Latest update October 21st, 2015 12:41 PM
THE IMITATION GAME
By Xu Jia
Academy Award winner THE IMITATION GAME’s absolute B.O. revenue in Mainland China, compared with other summer hits, is just OK, but its industrial significance lies in the fact that it is the first time a foreign biopic has earned this much in China.
Most local distributors believe that only action or sci-fi films can be profitable: ESCAPE PLAN, IRON MAN 3 and THE EXPENDABLES franchise are solid examples. Past records also show that award-winning foreign films might find it hard to attract a Chinese crowd: THE KING’S SPEECH, A SEPARATION and THE ARTIST did fumble their way to the Chinese theater, but none won over 1 million USD. The reasons varied.
It took a long time for these flat-fee imported films to meet the Chinese movie-goers: The basic procedure is – first to get an import quota and import the film, submit it for local censor SAPPRFT’s review, and then wait for a viable date for its theatrical distribution if it survives the strict examination. To get a quota from the only two authorities that have the right to import films – China Film Group or Huaxia Film Distribution Co., Ltd. – the buyer (usually a private Chinese film company) needs to be well-connected. It should also make sure that this film has no X-rated scenes, or it’ll need a local editing (bantered as a special Chinese version).
Wang Haiyi, Strategy & BD Partner of Hi-Show Entertainment, the one who is behind the import and distribution of THE IMITATION GAME, told The Chinese Film Market that this whole process can be unpredictable and time-consuming that there is not much time left for a film’s nationwide marketing.
Despite the known obstacles, Wang has had faith in importing THE IMITATION GAME. As a matter of fact, he had the chance to read the script three years ago and loved it, though he and his team went a bit hesitant when the pirate version was leaked and quite a number of local audiences thus watched this film illegally already.
Unlike the imported films from big Hollywood Studios that can send a rough cut to their China office who’d submit it for content review in advance, and even secure a China distribution synchronizing their North American premiere, independent film companies tend not to offer many marketing materials to their China partners too soon – it takes time to build mutual trust.
When THE IMITATION GAME’s release date (July 21st) was finally decided, there was only 10 days to do extensive marketing, said Wang. Also, earning 0.44 million USD on the first day did not help to convince theater managers to arrange more screens. It’s basically the Matthew Effect – a better kick-off will always help to get a film more screens and vice versa. It failed to win its first battle and the media buzz simply mocked: “Another award-winning film goes to waste.”
Hi-Show Entertainment then took a series of immediate actions: showing the theater managers data with general high admissions and co-branding with various products. Positive word-of-mouth circulated on different social media platforms. Benedict Cumberbatch’s local fans also played an important role – some even organized crowd funding in smaller cities in order to get more screens for this film. Most of these fans were mesmerized by his role in the BBC series SHERLOCK and wouldn’t miss this chance to see him on the big screen.
The film finally made a remarkable performance in Mainland China. In almost 2 weeks’ time, it was on the top 3 highest admissions list. In 4 weeks, it raked in 8.22 million USD (52.5 million RMB).
Wang concluded this result will give the Chinese buyers more confidence in cinema diversity that the local audiences can actually appreciate a delicate foreign film – It was a pity the film was granted only 4 weeks of theatrical distribution. Hopefully one day, such films can have more screenings in selected cinemas over a longer period of time. He also stated that his company would distribute more drama films in the future.
- This article was published on the CFM Toronto issue.
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