Movie industry exploring paths to rejuvenation

China's film industry has been striving to produce more high-quality movies, but moviegoers are becoming more selective about what they want to watch. As a result, the movie market often encounters an indifferent audience.

China's film industry faces five major challenges.

First, movies are the most concrete and popular demonstration of a country's image, and China's film industry has been a pioneer when it comes to implementing reforms. But the current structure of the film industry chain looks like an "hourglass".

Normally, a healthy film industry is marked by balanced development of movie production, distribution and screening.

But during the past decade, China's film industry has changed from an "oliveshaped" to a "dumbbell-shaped" structure before acquiring an "hourglass" shape. This suggests online platforms are dominating movie distribution and promotion without considering the importance of production and screening factors. Hence, producers have to compete for the "hourglass-shaped" distribution channels, forcing a large number of cinemas to screen films only during a certain time period, mainly holidays. Also, many people tend to go to the cinema only during holidays. Second, some local administrative departments do not fully understand the functioning of the movie industry and management methods. They mistakenly believe that parts of the local governments' performance can be assessed by producing expensive movies, establishing film and television bases, and organizing movie festivals. But people are tired of watching movies with similar themes, and are looking for unique, customized and experience-oriented films.

Third, the central authorities have announced that the main theme and positive energy of a movie is to convey truth, goodness and beauty, and promote mainstream values, regardless of the subject of the production. This has expanded the vision and space of film production.

But the truth is, some departments are only worried about whether a movie screening will "cause any trouble for them" while ignoring the principles of art and creativity, and the laws of the market. Despite not being entitled to review films, these departments often hold unnecessary talks with producers and distributors, treating artistic creation as official files. The officials of these departments consider normal artistic creations as risks that could harm their career prospects. What they want is to just avoid mistakes, irrespective of whether a movie is good or bad.

Fourth, since films are the most popular art form, people tend to post their movie reviews online even if they have no knowledge of film history, production techniques, the art of movie-making or the professional capability to review a work of art. Hence, many biased online reviews have stirred up the movie market. For example, some commentators level groundless accusations against filmmakers or pry into the private lives of actors, resulting in a large number of reviews being completely devoid of content and thus damaging the chances of even some good movies to achieve good box office returns.

Although some macroeconomic factors have made it difficult to make quality movies, it is an undeniable fact that investment has declined in the film industry. From 2020 to the end of October 2024, the total number of private equity financing in the film sector declined significantly compared with that before 2019. Not a single movie has been made with a budget of more than 100 million yuan ($13.73 million) in the past four years.

Unlike other art forms, making films is a risky creative activity as it requires huge amounts of investment and high technology. The upstream capital pool has exhausted and the industry's own capital pool bottomed out. If this situation continues, China's film industry is certain to decline.

And fifth, movies are not only a source of entertainment but an important medium of education. Movies can affect the lives of individuals and groups, while also influencing social development. But these functions have been offset by the rapid development of short videos.

In recent years, many combined video clips posted online allowed viewers to "watch a movie in three minutes". These are subversive acts. Such video clips ignore the significance of movies as an educational and cultural communication medium. The difference between movies and short video clips is like the difference between whole grains and ultra-processed foods. The former focuses on nutrition, taste and health, while the latter is high on fat and salt, which enhance both taste and profits.

Many studies have shown that the Chinese people spend hours every day watching short videos, but the average time they spend watching a movie is less than a minute a day. In fact, movies can help brighten the mood of or cheer up a person who is feeling down, playing a significant role in psychological healing, and making society more inclusive, optimistic and energetic.

China's movie industry is facing periodic and structural problems, which are also affecting the global film and television industry, but dedicated filmmakers can always find a way to overcome such problems and make great films. In the past year, more diversified and personalized Chinese and foreign films have been screened in China, evoking a strong response from the people. As a matter of fact, China's film industry has been exploring the possibility of "differentiated distribution", enabling more people to watch personalized films in selected cinemas.

Given the rapidly changing global landscape, Chinese filmmakers should make films that reflect the spiritual outlook of the Chinese people today. And officials of related departments need to educate themselves in the art of filmmaking, adhere to the rules of the movie industry, and be tolerant of mistakes. By doing so, they can help the film industry produce quality movies.

The author is a film professor at the Chinese National Academy of Arts.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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