As ‘Avatar’ wins at the box office, China says theaters should meet domestic movie quota

China: Theaters must meet domestic movie quota

BEIJING — China’s government has reminded theater operators to obey a quota requiring at least two-thirds of the movies they screen to be domestically made after the Hollywood blockbuster “Avatar” became the highest-grossing film in the country’s history.

James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi epic has grossed about $103 million as of Jan. 12. Theaters said they were ordered to remove the 2D version of the film in an apparent effort to reduce competition for China’s homegrown films like a state-backed biopic of Confucius, which brought in a lackluster $5.6 million during its opening weekend.

China remains highly protective of its domestic film industry and permits just 20 revenue-sharing film imports each year. The restriction amounts to a limit on foreign blockbusters that are typically distributed under revenue-sharing deals.

That has not dampened China’s enthusiasm for Hollywood films, however. “Avatar” has smashed the box-office record of $67.3 million set by “2012″ in December. The disaster movie broke the previous record of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

“Transformers” in 2009 surpassed an 11-year-old record held by another Cameron epic: “Titanic.”

This week, China’s State Council Web site posted a statement that theater operators should support the “expansion and development of the domestic film industry” and that no less than two-thirds of movies shown each year should be domestic. The quota represents a long-standing order.

China’s restriction of movie imports has been taken up by the World Trade Organization. In December, the WTO upheld an earlier ruling that China is illegally restricting music, film and book imports from the U.S. The original ruling didn’t address the 20-movie limit, but urged Beijing to let foreign companies distribute their entertainment products in China.

Recently, demand has grown for some domestic movies.

The Chinese propaganda movie “The Founding of a Republic” made $61 million in early 2009, not far behind the record takings of “2012″ and “Transformers.”

But Avatar’s 3D experience, and its plot, have struck a chord with Chinese viewers.

The movie revolves around the forced evictions of the alien Na’vi race by humans — a story line that some have said draws unflattering comparisons to China’s own, often brutal removal of millions of residents to make way for property developers.

20th Century Fox said Tuesday that “Avatar” had passed “Titanic” to become the highest-grossing film worldwide, bringing in $1.859 billion at the box office.

The reason for 2D screenings being scrapped in China is a little unclear.

Movie theater operators have said they were ordered to pull the version, though Zhang Hongsen, deputy head of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, denied that.

Weng Li, spokesman for the film’s state-run distributor, China Film Group, which decides which movies to import, said select movie theaters did so for commercial reasons.

“‘Avatar’ 2D makes up for little more than 5 percent of all ‘Avatar’ revenue. Everyone wants to watch it in 3D,” Weng said. “It’s natural for movie theaters to pull movies that aren’t doing well and replace them with more promising ones — in this case, ‘Confucius.’”