(1) CHINA - German Films

CHINA
Population: 1.375 billion
NB: In the absence of comprehensive statistics, this is an outline report
(1) CHINA: THEATRICAL MARKET OVERVIEW
Screens
Theatrical admissions (millions)
Per capita attendance
Box office (EUR billions*)
Average ticket price (EUR)
German releases
Domestic market share
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
9,286
370
0.3
1.59
4.8
4
53.6%
13,118
470
0.3
2.08
5.0
1
48.5%
18,195
612
0.4
2.57
4.8
2
58.7%
24,607
830
0.6
3.96
5.3
1
54.5%
31,627
1,260
0.9
6.24
4.97
1
61.6%
*EUR equivalents are calculated throughout at the exchange rate for December 31 of the year in question.
Market Study China 2011-2015, August 2016, by Split Screen for German Films
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(2) THEATRICAL RELEASES IN CHINA
TITLE
DISTRIBUTOR RELEASE DATE
BOX OFFICE
$US
2011 German films (100% or majority co-productions)
KONFERENZ DER TIERE (Ger)
China Film Group
KLEINER STARKER PANDA (Ger/Cn/Bel/Sp)
n/a
I PHONE YOU (Ger/Cn)
n/a
LAURAS STERN UND DER GEHEIMNISVOLLE DRACHE NIAN (Ger/Cn)Toonmax Media/Beijing Kaku Media
24.05.11
02.02.11
13.10.11
24.04.11
10,000,000
7,060,000
610,000
400,000
China Film Group/Huaxia Film Distribution
n/a
6,300,000
China Film Group
Huaxia Film Distribution
August
n/a
14,000,000
294,000
Huaxia Film Distribution
Sony Pictures Releasing
30.01.13
17.03.13
27,710,000
17,760,313
Huaxia Film Distribution
21.08.14
3,010,000
2012 German films (100% or majority co-productions)
THE THREE MUSKETEERS (Ger/Fr/UK/US)
2012 German minority co-productions
THE MECHANIC (US/Ger)
LARGO WINCH II (Fr/Ger/Bel)
2013 German films (100% or majority co-productions)
CLOUD ATLAS (Ger/US)
RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION (Ger/Can)
2014 German films (100% or majority co-productions)
TARZAN 3D (Ger)
Market Study China 2011-2015, August 2016, by Split Screen for German Films
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2014 German minority co-productions
POMPEII (Can/Ger)
THE MONUMENTS MEN (US/Ger)
THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES (Ger/Can)
NIKO 2: LENTÄJÄVELJEKSET (Fin/Den/Ire/Ger)
LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE (Fr/Ger)
EYJAFJALLOJÖKULL (Fr/Ger)
Huaxia Film Distribution
China Film Group
Huaxia Film Distribution
China Film Group
Huaxia Film Distribution
China Film Group
14.08.14
28.03.14
03.01.14
01.02.14
12.09.14
n/a
15,630,000
7,350,000
4,260,000
3,300,000
2,490,000
1,000,000
Lionsgate
12.04.15
550,000
DMG Entertainment
Leeding Media
06.12.15
12.11.15
39,403.259
1,758,414
2015 German films (100% or majority productions)
WHO AM I – KEIN SYSTEM IST SICHER (Ger)
2015 German minority co-productions
POINT BREAK (US/Ger)
RUSH (UK/Ger/US)
Market Study China 2011-2015, August 2016, by Split Screen for German Films
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(3) CHINA: DISTRIBUTORS OF GERMAN FILMS
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
TOTAL
Huaxia Film Distribution
-
-
*1
1
1
3
China Film Group
1
-
*1
-
-
2
*1
*1
-
1
-
-
1
-
1
1
1
1
Beijing Kaku Media
Lionsgate
Sony Pictures Releasing
Toonmax Media
* joint distribution
Market Study China 2011-2015, August 2016, by Split Screen for German Films
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(4) CHINA: GERMAN FILMS ON TV
Channel: Cinemax
Dates: 16-22 August 2016
The HBO-owned and operated Cinemax channel is one of a handful
of channels offering international movies, which in practice means
English-language films (the one Thai movie in the chart opposite is
a Jean-Claude Van Damme actioner filmed in Thailand).
The chart does not include repeats or HBO TV series.
China: Films on TV by country
of origin
US
UK
Australia
Thailand
Market Study China 2011-2015, August 2016, by Split Screen for German Films
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(5) CHINA: GERMAN FILMS ON VOD
Platform: iQIYI.com
Sample: 500 ‘European’ titles
The chart opposite is made up of all films (but not TV series)
labelled as ‘Europe’ on the iQIYI website – a label which effectively
means non-Hollywood and non-Asian.
‘Other Europe’ consists of Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Czech
Republic; Denmark; Finland; Greece; Greenland; Hungary; Ireland;
Malta; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Romania; Serbia; Slovakia;
Sweden; and Switzerland.
‘Other’ comprises Argentina; Australia; Chile; Congo (DR); India;
Iran; Israel; Jamaica; Mexico; New Zealand; Peru; and Turkey.
