Shift in movie-watching culture also driving China to the top

Fox's latest film, Independence Day: Resurgence, will hit the Chinese mainland on Friday. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Meanwhile, despite being a foreign studio, 20th Century Fox appears to be quite familiar with Chinese audiences tastes, and the local marketing concept of fan movies, which relies on fans-turned-moviegoers to fill seats.

The recent instance is Warcraft, which grossed much more in China than overseas.

Liu is also confident that Independence Day: Resurgence will do well in China given Chinese moviegoers' preference for sci-fi, interplanetary travel, monsters and disasters.

The film's director, Roland Emmerich, is also known for directing such hits as The Day after Tomorrow and 2012.

Also, 20 years ago, the first Independence Day movie was among the first foreign films seen by Chinese sci-fi enthusiasts, who then had limited options.

Separately, in a bid to garner more fans and increase recognition for the 2016 sequel, Fox screened Independence Day during the recent 19th Shanghai International Film Festival.

Alongside Independence Day, other Fox films, such as Oscar-winning Black Swan and Birdman, were shown in a section known as Fox Searchlight.

The Fox Searchlight effort was a bid to showcase Fox's rich and diversified productions and prove that it does not make only commercial tentpoles, says Liu.

In a related development, Fox is now gearing up to produce Chinese-language content.

Earlier this year, Fox International Productions announced a cooperation agreement with Fox Networks Group Asia to develop and coproduce Chinese-language content, including films, miniseries and TV shows. The first project will kick off in 2017.

"Fox International Productions produces local content with local partners for local audiences across the world," says Liu.

Confirming that Fox International Productions will produce Chinese-language films, Liu says the studio also works on English-language coproductions, as they now find that for Chinese audiences, especially young moviegoers, language is not such a big barrier now.

Asked what makes Hollywood blockbusters globally successful, she says: "The titles have to be breathtakingly imaginative and with uplifting universal values, which, in my opinion, have no borders."