Is China’s Film Sector Opening Its Doors to the World Again?

As China’s post-pandemic reopening gathers steam, film executives in Beijing are feeling cautiously optimistic for the first time in years. Local audiences have cast off their masks and returned to the multiplex, regulators are signaling a relaxing of control, and film professionals are finally traveling freely again to re-engage with international festivals and markets.To get more news about new chinese movies, you can visit shine news official website.

Beijing industry players warn, however, that the current recovery is likely to benefit China’s big commercial tentpoles and Hollywood studio movies first — and that any rebound for the country’s nascent indie import business could take time.On the international front, China’s re-engagement with the global film community at large is readily apparent at the year’s first major film festival, the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, where six Chinese features will premiere — including two in competition (Liu Jian’s animated film Art College 1984 and Zhang Lu’s drama The Shadowless Tower) — along with one Chinese series ( iQIYI’s Why Try to Change Me Now, by Dalei Zhang, winner of the 2021 Berlin Silver Bear for short films). Festival regulars believe it to be Berlin’s largest selection of Chinese films to date.

“So many releases were put on hold last year because of the lockdowns, there is a big backlog of quality films ready for release in 2023,” says Meng Xie, founder of Rediance, a Beijing-based indie producer and international sales outfit, which has two features in Berlin’s Encounters section this year, Chinese filmmaker Wu Lang’s Absence and Belgian director Bas Devos’ Here. “The door has opened and we’re really excited to be heading back to Berlin for the first time since 2020,” he adds. “Everything seems to be moving in a positive direction.”

Broader signs of a potential comeback for the Chinese film industry are abundant almost everywhere.

After Beijing abruptly dismantled its draconian “COVID zero” pandemic control measures in late 2022, consumer activity plummeted as an enormous wave of COVID infection swept the country. But by the time the country’s Lunar New Year holiday beganJan. 22, it was clear that the Chinese people were ready to set caution aside and join the rest of the world in resuming their normal lives. Over the weeklong family holiday period, total ticket sales at Chinese cinemas topped $1 billion (RMB 6.8 billion), the second-biggest holiday haul on record and a 12 percent climb from 2022. The two top holiday releases are on a trajectory to earn over half a billion dollars apiece — Zhang Yimou’s period mystery Full River Red with $650 million (RMB 4.41 billion) and Frank Guo’s sci-fi sequel The Wandering Earth 2 at $560 million (RMB 3.85 billion).
The Hollywood studios, meanwhile, have reason to be enthusiastic, too. During 2022, the release of major U.S. movies slowed to a trickle amid an uptick in nationalist sentiment and Communist Party suppression surrounding the 20th National Congress, China’s all-important political event where President Xi Jinping was anointed to a norm-busting third term. Just two American movies made it into China’s top 10 list in 2022 — Avatar: The Way of Water with just shy of $248 million and Jurassic World Dominion at $232.5 million — while the number of non-Chinese films released in the country slid 48 percent, year on year, to just 57 titles. Regulators also maintained a two-year de facto ban on all Disney/Marvel movie releases, leaving hits like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder on the shelf, costing Disney tens of millions in lost potential revenue. Other big-budget U.S. films, such as Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick and Warner Bros.’ Black Adam, also were passed over.

Already, 2023 is looking brighter for the studios. In mid-January, China’s Film Bureau lifted its Marvel ban by giving Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania release dates — Feb. 7 for the former, Feb. 17 for the latter. Warner Bros. Discovery’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods was then set for release March 17, while a few smaller international titles have also nabbed dates, like Florian Zeller’s 2022 drama The Son, set for Feb. 24.

Beijing’s softening stance on film regulation mirrors the country’s recent about-face in other areas of the economy — most significantly, the unwinding of pandemic-era crackdowns on the enormous tech and real estate sectors. The policy pivot has coincided with an administrative shake-up at the Film Bureau, as well.