To improve the competitiveness of domestic films, Chinese government advocated market-oriented reforms and actively promoted the Hollywood model. By the end of 20th century, 10 Hollywood movies conquered about 70% of China’s film market, while domestic films only captured the remaining 30% ( Rosen, 2002 Zheng, 2000). Hollywood played a role of “savior” during this period as its films attracted a large number of audiences and boosted the box office ( Wan, 2005).
To bolster the rapid plummeting film market, Chinese government decided to open the door to Hollywood and facilitated the reform in film industry. And thousands of film-related enterprises either closed or were forced to do other business ( Fang, 1997). A majority of Chinese movie studios were heavily debt-ridden. The number of Chinese moviegoers decreased 5 million person-times every year, resulting in a deep decline of box office ( Wang & Ren, 1999). China’s film market had suffered a great depression during the 1990s. It should also attribute to the need of China’s film market. Hollywood’s return should first attribute to China’s reform and open policies, which have fundamentally transformed China’s economic and cultural landscapes. And Warner Brothers became the first studio that had revenue share contract with China Film Export and Import Corporation, a model followed by many other Hollywood studios ( Jihong & Kraus, 2002). In 1994, the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television decided to import 10 Hollywood movies. Paramount and Universal were the first Hollywood studios that distributed their movies in China. Hollywood regained its access after China adopted reform and open policies. But its access to Chinese market had been interrupted for three decades since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. During the two decades of 1930s and 1940s, Hollywood movies occupied about 75% of Chinese film market ( Wendy, 2011). Hollywood first accessed China as early as 1930s when Chinese films were regarded as in the “golden age” ( Y. These interconnections suggested new angles to understand the relationship between Hollywood and China, and revealed their complex and dialectical impacts on the soft power of both China and the United States. The interconnections of these three themes and the categories under them were discussed. They urged the government to dedicate special scrutiny on Chinese investments in Hollywood, and suggested to broaden the definition of national security by including film and news media institutions ( Wong, 2016).īy analyzing the US media coverage of “The Great Wall” film, this study identified three major themes from the content: business, soft power, and whitewashing. In all, 16 US House of Representative members penned a letter to the head of the Government Accountability Office. These acquisitions caused the trepidation of Chinese incursion in the movie industry in the US public sector. The relationship between Hollywood and China has come to be prominent in recent years, as Chinese companies such as the Dahlian Wanda Group ( hereafter, Wanda) have made huge investments in Hollywood.
As Hollywood is a national brand for the United States and plays a vital role in building America’s soft power, this co-production also has significant implications for the soft power of both nations. Obviously, “The Great Wall” is not a successful movie compared with other Hollywood blockbusters such as “Transformers” and “Avatar.” Nevertheless, this biggest co-production film has significant implications for the relationship between Hollywood and China. Only 35% of critics gave it positive reviews. This film was also rated low on Rotten Tomatoes, an American review aggregation website for film and television. It only grossed US$45.1 million in the United States and Canada, the biggest film market in the world. In the United States and other markets outside mainland China, the box office performance was disappointing. Although moviegoers rated it 4.9 out of 10 at Douban, the most influential film social media networking site, the film gained US$170.9 million from Chinese market. Directed by the most renowned Chinese director Zhang Yimou, and casted by many superstars in both Hollywood and China such as Matt Damon, Andy Lau and Hanyu Zhang, this film attracted the attentions of film professionals, critics, and moviegoers in China. “The Great Wall” film is the biggest US–China co-production in history with a cost around US$150 million.