Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying Endorses ‘The Wandering Earth’
At a regular news briefing on February 13, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying was asked by a journalist to explain why Zhang Yimou’s One Second withdrew from the Berlin International Film Festival. Hua suggested the journalist inquire China’s film bureau about the withdrawal. In addition, Hua said to the journalist that the most popular movie in China at the moment is The Wandering Earth and encouraged the journalist to check it out. Read more on Mtime
Top Chinese TV Market Trends for 2019
Last year, China became the world’s second largest TV market. This article gives an overview of China’s TV market and predicts some top trends in terms of content, viewership, and advertising: a. TV content will be more diversified with each show targeting a specific type of audience; b. producers will become less obsessed with IPs and celebrities and pay more attention to storytelling. As the regulators tightened control over historical dramas, shows featuring modern stories and characters will dominate the market despite the wild success of Yanxi Palace; c. the competition between traditional TV channels and online video platforms over advertising income will become more fierce. Meanwhile, marketers will focus more on brand integration instead of product placement in TV content; d. 4K, 5G and AI technologies will be utilized to improve viewing experience and audience stickiness; e. Chinese TV companies will actively participate in the international market, bringing Chinese content to a global audience. Read more on entgroup.cn
Film Town Government Reveals Celebrity Tax Bills
As the world largest film studio, Hengdian World Studios is the place where numerous Chinese films and TV dramas are made each year. Dongyang city, where the Hengdian Studios is located, therefore has become home to many film & TV companies and celebrity-owned entertainment enterprises. On February 12, Dongyang government released on its official WeChat account a list of companies and celebrity studios that paid a large amount of taxes in 2018. Leading film production company Huayi Brothers paid the highest amount (US$48.2M) of taxes among all the entertainment firms. Lay Zhang’s studio, which paid RMB 19.13 million (US$2.83 million), is the largest taxpayer among all the celebrity-owned sole proprietorships. Lay Zhang is followed by Yang Mi and Jing Tian whose studios paid RMB155.3 million (US$22.95 M) and RMB10.43 million (US$1.54M), respectively. Read more on National Business Daily
