Posted on 08/31/2018 10:25:29 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
For a country which will soon assume the mantle of the world's largest cinema audience, China comes out with a surprising number of big budget B-grade flops.
Some blame this on censorship, others on a lack of creativity but there are also those who see a more sinister force at work, which has nothing to do with film-making.
It also has nothing to do with selling tickets: at least not real ones.
Some investors are apparently financially backing movies with the sole goal of boosting their stock price that can shift on the perception of a movie's performance, irrespective of its true popularity.
Chinese film critic and industry observer Raymond Zhou has been digging into the darker side of film financing in his country.
"When you have a hit film, your stock price will go up several times in terms of market valuation compared with the grosses from the box office so some 'financial genius', came up with this idea: Why don't I have fake box office numbers so that I can make much more money from the stock market?" he said.
I asked if it could really be true that producers were seeking to make money in ways that had nothing to do with putting bums on seats in theatres; nothing to do with making beautiful films?
"The natural way is to make a good movie and then your stock price will go up right?" he responded.
"But some people have reversed this equation. They have seen the rise of the stock price as the ultimate goal and have just used the making of the movie as an excuse."
Phantom tickets
So what is actually happening?
According to Chinese government investigators, certain production and investment companies have developed ways of faking box office results.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
So, are the Chinese movie moguls the first ones to come up with this ruse, or is it commonplace?
One hour after watching a Chinese movie ...
Then you’d likely be hungry.
I can get behind China on this if they mess with Hollywood.
[So, are the Chinese movie moguls the first ones to come up with this ruse, or is it commonplace?]
I’m hearing that these Chinese entertainment conglomerates are buffing their numbers by stealing from the ticket sales of blockbuster Hollywood productions. In other words, a Chinese movie goer will buy a ticket for Star Wars XXXVI, but the computer system will record a sale for The PLA’s Glorious Victory over the American Running Dogs produced by the conglomerate. That way, the conglomerate avoids having to pay Disney its 25% cut of the Star Wars movie ticket sales. https://variety.com/2017/film/box-office/china-box-office-audit-mpaa-get-tough-fraud-1202479488/ The resume enhancement for the studio’s own movies is actually a side benefit.
Hungry again?
Ready to see another movie, preferably an American one.
I want to see American Pie
China movies suck.
They are made to show the genocidal communist madmen as amiable.
The tall Chinaman movie is a false stereotype.
The do good China military General is to hide his evil.
Bkmk?
“Some investors are apparently financially backing movies with the sole goal of boosting their stock price that can shift on the perception of a movie’s performance, irrespective of its true popularity. “
Wait....Are we still talking about China?
Sounds like the Cannon Films model. Anybody know where Golan and Globus are, assuming not six feet under?
So when Hollywood makes movies like Gravity and The Martian with plot points that are pro-China they’re appeasing an audience in China that isn’t really there in the theaters.
Big budget B-movies does not compute.
The mob used their porno theaters in the 1970s to launder money. Deep Throat was a front page hit/novelty but at one point they weren’t even using tickets.
I went into a video store in Toronto’s Chinatown a few years ago to browse the selection. There were a lot of war movies. While I could not read the titles or descriptions, they seemed to copy the Soviet war movie genre with the pretty girl thrown in. And I realized who the “bad guys” were in the movie.
There are two things communist countries are particularly bad at making: movies and cars. Dating in a communist country must really suck.
Hollywood first has to get past the Chinese censor, only about 2 dozen foreign films get in the country officially. Disney needs all of those slots, how else are Chinese going to follow the Marvel Universe films otherwise?
Hong King movies rocked and kicked Leatal Weapon’s ass.
Occasionally we read that that the Chinese wonder why THEY aren’t or haven’t been the dominant world power. THIS is why.
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