BRICs Turn Film Market on its Head
Rapid growth in box office takings from Brazil, Russia, India and China has "flipped" the film market, focusing US filmmakers and distributors on international opportunities and creating a bigger US market for foreign films, according to Imax, the Canadian cinema group.
China overtook Japan as the largest international film market last year, growing by 36 per cent to $2.7 billion, IHS Screen Digest reported last month. Combined box office takings from China, India, Russia and Brazil doubled to $6.2 billion between 2008 and 2012 and will double again by 2017 to equal North America, IHS estimates.
With BRIC markets showing compound annual growth of 14.9 per cent since 2008 compared with 2.2 per cent in the US, international audiences are becoming "a much bigger part of our programming strategy", said Rich Gelfond, Imax chief executive.
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Imax will release six films in China this year, up from two in 2011, including Journey to the West, which analysts predict could break Chinese box office records. Imax is negotiating US distribution of Journey to the West and other Chinese titles after grossing $170,000 when it showed Flying Swords of Dragon Gate on 15 US screens for a week last August.
Imax will release its first Bollywood film, Dhoom 3, on Indian screens this year. It is negotiating to distribute the film in the US and will release other foreign titles there this year including Stalingrad from Russia and Dragonball from Japan.
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Falling costs of digital production and distribution have lowered barriers for foreign filmmakers, Mr Gelfond said, making it viable to market overseas films to expatriates and wider audiences in the US.
The fact that non-US markets now account for 69 per cent of the $34.7 billion global film market has cultural repercussions, Mr Gelfond added. "The box office has flipped so the whole making of movies has flipped. No big movie is made without a careful assessment of content."
He cited the international success of Life of Pi , filmed in part in India and directed by Taiwan's Ang Lee, which made almost as much in China as in the US.
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"The question for me is does it affect soft power and the export of US values," Mr Gelfond said. "There is no question in my mind that China sees the export of movies as part of its soft power. The question is, are audiences interested in soft power messages?"
Directors are adapting to different markets' demands. Relativity Media shot two endings for its comedy 21 and Over, with US audiences enjoying a hedonistic romp while Chinese viewers saw a moral about the Chinese star rediscovering his roots after flirting with corrupt western ways.
As studios become more wary of casting villains from growth markets, "Hollywood is trying to be more politically neutral", Mr Gelfond added.