Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Why China is courting Hollywood again

Credit: Getty

Until a few years ago, Hollywood dominated Chinese cinemas. In the People’s Republic, Marvel’s superhero romps were the people’s favourite. In 2019, Avengers: Endgame took more than 4 billion RMB (£510 million) at Chinese box offices. That success might partly explain why the Chinese Communist party went on to effectively ban Marvel films for the next three years. Real heroes should be Chinese. 

Other Hollywood smash-hits such as Top Gun: Maverick and Spider-Man: No Way Home have also beendenied entry into the Chinese market. A new Film Administration Bureau, created in 2018 and headed by a Xi loyalist, brought film distribution closer to the party line. Last year, only 29 American-made films were released in China; compared to 73 in 2018. One estimate put the China-shaped gap for Hollywood at $2 billion. American filmmakers were about to lose hope.

But that’s all changing with the end of zero Covid. This month, Marvel is off the blacklist as Beijing approves the Chinese release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This comes after Avatar: The Way of Water was allowed an extended run over the Chinese New Year period. 

Chinese filmmakers might also get a break. Their films are still frequently censored for being politically or culturally insensitive (the CCP is prudish on sex and suicide). But there’s a new head at the Film Administration Bureau: 57 year old Mao Yu graduated from Beijing Film Academy (the same school that trained some of China’s greatest directors). Industry insiders see him as someone who empathises with filmmakers more than his loyalist predecessor (now the party secretary of Sichuan).

What else changed? The outlet Semafor reports that Disney’s former CEO, Bob Chapek, lobbied China’s then-ambassador to Washington Qin Gang early last year. Qin is now China’s minister of foreign affairs, a promotion from the DC post to be sure, but Chapek is unlikely to have been the reason for the U-turn.

The question of this year’s economic recovery could be existential for the CCP

It’s more that Beijing is desperate for the business.

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