China Enters 'World of Warcraft' Hollywood Style

China Film Group (CFG), the government run agency that overseas China's film industry, has signed a multi-million deal with Legendary Pictures to fund two fantasy films based upon the epic video games - World of Warcraft and Seventh Son. CFG is the only authorized importer of foreign films into China and this will be the first time the agency will be funding Hollywood made productions from scratch.  The scheduled release date for Seventh Son is February 2016 with Warcraft to follow in March.

Following the purchase, last year, of the AMC Theatre Group (the U.S.'s second largest theatre circuit) by the Wanda Group, a Chinese-based development company, the deal with Legendary Pictures indicates that the Chinese are very serious about building a robust and vibrant cinema industry to compete with Hollywood - both in terms of production and distribution.  "The partnership with Legendary is a new attempt in this progress. I believe our collaboration will become an effective step for both parties in terms of resource integration and market expansion", stated La Peikang, Chairman of CFG.

With China predicted to overtake the U.S. as the world's biggest box office generator by 2020, China sees the movie industry as a means to spread its culture and values throughout the globe. The current annual quota of foreign films allowed distribution in China is only 34. The CFG has indicated that the quota will be increased to 44 films, prompted by the Legendary deal.  China limits foreign film releases (principally U.S. films) to bolster the box office of homegrown movies. However, this strategy isn't working so well as the Hollywood blockbusters dramatically outperform the big budget Chinese productions.  So, the strategy now is - if you can't beat them, join them - thus the co-production of Hollywood movies for distribution in and outside of China.

I say, all the best. More quality production and more competition the better the end result of what we will be viewing on the big screen.

Jim Lavorato