MCLC: more 3-d, less reality

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: more 3-d, less reality
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (2/19/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/business/media/more-3-d-less-reality-in-u
s-china-movie-pact.html

In China Movie Pact, More 3-D, Less Reality
By MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES ‹ More ³Mission: Impossible²? Bring it on.

The next ³Les Misérables²? We¹ll see.

A new agreement widening access in China to films from around the world,
announced by negotiators for China and the United States late on Friday,
brings with it a message about what the next wave of movie exports will
look like: They will be large, in 3-D and mostly unrelated to the real
world.

In an interview on Sunday, Christopher J. Dodd, chief executive of the
Motion Picture Association of America, said the focus on premium-format
films reflected a bit of diplomacy that allowed the Chinese to add 14
films in a special category, without formally abandoning their existing
quota of 20.

³To use their words, it was too politically sensitive for them to break
that 20-film quota,² said Mr. Dodd. The new system, he said, is subject to
review in five years, and it is still possible that American studios and
officials will press for more access in the interim.

The agreement carries a proviso that the special-category films be
available in premium 3-D or large-screen Imax formats, even if they are
accompanied by conventional 2-D versions.

To some extent, the format requirement simply corresponds to realities in
the Chinese market. Rapid growth in the number of screens ‹ from about
6,200 last year to a projected 16,000 three years from now ‹ has been
accompanied by a major expansion in both 3-D and Imax theaters, with an
audience response to match.

³Mission: Impossible ‹ Ghost Protocol,² which had an Imax version, and
³Transformers: Dark of the Moon,² in both Imax and 3-D, were blockbusters
in China. ³Avatar,² another 3-D extravaganza, played 24 hours a day in
some Chinese theaters.

But the agreement effectively guarantees, at least for the foreseeable
future, that only Hollywood¹s most fantastic enterprises will be admitted
to China on a favored basis, since those dominate the premium formats
specified in the trade deal.

Of about three dozen 3-D films scheduled for release by American studios
in the next year, almost all are animated whimsy, like ³Dr. Seuss¹ the
Lorax,² from Universal Pictures; superhero fantasies, like ³The Amazing
Spider-Man,² from Sony Pictures; horror, like ³The Cabin in the Woods,²
from Lionsgate; or science fiction, like ³Prometheus,² from 20th Century
Fox.

A ³Titanic² re-issue in 3-D from Paramount Pictures, and a 3-D version of
³The Great Gatsby,² from Warner Brothers, are among a handful of films
that might be favored under the new rule, while bridging any cultural
divide between West and East with reality-based stories.

If Universal¹s new version of ³Les Misérables² appears next December in
3-D or Imax, it can presumably seek to take advantage of the expanded
quota as well. Mr. Dodd speculated that the agreement might prod some
studios to reformat existing films in 3-D versions, or to develop a
broader range of 3-D and large-screen fare.

The agreement ‹ struck partly through personal diplomacy between two vice
presidents, Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Xi Jinping ‹ also increased a foreign
studio¹s permitted share of box-office receipts from a film released in
China to 25 percent, from 13 percent. The deal promises a significant
increase in revenue from a growing Chinese movie market that had $2.1
billion in ticket sales last year, and is expected to reach $5 billion by
2015.

Speaking this month about a new China-based film fund that expects to
invest at least $800 million in both Chinese film distribution and in
Western-led productions, Bruno Wu, one of its partners, pointed to
³Mission: Impossible ‹ Ghost Protocol² ‹ a fanciful action thriller ‹ as
the kind of import that would have a future in China.

³We¹re primarily going to be working with the tent-pole side of the
business,² Mr. Wu said in an interview.

The Independent Film and Television Alliance, which represents independent
filmmakers, said the agreement included provisions that would help
independent movies, with their often-grittier fare, get a share of the
Chinese market. Mr. Dodd said he believed nonstudio films attracted nearly
$100 million in China last year.

While allowing new rights to audit film revenue and consult on marketing
campaigns, the independent film alliance noted, the deal also bars any
attempt by a Chinese partner to declare rejection by state censors a
material breach of a distribution agreement.
Instead, the alliance said, a film studio and Chinese state-owned
enterprises will be required to ³work together when these situations
arise.²

And arise they may, even with the 3-D blockbusters newly permitted by the
deal.

A film as fanciful as ³Mission: Impossible III,² after all, required some
editing for the Chinese market: unflattering scenes that showed laundry
hanging in Shanghai had to be cut for its 2006 release there.