China Seeks Great Movies in WTO Film Challenge

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, August 28, 2002

China Seeks Great Movies in WTO Film Challenge

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China's film industry must produce good movies if it is to survive the nation's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Sixth China Changchun Film Festival, which ended Monday, heard in the capital of northeast China's Jilin Province.

"Titanic" had a major impact on China's film industry when it arrived four years ago, but the novelty of foreign movies had gradually declined as Chinese people became more discerning, said Professor Zheng Dongtian, of Beijing Film Academy.

China's film industry had great potential for development given the huge population and rapidly growing economy, remarked Professor Yin Hong, of Qinghua University.

Within the five-year grace under WTO rules, China should accelerate development of its film production and market, based on its unique cultural characteristics, Yin said.

For this purpose, China had made efforts this year to break up the regional monopoly of movie distribution, to build digital cinemas and introduce computerized ticket sales.

The average annual box office takings in China are around 800 million yuan (100 million US dollars), accounting for 90 to 95 percent of the nation's total film income.

But experts pointed out that it was too early for China to boost the post-film industry, which includes the video and VCD industry, and film-themed accessories and brands.

They believed that a well developed film industry and a perfect movie market mechanism were the premise of prosperity for the post-film business.

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