood movies in China.

If China further loosens its censorship and produces a varied range of movies tapping local sensitivities – like Bollywood and the Korean Wave have achieved – the time may come for the looming crisis of Hollywood in China.

Looking ahead, a key challenge will be to manage the current bilateral tensions that may create barriers for Chinese capital entering the US market and co-productions.

China’s current ban of Oscar-award winner Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland is also sending a negative signal to overseas filmmakers. They are discouraged from seeking collaboration with China or expecting box office success in a market which is vulnerable to tides of nationalism and geopolitical tensions.

Wendy Su is Associate Professor at the Media and Cultural Studies Faculty, University of California, Riverside. This commentary first appeared on East Asia Forum.

Source: CNA/el

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