The surprise hit in Chinese theaters last year was a low-budget, wacky road-trip comedy that even beat out global blockbuster “Avatar” to become the country’s highest-grossing film ever. But “Lost in Thailand” found just a paltry $57,000 during its U.S. theatrical release.
The film that earned 1.26 billion yuan ($200 million) in China joins other homegrown hits that have flopped internationally, and is the latest sign that while the country has become a box-office superpower, it faces a harder task fulfilling its leaders’ hopes that its studios will be able to rival Hollywood for global influence.
Action-comedy “Let the Bullets Fly,” starring Chow Yun-fat, grossed $111 million at home but $63,000 in the United States, while action-fantasy “Painted Skin: The Resurrection,” starring Donnie Yen, earned $113 million domestically but $50,400 in the U.S., according to Hollywood.com.
Chinese movies’ overseas box office receipts fell 48 percent last year, alarming regulators, who also worried about Hollywood movies taking more than half of ticket revenue, which totaled 17 billion yuan ($2.7 billion), for the first time in nine years. Tong Gang, head of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, urged filmmakers to “better express Chinese images and stories in line with the international film mainstream” and step up their marketing and publicity, according to state media.
China’s film industry has been reaching out to Hollywood in search of co-production deals that would help studios make movies that both Chinese and global audiences like. They’re hoping to make the next “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” a 2000 U.S.-China-Hong Kong-Taiwan co-production that became a global blockbuster.
But film distributors say selling China’s movies to the world is hampered by subject matter that doesn’t travel well, different storytelling methods and the sheer size of its own market.
Lim Teck, managing director of Singaporean producer and distributor Clover Films, said China has become so lucrative local studios don’t need to think about other markets.
“China has become so big and so powerful. Basically a lot of movies nowadays are very China-centric,” Lim said at a panel discussion at the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market, a major trade show.
“They’re produced primarily for the China local market, which is nothing wrong because the market is so big, but with that in mind it sort of undermines the (appeal to the) rest of Asia,” Lim said.
Doris Pfardrescher, president of distributor Well Go USA, said the kinds of movies that are popular in China today — romances, comedies and fantasy flicks — don’t necessarily appeal to audiences in other countries.
“For the U.S. market, what primarily does well are your martial arts action films. … Usually they have simplified stories. It’s all about visual effect. They’re just easier to consume as far as with the fanboys,” she said, adding that China is making fewer and fewer such movies.
“The films that are being made now, the Chinese films, are these romantic comedies that just don’t do well for us.”
“Lost in Thailand” follows two businessmen who encounter a tourist while searching for their boss. While it has been applauded for depicting modern middle-class life in China, critics say its humor doesn’t appeal outside China.
In an interview, director Xu Zheng said, “I didn’t even think of the foreign market when I was making the film, because the budget was limited.” Had he known it would have been released in other countries, “I might have changed some things in my script.”
China’s censorship system has also been blamed for limiting the kinds of films made, as filmmakers stay away from edgy subjects like in contemporary thrillers in favor of safer storylines.
Film distributors said there are also subtle differences in storytelling, especially with historical and cultural touchstones that differ among audiences.
“There are a lot of things you need to explain and tell to the Western audience (that) would be considered boring” to a Chinese audience, said Jeffrey Chan, CEO of Hong Kong-based Distribution Workshop.
Action movies aside, “you need social, historical, cultural background. Then the way you tell it to a Chinese audience and the way you tell it to a non-Chinese audience will be very different,” Chan said.
Pfardrescher added that for “a lot of Chinese films that I see there is this assumption that Americans know maybe the history or the political humor or something, but unfortunately we don’t. We don’t understand. We don’t know. So it doesn’t translate.
“The only way to do that is to make a lot longer movie to explain it all, but it would be very boring for Chinese audiences.”
Directing and Editing “Conclave”; Insights From Edward Berger and Nick Emerson
It’s been a bruising election year but this time we’re referring to a ballot box struggle that’s more adult than the one you’d typically first think of in 2024. Rather, on the industry awards front, the election being cited is that of the Pope which takes front and center stage in director Edward Berger’s Conclave (Focus Features), based on the 2016 novel of the same title by Robert Harris. Adapted by screenwriter Peter Straugham, Conclave stars Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal leading the conclave that has convened to select the next Pope. While part political thriller, full of backstabbing and behind-closed-door machinations, Conclave also registers as a thoughtful adult drama dealing with themes such as a crisis of faith, weighing the greater good, and engaging in a struggle that’s as much about spirituality as the attainment of power.
Conclave is Berger’s first feature after his heralded All Quiet on the Western Front, winner of four Oscars in 2023, including for Best International Feature Film. And while Conclave would on the surface seem to be quite a departure from that World War I drama, there’s a shared bond of humanity which courses through both films.
For Berger, the heightened awareness of humanity hit home for him by virtue of where he was--in Rome, primarily at the famed Cinecittà studio--to shoot Conclave, sans any involvement from the Vatican. He recalled waking up in Rome to “soak up” the city. While having his morning espresso, Berger recollected looking out a window and seeing a priest walking about with a cigarette in his mouth, a nun having a cup of coffee, an archbishop carrying a briefcase. It dawned on Berger that these were just people going to... Read More