Hollywood films with Chinese elements a
While major Hollywood studios have seen decreased earnings in the domestic market, offshore box office earnings totaled a record 13.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, with China as one of the major forces driving up ticket sales.Kazinform has learned from Xinhua.
Last year, China's film market generated 13.1 billion yuan (2 billion dollars), of which 4.9 billion yuan, or 37 percent, was generated by ticket sales for U.S. blockbusters.
Since China imported its first American movie, "The Fugitive," in 1994, the country has increasingly contributed to Hollywood's earnings.
It is expected by some to overtake Japan, which had a 2.3-billion-U.S.-dollar film market last year, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
No film producer would dare ignore this market, and director James Cameron has even made China a major destination for his firm's film shoots and promotional activities and described China's 3D film and TV market as "an endless prospect."
"When I came to China in 2010, there were 600 screens showing films. Now, however, 'Titanic 3D' is being shown on 2,800 screens," Cameron said of the film that recently set records in the Chinese mainland.
His sci-fi smash-hit "Avatar" is the highest-grossing film of all time, marking up 2.78 billion U.S. dollars worldwide, including 200 million U.S. dollars in China.
"So what can be more useful than a film with a Chinese story in seizing a share of the tremendous market," said film theorist Dai Jinhua.
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