Chinese Exhibition: the dragon awakes with more farce than flames

The exhibition revolution in China is much bigger than we think – and the battle against piracy may be a key reason.
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Two months ago, China Daily reported that Chinese box office rose by 36% in 2014, to US$4.76b. 54.5% of that ticket revenue was spent on domestic Chinese films. 

Of the top ten locally made films in 2014, only two were action fantasies based on special effects, one was a family documentary, all of them had young casts, five were rom-coms or comedies, and one of them was a 3D crime romp with slinky characters set in Shanghai in the 1920’s. Three of them were spinoffs from film and TV.

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David Tiley was the Editor of Screenhub from 2005 until he became Content Lead for Film in 2021 with a special interest in policy. He is a writer in screen media with a long career in educational programs, documentary, and government funding, with a side order in script editing. He values curiosity, humour and objectivity in support of Australian visions and the art of storytelling.