Foreign films want a piece of the Chinese market despite obstacles like censorship reviews

BEIJING: Singapore director Jack Neo’s I Not Stupid series is well-known at home, but the latest in the instalment, I Not Stupid 3, has reached a far wider audience.
The foreign film hit the screens in cities nationwide in China on Friday (Aug 16), a historic feat for filmmakers in Singapore who have been eyeing the lucrative Chinese market for decades.
According to the producers, the film’s relatable narrative about a student from Shanghai and his experience in the Singapore education system is a key reason it managed to penetrate the market. 
The movie features popular Chinese actress Hu Jing as one of the leading cast members.
The Singapore movie managed to enter China’s film industry despite its labyrinth of restrictions for foreign shows, with quotas on the number of film imports and censorship reviews to pass.
These got even tighter in 2018 when the Communist Party of China’s propaganda department took over the role of media regulation.
Disallowed content includes narratives that are deemed to threaten national security and endanger China’s sovereignty, or the basic principles of its constitution.
To ensure they could get approval, one of the firms that co-produced the Singaporean movie, mm2 Entertainment, said discussions about the storyline took years, with consultations with their Chinese offices on what would likely be greenlit and screened unedited. 
The firm’s general manager Toong Soo Wei said that the movie has been in the making since before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Unable to shoot in the country due to the crisis, they had to find a way to retain elements that a Chinese audience would be interested in.
The firm, which has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, spent a lot of time on the creative process, and it took at least five years from start to finish, he added
 
“We talked to our China colleagues quite often when we were in the development stages. This helped us to find an angle that can resonate with the Chinese audience,” he said. 
Breaking into China’s market alone is a golden badge for many filmmakers, and it comes with monetary returns as well. 
For some foreign movies, ticket sales have fared better in China than in their home countries. For instance, this year, Japanese anime film The Boy and the Heron did better in China than at home and in the Northern American market.
However, while China remains a coveted market for foreign films, it recorded muted figures for its summer box office.
The US$1.1 billion ticket sales for the first two months – June and August – of this year’s prime screening season was a dip of more than 40 per cent compared with last year’s.
Things could, however, turn around, as China looks to the film industry to boost domestic consumption – a key part of plans to counter the country’s sluggish economy. Among the initiatives is improving film offerings. 
Earlier this month, authorities started a three-month promotion season, injecting about US$10 million into a campaign that includes free tickets and discount coupons, to get more people to go to the cinema.
The efforts come as Chinese consumers increasingly choose to watch films online, with popular Chinese digital streaming platforms ramping up competition in the entertainment industry.
But many obstacles still stand in the way for foreign filmmakers trying to break into the market. This includes not having enough lead time to drum up interest in their films, especially in comparison with Chinese movies.
For instance, some film production studios in the United States have said they were given approval just days before the release dates, resulting in little time to create effective marketing campaigns. They noted that on the other hand, domestic films have months to do so.
Foreign filmmakers have also had to, in some instances, delay their release dates so their movies do not compete with domestic titles.
 Among the issues is that it is hard to predict what will be censored. Films may also require editing before they are allowed to be shown to the Chinese audience.
Still, analysts said China’s film market is one filmmakers cannot ignore, given its size and growth potential. It grew at a rate of 83 per cent in 2023, much faster than the global rate of 30.5 per cent.
It is currently the second largest box office in the world after Hollywood, accounting for almost a quarter of global ticket sales. 
Ms Yin Wenyan, an assistant professor at Seoul Business School whose research includes China’s film industry, said that imported films are necessary to boost the Chinese market. 
“Although Chinese filmmakers can produce high-quality films, they cannot satisfy the entire Chinese market,” she said, noting that only about of the movies are screened in cinemas.
“There are still a lot of low-quality films, so in order to satisfy the growing Chinese consumer market, we still need foreign films.”