Chinese Investments in the Entertainment Industry Are Bearing Fruits
China seems to have redirected its attention towards its entertainment sector, and the outcome seems to be encouraging. The Chinese film industry has seen some major blockbusters this year. The biggest of them all was a science fiction film that was loved by the masses. Science fiction has been a dominant theme in Chinese literature throughout history. However, in the late 19th and through the 20th century, it faded away from the scene. With the latest blockbuster based on an award-winning sci-fi novel, it seems the culture is being revived.
The state-owned Beijing Jingxi Culture and Tourism Co is the firm that put its money on the line on this project, and the investment has paid off handsomely. In fact, the blockbuster success of the Chinese movie “The Wandering Earth” has taken producers by surprise. The shares of the state owned firm have sky rocketed since the success of the film at the box office. The science fiction film rivals Hollywood’s top productions such as Gravity or Interstellar in both content and depiction. The movie has been able to garner over 2 billion Yuan so far since its release in February this year.
Before this project, the state-owned company had mostly invested in action movies – a tried and tested formula for box office success in the Chinese market. They made huge financial gains with their earlier investments as well. Wolf Warrior 2, an earlier production from 2017 is the highest-grossing Chinese movie so far. Apart from the listed producers of the movie, there are almost 20 co-producers that include big names such as Tencent and Alibaba Group as well.
There is no conclusive figure available for the budget of the sci-fi blockbuster, but a movie ticketing company has estimated that the movie’s earnings will hit the 5 billion Yuan mark by the end of this year. The producers have themselves hinted that the budget is not more than 108 million Yuan.
Besides Beijing Jingxi Culture and Tourism Co, other companies investing in the movie industry also seem to be doing well. An estimate of the 66 movie-related stocks that are listed on the Mainland China bourse experienced a 2 percentage point rise on average. Another state-owned investor in the industry, The China Film Group has also had a prolific year so far as its shares jumped by almost 7.8 percent and closed 2.7 percent higher with the new gains.