Hollywood's New Strategy: Supporting Chinese-Made Blockbusters
If you've seen the 2012 science fiction movie Looper, you might remember a telling exchange when a time-traveling hitman (Bruce Willis) sits down with a young version of himself (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and offers some advice.
"You should go to China," Willis says firmly.
Gordon-Levitt resists: "I'm going to France."
"I'm from the future," Willis insists. "You should go to China."
It's almost as if Hollywood is giving advice to itself. Like every other gigantic business, Hollywood wants to sell its products in China. But selling movies in China is different from selling bubble gum or Coke. The country's official gatekeeper, the China Film Group, allows in only 34 foreign films per year, a number recently raised from only 20.
Many millions of dollars of ticket sales come along with snagging one of those coveted spots. So Hollywood's been trying — and trying and trying — to appeal to Chinese audiences while appeasing Chinese censors.
Working Together, Officially
As an "official co-production," Looper cast a certain number of Chinese actors, a certain number of Chinese crew, set a certain number of scenes in China and made other concessions, in exchange for a bigger cut of the box office than other U.S. movies and a preferential release date. (Movies released during major Chinese holidays perform significantly better at the box office.)