2011-2012 China Film Industry Report

Source: china.org.cn

According to EntGroup's, China Film Co-production Company has received 93 applications for co-productions, 6 applications for assisted co-productions, in total 99 films in 2011. 69 films were approved as co-production projects and 4 approved as assisted co-productions, in total 74 films. 58 films out of the 74 films finished shooting and passed the censorship for theatrical release.

Co-production figures in the past 10 years show that around 70% of co-produced films are mainland China-Hong Kong co-productions, 8% are mainland China-Taiwan co-productions and 10% are China-US co-productions. The rest 12% are co-productions between China and other regions.

Mutual benefit is the basis for Chinese-foreign co-productions. Mainland Chinese companies seek partners to share the risk and to learn production experiences; foreign companies seek to enter the Chinese market. If we look at the number of co-productions, the number of co-produced films never takes a big proportion of the total number of production. But the box office output are generally significant, taking a large share of China's total box office gross. Among the top 20 local films, 12 are co-produced films. Mainland China-Hong Kong co-productions make up the majority of co-produced films and they are often box office winners too. China-US co-produced films are outnumbered and outperformed by their Hong Kong counterparts. Cultural difference and a lack of in-depth collaboration from the script stage are main reasons for the situation.

According to EntGroup's "2011-2012 China Film Industry Report", there are several thousands of production companies in China. Among them, around 1500 companies are based in Beijing. In 2011, there are 190 companies that have produced films earning at least 100,000 yuan in box office per film. These 190 companies can be further divided into three categories: The first category refers to major studios such as China Film Group, Huayi Brothers Media and Bona Film Group.

The second category refers to state-owned companies such as Shanghai Film Group, and companies eagerly preparing their IPO plans such as Beijing Galloping Horse Films and Ciwen Media. The third category refers to major provincial-leveled studios and private companies with solid box office records such as Perfect World and Guoli Changsheng. The fourth category refers to companies that are currently inactive in film production.

In fact, there are a great number of companies belonging to the fourth category. These companies in total produced a good number of productions but their commercial performances are always less-than satisfactory. If these companies can integrate their production resources and cut down their production, only to jointly produce a few good-quality films, their productions will be able to compete with films by major studios. As a result, the recent production slump will be improved in a great deal.