Asian Film Industry 2008

I wrote about China's film industry in 2008 earlier this month and, according to this article, the rise in box office revenues occured throughout Asia in general. Its problematic to speak of an Asian film market since the Asian region of the world is made of many countries with largely different cultures and languages, but in general it seems that general economic growth of recent years has spurred growth in the film business.

The South Korean market has tapered off after a decade of growth although its film market still generates substantial revenue, especially compared to larger Asian countries. Malyasia experienced the biggest increase (24%) in 2008. China certainly seems to have the greatest potential for future growth. Although its market has grown exponentially over the past 5 years, its still smaller than that of India, Korea and Japan.

There are signs that Chinese movies are becoming increasingly popular in other countries and there is clearly still much room for continued domestic growth in a nation of 1.3 billion.

Cooperation among Asian film companies may also lead to greater crossover in Asian markets.

The recent big-budget blockbuster, Red Cliff ($80 million budget), was the result of financing from investors in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Korea, and Japan, with the greatest share of funding coming from Japanese company Avex.

The combined financial resources as well as marketing power from these types of deals certainly have the potential to reach much wider audiences across Asia as well as beyond.

Chinese Box Office 2008

A short article from Variety Asia Online says that the mainland China movie industry had an increase of 27% in box office revenues for 2008 (worth about U.S. $622 million). Chinese films were responsible for slightly more than 60% of that income according to the China Film Bureau .

The biggest grossing film in China last year was Red Cliff, a historically-based epic about the Battle of Red Cliffs in ancient Han Dynasty China. The film made U.S. $45.3 million in China and over U.S. $102 million worldwide. Red Cliff also has the distinction of being the most expensive Asian-produced movie with a budget of around U.S. $80 million.



Other top grossing films were CJ7, Painted Skin, American-produced The Forbidden Kingdom, Kung Fu Dunk, If You are the One and Forever Enthralled.

Interestingly, increasing numbers of Chinese people are going to movie theaters to watch movies even though pirated DVD copies can be easily and cheaply purchased. This is probably due to the fact that as China's economy has grown, more people have disposable income and are willing to pay more to see a movie in a theater for the entertainment experience (going-out, group-oriented activity) rather than watching pirated copies at home.