China Movie Co-productions

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By Dan Harris on October 27th, 2012 Posted in China Film IndustryOne of the things we are always writing about and always trying to get a handle on is what the attitude is in China towards foreign investment. That attitude is never static for long, always shifting with the economy and sometimes shifting due to other factors such as politics.
We are in the midst of forming a WFOE right now for a couple of companies in somewhat difficult businesses. Our advice was that they first form a Hong Kong entity as that likely would make WFOE formation go more smoothly. We told these clients that we have in the last six months or so been seeing Chinese governmental authorities increasingly throw minor roadblocks in the way of American and European companies seeking to form a WFOE in China. One of these clients said that they had talked with someone who claimed not to have noticed any such tightening by China’s governmental authorities. All I could say was that we are seeing otherwise. I also talked of how China is even making getting visas tougher.
I thought about this today after reading a Variety Magazine article, “China: Market loosens quotas, but still cautious.” The article quotes Mathew Alderson(our lead China entertainment lawyer) on how China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has stepped up its reviews of Sino-foriegn co-productions in an effort to make sure there is adequate China content to constitute a co-production.
A purely foreign film entitled to share in box office revenue must be imported into China as part of China’s annual quota. An official Sino-foreign co-production will be regarded as a domestic Chinese film, to which the quota does not apply. The distinction between foreign imports and Sino-foreign co-productions is also significant because they yield different box office shares. When films are imported on a revenue-share basis, the foreign distributor now gets 25% of box office takings under the new deal announced earlier this year. In a Sino-foreign co-production, around 38% of box office is available to the producers. The share available in a co-production is the same as it is for a purely domestic production.
The Variety article highlights the Chinese government’s increased vigilence:

The country’s State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television recently highlighted that its rules for co-prods require at least one third of production funding coming from China, along with one third of the main cast, while scenes must also be shot in China.
Co-prods help boost China’s image overseas while benefitting from learning expertise.
“Co-productions were definitely not intended as de facto quota busters, which is how they are often regarded in Hollywood,” says Alderson. “The authorities are now more vigilant about what they call ‘stick-on’ productions in which the Chinese elements are contrived and insubstantial.”
The Chinese are sensitive to the idea that Hollywood might be cynically taking advantage of its booming film market. Zhang Peiming, deputy head of SARFT, accused “Looper” and “Cloud Atlas,” accusing them of making superficial attempts at co-prod status.
“These co-productions get around the quota system and take domestic investment away and threaten Chinese movies,” Zhang said at the time.