All is not rosy on China's silver screens

Of the 21.77 billion yuan box office take, 12.77 billion yuan was generated by domestic productions, representing a year-on-year growth of 54.32 percent, up from 48 percent in 2012, according to official statistics.

Huayi Brothers Media Group earned 3 billion yuan in box office revenue last year, up 39 percent year-on-year. It accounted for 25 percent of the country's movie market, followed by Beijing Enlight Media Co Ltd, with 2.3 billion yuan, and Le Vision Pictures (Beijing) Co Ltd, with 1 billion yuan in ticket sales.

"The distribution of a couple of movies that were extremely successful in ticket sales was critical for the business performance of the top three private film studios last year," said Peng Kan, research and development director of the Beijing-based consultancy company Legend Media.

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, the highest-grossing film of the year, was distributed by Huayi Brothers and took in 1.25 billion yuan at the box office. Another two productions that made it onto the top 10 highest-grossing films list were produced and distributed by the company — Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon and Personal Tailor.

Enlight Media had success with So Young and American Dreams in China, while Le Vision Pictures earned fame with its Tiny Times series.

"Producers dependence on blockbusters became stronger than in the previous year, and medium-budget productions fell in numbers compared to 2012, which is not healthy for the companies themselves or the industry," Peng said.

Medium-budget productions are usually genre films and, in Hollywood, an individual studio would produce 16 to 20 such films every year, a scale that brings stable profits to the studio, Peng said.

In contrast, high-budget films come with high risk and take up too much of the capital and resources of a studio, making it more susceptible to market uncertainty and less capable of fostering new talent on its filmmaking crews or developing new subjects for films, according to Peng.

Moreover, for emerging studios like Le Vision Pictures, which was established in 2011 and made it to third place on the list last year, its advantages haven't been fully exploited due to the studios' lack of quality content.

Le Vision Pictures has an edge over its rivals in its distribution channels and management over its rivals, but its inadequate supply of films that enjoy widespread popularity and huge sales has lessened its total box office revenue.

Tiny Times 1.0 and 2.0 contributed as much as 800 million yuan in ticket sales, 80 percent of the company's total box office revenue.

No matter how effective and well-developed a studio's distribution system is, without good content, it is hard for it to yield practical benefits, Peng said.

Also popular
3 Chinese films shortlisted for Golden Bear	New York Chinese Film Festival kicks off