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HalloFromGermany

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    China Box Office Thread | Deadpool & Wolverine- July 26

    in China At The Box Office

    Posted · Edited by GermanStallion

    The box office sharing is complicated. Differs across different distributors and movies and has changed a lot in the past years.

     

    At the moment, a close pattern appears to be:

    100% box office

    5% for Special Funds (for all movies, no exception)

    3.3% tax (sales) (for all movies, no exception)

    52.27% for theaters and chains (chains get 1~7%, depends; there are now 45 different chains, big or small)

    39.43% for distributors and producers (distributors get 5~15% fees, depending on agreements between D/P).

     

    As you can see, theaters/chains and distributors/producers are sharing with the ratio of 57/43, after 8.3% funds and taxes.

    52.27% = 57% x (1 - 5% - 3.3%)

    39.43% = 43% x (1 - 5% - 3.3%)

     

    If a distributor happens to be the producer, they get 39.43% of the movie box office. Excludes other expenses, a movie generally needs to make 3x its total budget at the box office to break even, under current Chinese film market situation.

     

    Some local distributors/producers ask for lower shares, which can be as low 30%, to encourage theaters give their movies more shows. For example, Huayi lowed their share from 43% to 30% on Young Detective Dee after 4 weeks run.

     

    Since the new tax rules national wide that begun on August 1 2013, some theaters need to pay 6.6% taxes, some still 3.3%, depending on their business size. Similar to producers.

     

    Above is for local films. for foreign box office sharing films:

    100% box office

    5% for Special Funds (for all movies, no exception)

    3.3% tax (sales) (for all movies, no exception)

    52.27% for theaters and chains (chains get 1~7%, depends; there are now 45 different chains, big or small)

    25% for producers  (IE. foreign studios, mostly Hollywood big six)

    14.43% for distributors (IE, China Film, Huaxia)

     

    Co-productions are anothe thing.

     

    Money is paid through China Film Import & Export. 

     

    See ? The only possible improvement for foreign studios shares comes from CFGC and HXDC, otherwise there is little room to grow. Though both are state-owned distributors, Huaxia is pretty much controlled by CFGC. So eventually it comes to CFGC VS Foreign studios.

     

    Question is, are CFGC taking a too high share ? 

     

    The 2% proportion dispute between CFGC and Hollywood studios happened earlier this year was due to the new tax rule, which mentioned above.

     

    Before the 218 agreement (the one signed by Xi and Biden on 2012, Feb 18), CFGC took share as high as 21~26% from foreign revenue sharing releases. Now they only get 14.43%. Exclude distribution fees, ads expenses, taxes and other enpenses, literally they make no money for distributing foreign box office sharing movies. Under some condictions, they even lose money for doing the distibutions (they can blame their rough operations). That's why earlier CFGC very much wanted Hollywood (foreign) studios to take the 2% taxes caused by China's tax rules in Aug. Of course, they didnt successed since that was considered against WTO rules.

     

    Anyway, as a state-owned policy company, making money is not the primary pursuit of CFGC. They are there to oversee the China film market. CFGC import and distribute foreign box office sharing movies because they have to, not really because they want. Here is China's public ownership economy to blame ... so ... Point is CFGC plays a big and unreplacable role in protecting local films industry.

     

    Another result of the 218 agreement is that CFGC are becoming ever more keen to produce and co-produce films on their own. They have all the resources, why not .... the market is booming.

     

    Back to the ratio. 25% pure share for foreign studios, adding modest 8% distribution fee, equals about 33% for local producers+distributors, not as much as they usually get (39%). But again, they get 39%, because they are local companies.

     

    And we can not take the 40~50% share of Hollywood getting from other countries seriously, since that number didnt consider any kind of taxes. Europe countries, for example, collect very high taxes from box office. And many countries, Russia, South Korea, France, etc, have similar funds to China's special funds as a way to protect their own film industry. So actual shares are lower.

     

    By my understanding, the problem for Hollywood and foriegn studios in China at the moment is not they are not getting a bigger share of box office. But are:

     

    1. There are quota limitations. Only 34 box office sharing films can get through every year, adding another dozens of buyout ones. The quota system is said to be lifted or even canceled post 2015. But again, there will always be censorship .... for SARFT, studios can submit all the movies all they want, how many movies eventually get approved, all depends on SARFT (and maybe studio PR).

     

    2. Foreign studios can not distribute movies (freely) in China. As long as they can not distribute films in the Middle Kingdom, they can never become really big and powerful player in the market.

     

    It is unclear if someday sino-foreign joint ventures can distribute coproductions in the future. 

     

    My thoughts.

    Thanks for this information!

    I would like to know how this works on an example:

    Let's take Escape Plan.

    The movie will gross around $40 million in China.

    What is the $-share for the US studio (I guess it is Lionsgate) that sold the film to China?

    China Box Office Thread | Deadpool & Wolverine- July 26

    in China At The Box Office

    Posted

    Excellent week to week drop for Escape Plan, down merely 35%. The Sly and Arnold actioner is the 29th movie in 2013 that crosses the 200m mark. Coming Monday, it will outdo The Expendables (213m) to claim the 2nd all time biggest grosser for a Stallone film in China, although The Expendables 2 (336m) number is out of reach. Coming week is tough. With a possible 260m total, the movie should rank around 25 on the yearly chart, by far higher than any other buyout release not called Ironman 3.

    So this would equal a $42.5 million total from China.

    This nearly doubles the total of the US gross, just insane!

    BO Germany/Austria: Deadpool&Wolverine #1

    in International Box Office

    Posted · Edited by GermanStallion

    Good news for Escape Plan. Hopefully it continues its great overseas run in Germany.

    Sadly, it won't have a great run in Germany.

    In the end, it will gross between $3 million - $3.5 million here.

    That's still OK considering it had zero promotion here.

    Let's hope for Japan or South Korea to show some good numbers.

    In Europe, the best market for EP will be Russia with nearly $7 million.

    China Box Office Thread | Deadpool & Wolverine- July 26

    in China At The Box Office

    Posted

    Just to clarify this, I am not this Algren character.

    I don't know this guy.

    I'm just a Stallone fan from Germany who is more than happy about these great numbers from China.

    I seem to have something in common with this guy, but it really is not me.

    There is more than one Stallone fan worldwide who cares about box office.

     

    Back to topic, still solid numbers for EP, plus the screencount looks god.

    It will be a tough race for #1 between the US and China when TE3 is released...

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