This seismic shift is no accident - it is the crowning achievement of a deliberate, decade-long state campaign to build a film empire and rival Hollywood.
China has done this by rewriting the rules of the game. It embarked on one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in entertainment history, growing its cinema screen count nearly twentyfold to over 82k.
- This created a vast, accessible market, which the state then ring-fenced with powerful protectionist policies
- With a strict quota limiting foreign film releases and strategic "blackout periods" that clear the field for domestic movies during peak holidays, China has given its own studios an unbeatable home-field advantage
As a result, foreign films now represent a mere 16% of the country’s $7.5bn in ticket sales.
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But what are Chinese audiences watching?
Increasingly, they are flocking to "main melody" films - slick, high-budget blockbusters that fuse spectacular action with potent patriotic messaging.
These movies, often backed by the state, have proven that propaganda can be incredibly profitable.
This has created a fascinating paradox.
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What?
China now possesses a Hollywood-scale production machine that churns out massive domestic hits (whose earnings in China alone top what Hollywood’s best earn worldwide), yet its most successful films struggle to resonate outside its borders.
The very ideological control that ensures their domestic success often limits their universal appeal.
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How does this state-run factory work? What does it mean for Hollywood when its biggest potential market becomes its biggest competitor? And can a film industry be both a propaganda tool and a global creative force? This is just the surface of a complex and captivating story.
Thanks to the solid support from Zero1 by Zerodha, my small team dived much deeper into the mechanics of China's film factory and learned all about the specific policies at play, and what this means for the future of global cinema, including Indian cinema, in our full research note.
Find the complete analysis here: https://lnkd.in/gZt2gFNi
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