A Chinese conglomerate will create the world's largest cinema chain with its purchase of the US group AMC Entertainment Holdings. The Chinese producer Bruno Woo predicted that within a decade every Hollywood film would be made with an eye on its appeal to East Asian audiences.
The Chinese box office is on track to surpass the US by 2021, buoyed by a building programme that added 954 multiplexes last year. Chinese quota systems mean that only 34 foreign films are allowed to screen in cinemas each year. For the right film, the rewards can be huge: 3D Titanic took $110 million on its first day in Chinese cinemas last month.
- Iron Man 3 film will be designed with Chinese viewers in mind. Iron Man 3 is due to shoot in China later this year after Disney-owned Marvel studios stuck a deal with Chinese company DMG entertainment
- There are also three Chinese backed films being developed: Flowers Of War, Inseparable and Man of Tai Chi.
- Disney rival DreamWorks Animation's Shanghai-based studio is due to release its first films in 2016.
- Note the popularity of American-made but China-based international blockbusters such as Kung Fu Panda 2
BFI SETS OUT 5 YEAR PLAN (The Guardian 15.05.12 read the full article HERE)
Best of British ... Colin Firth in The
King's Speech – the BFI is proposing more funding for homegrown films.
The British Film Institute plans to pump £273m of lottery money
into British film over the next five years:
- spending a third more money on backing new films,
- digitising up to 15,000 movies from the enormous back catalogue of British films,
- and equipping up to 1,000 new venues including village halls with digital projectors so such films can be shown nationwide,
- as well as promoting training in film skills,
- and a chance for every school child to watch films and experiment in film techniques.
Amanda Nevill, chief executive of the BFI, rejected earlier speculation that the new focus for investment would be feelgood box-office hits – sparked by comments made by the prime minister David Cameron when
he visited Pinewood studios – which would be a bitter blow to the long
tradition of British filmic miserablism in rain-soaked streets.
"Obviously we want and will fund a mix of films," she said. "What makes a success is always elusive. The King's Speech took us all by surprise – and it needed a lot of support to get that film made."
Boosted by hits including the last Harry Potter film and The Inbetweeners Movie,
she said the average market share for British films in cinemas had
risen from 6% to 13% last year and to 25% in the first quarter of this
year when The Iron Lady and The Woman in Black took off.
The
BFI was interested in promoting more family films and films for
children than historically, she said, but their policy would be to
invest in the best talent – "and also to make certain that the people of
Britain can get to see them".
Only 7% of screens currently show non-mainstream films, and almost all of those are London based.
MEN IN BLACK III (The Times 18.05.12)
Josh Brolin takes the part of Tommy Lee Jones's Agent K, teaming up with Will Smith's Agent J, with some concern: 'I could ruin an entire series because I'm severing this great iconic duo, this great chemistry that people enjoy.'
He watched the first movie 50 times to get Jones's cadences just right: 'If someone came up to my franchise and said..we're going to bring in this younger guy instead...!'
Students need to notice the key terms here about genre and audience!
SHERLOCK HOLMES (The Times 18.05.12)
Sherlock Holmes has been played in films and TV shows 254 times - more than any other literary character, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The global brand identity helped sales for Guy Ritchie's A Game Of Shadows (2011).
CINEWORLD (The Times 18.05.12)
The Avengers have ridden to the rescue of the country's largest cinema chain (Cineworld has a quarter of the UK market): Cineworld recorded a 5% rise in ticket revenue sales as viewers flocked to see the blockbuster over the May Day bank holiday weekend. Cineworld uses cheap mid-week tickets and food sales to boost revenue: overall figures were up 8.6% overall.
Bad news: the Olympic Games and Euro 2012 will reduce box office numbers. 3-D declining pull: 10% fall in glasses rentals
Good news: Batman, Bond and Hobbit franchises will produce strong sales; Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic Prometheus should sell well although Cineworld says it may prove more of a 'cult classic'. 
Lavinia Carey of the British Video Association (The Times 17.05.12)
The best way to fund British film is not ticket sales. The main revenue for films comes from video, whether on disc or online. The Inbetweeners Movie made 54% of its revenue from video.
The best way to help
the British film industry is through delivering
broadband and helping the industry defend itself against copyright theft which is as important as tax incentives.
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