German titles are: ALMANYA - WILLKOMMEN IN DEUTSCHLAND;
ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER; BERLIN ’36; BOLLYWOOD
LÄSST ALPEN GLÜHEN; CITIZENFOUR; DEVOT; DU HAST ES
VERSPROCHEN;
FEUERHERZ;
FRIEDLICHE
ZEITEN;
FUNNYMOVIE; GEHEIMCODE WOLFS-JAGD; GOODBYE BAFANA;
GNADE; DAS GRÜNE WUNDER - UNSER WALD; HAFEN DER
DÜFTEN; HELL; HEUTE BIN ICH BLOND; GLÜCK; IM LABYRINTH
DES SCHWEIGENS; IRON DOORS; KEINOHRHASEN; DAS KLEINE
GESPENST; KOKOWÄÄH; LAUF JUNGE LAUF; LILA, LILA; ROTE
SONNE AFRIKA; RUSSISCHE ROULETTE; STALINGRAD; V8 RACHE DES NITROS; VERGISS NIE, DASS ICH DICH LIEBE; DIE
VIERTE MACHT; VOM SUCHEN UND FINDEN DER LIEBE;
WAFFENSTILLSTAND; WER FRÜHER STIRBT IST LÄNGER TOT;
WHO AM I - KEIN SYSTEM IST SICHER; DAS WILDE LEBEN; and
WIR WOLLTEN AUFS MEER.
China: VOD titles by country of
origin
France
UK
Germany
Italy
Spain
Russia
Canada
Market Study China 2011-2015, August 2016, by Split Screen for German Films
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(6) CHINA: COMMENTARY
From being an exotic footnote to the international filmed entertainment market a decade ago, China has seen such headlong box-office
growth over the past five years that it is now the world’s second or third largest market. The uncertainty comes from the fact that its rival for
the No 2 slot, India, is also lacking in hard and fast statistics (as opposed to informed guesses). Commercial pressures and government
secrecy have, for once, produced the same result: we can only make judgments from the available information. And that information does not
allow detailed analysis of the corner of the Chinese theatrical market where German films are sometimes to be found.
Statistics apart, the expansion in the Chinese film business over the past half-decade has been, by any standards, breath-taking. The number
of screens has more than trebled, from 9,286 to 31,627. What is more, the 22,000 screens that have been added since 2011 have been built to
the highest specifications: as in India, market leaders are driving growth not just by adding extra seats but by vastly improving the quality of
the cinema-going experience. And the policy has paid off: attendances have likewise more than trebled, from 370 million to 1.26 billion, while
box office has climbed by just short of 300%. One example should indicate the significance of the Chinese market: FURIOUS 7, the top film in
China in 2015, took $391 million at the Chinese box office, compared with $353 million in the US.
Accessing this market for a foreign sales agent or producer is, however, still difficult. The importation of foreign films into China is strictly
controlled and can follow one of three routes. A co-production with China is treated as a Chinese film and faces no restrictions – although, of
course, the process of setting up a co-production can be extremely complex. The second system involves revenue-sharing and is, in practice,
limited to films from the American studios or mini-majors. Introduced in 1994, it was initially capped at 10 films a year, then increased in 2001
to 20, with a further 14 slots added for 3D and IMAX films in 2012. Marketing costs are borne by the foreign film company and revenue return is
capped at 25% of the gross. There is currently much talk about the possibility of the cap being removed entirely by 2017, and/or that special
provision will be made for ‘prestige’ films – basically, arthouse movies which have won prizes at international festivals.
This may well lead to the eventual demise of the third way for foreign films to enter China: a flat-fee system, equivalent to that which operated
in the US in the early days of cinema. A distributor buys all rights to the film, with no further revenue accruing to the foreign filmmaker, no
matter how well the movie does. This is the only viable point of access for US indie and European films. Both complex and inefficient, it seems
out-of-keeping with other economic developments in China.
Market Study China 2011-2015, August 2016, by Split Screen for German Films
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As things now stand, then, very few German films make their way onto the Chinese market through any of these portals: we have been able to
identify just nine in the past five years. Of these, three – KLEINER STARKER PANDA; I PHONE YOU; and LAURAS STERN UND DER
GEHEIMNISVOLLE DRACHE NIAN – all released in 2011, were co-productions. The remainder were films distributed worldwide by the studios
or by major independents (WHO AM I - KEIN SYSTEM IST SICHER was released in China by Lionsgate, whose position in the territory was
cemented by the TWILIGHT films). But as the available information in Section (2) will show, distribution can be lucrative: get into wide
distribution in China and the potential is considerable.
But it is the VOD market which is attracting the most attention at the moment. Although currently quite modest at an estimated EUR 160
million, it is increasing in size at at least the rate of the theatrical business, and is currently controlled by three major Chinese corporations:
online retail giant Alibaba, which has a deal with Disney and streaming rights to Universal movies; search engine Baidu, whose iQIYI VOD site
has a deal with Fox and already has 10 million subscribers, and social media and gaming platform Tencent.
The content analysis of the iQIYI platform in Section (5) above, which we believe to be the first ever done on a Chinese VOD site, suggests a
much wider range of films than is currently found in theatrical distribution. True, some of them are TV movies and the kind of low-budget
films that serve as ballast on any VOD platform. But there are also prestigious non-studio films like Oscar®-winning THE THEORY OF
EVERYTHING. Also interesting is the fact that German films make up the third largest category on the ‘European’ film list, after the UK and
France, with titles that range from popular (KOKOWÄÄH) via challenging documentaries (CITIZENFOUR) to children’s films (DAS KLEINE
GESPENST). We do not have information on how these films found their way onto iQIYI – as mini-libraries or by individual acquisition. But for
the moment it looks as though German films are beginning to carve out a genuine niche on Chinese VOD.
(7) CHINA: SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CIA World Factbook, XE Currency Converter, European Audiovisual Observatory, Box-Office Mojo, China Media News (CMM), Digital TV
Research, National Bureau of Statistics Republic of China, State Administration of Radio, Film & TV (SARFT), China Film Biz, FilmBiz Asia, The
Hollywood Reporter, FilmDoo.com. HBO Cinemax, Baidu (iQIYI).
Market Study China 2011-2015, August 2016, by Split Screen for German Films
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