Hollywood to China: “Give Us Money!”; Nerds to China: “Give us ‘Pac-Rim’ Sequel!”
The Chinese market is becoming very important to Hollywood; China-centric scenes were added to the Chinese release of Iron Man 3, and a role in the upcoming Transformers 4 was being raffled off on a Chinese reality show earlier this summer, and that’s just two examples. And now nerdery is pegging its hopes on a follow-up to Pacific Rim on the average Chinese film-goer as the film opens in the country this week, but not all is cozy between Tinseltown and, um, Chinatown, as one might think.
Both Variety and Deadline are reporting that there’s a showdown on the horizon between Hollywood and the Chinese government over how much money America studios get back from Chinese movie tickets. As it is, Hollywood makes back 25 per cent on the all tickets sold in China, but China’s government is now thinking their getting screwed and want to send back a little less money to Hollywood with a new tax called VAT.
Obviously, Hollywood doesn’t like the idea of getting less money, so its a deadlocked dispute that’s gone nowhere fast the last couple of months. Enter a United States Trade Representative who is now working with the MPAA and their “counterparts within the Chinese government to resolve the issue.” Good luck with that because there’s only so much money, and it seems that everyone wants more of it.
As for Pacific Rim, and the odds for a sequel, things are looking up. The film made $9 million since opening on Wednesday, which is a very good number for the Chinese box office. Pacific Rim has so far made over $225 million worldwide, barely $90 million of that at the domestic box office. So all eye’s turn to China to see if they can push the film into greener territory (the film cost around $190 million to make), and Pac-Rim is still slated to open in several other markets across the globe later this month.
So hope lives! Maybe not so much for Hollywood getting more money out of China, but hey, we never thought we’d get a fourth season of Arrested Development either. Pigs can fly!
More news as it develops.
Source: Bleeding Cool
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