China’s movie story
Forty Years of Speed, Scale, and Transformation
Introduction: The View from Above
Since China’s Reform and Opening Up in 1978 (改革开放), its movie industry has mirrored the nation’s transformation — shifting from central control to market experiment, from isolation to global engagement, and now into the digital era.
In just four decades, a state propaganda apparatus has become one of the world’s most dynamic cultural markets, generating over ¥50 billion (about A$10 billion) in annual box-office revenue. Yet its real significance lies beyond economics: China’s movie story maps the modernisation of its cities, audiences, and technologies — rapid, uneven, and relentless.
For Australian filmmakers, this story offers a helicopter view of a system unlike any other — guided by policy, powered by markets, and propelled by urban change.
2.
From Revolution to Reform: The Turning Point
In the early years of Reform and Opening Up (改革开放), China’s film industry remained firmly under the control of state-owned studios — the China Film Studio in Beijing, Shanghai Film Studio, and Pearl River Studio in Guangzhou. Their task was not commercial profit but cultural continuity: producing films that reflected collective ideals and moral reconstruction after the Cultural Revolution.
These 1980s productions — often rural, reflective, and humanist — marked the work of the Fourth Generation. Directors such as Wu Yigong, Huang Jianzhong, and Xie Jin portrayed ordinary lives recovering from political trauma. Theirs was not a market revolution but a creative thaw: censorship eased, subjects widened, and aesthetic ambition quietly returned.
From this atmosphere emerged a younger cohort — the Fifth Generation — graduates of the Beijing Film Academy’s 1982 class, the first trained after the Cultural Revolution. Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Tian Zhuangzhuang redefined Chinese cinema’s global image through bold visual language and symbolic narratives rooted in rural China. Films such as Yellow Earth (1984) and Red Sorghum (1987) introduced the world to a poetic, visually stylised vision of China’s landscape and identity.
These directors were not products of a commercial market but of cultural Opening Up — a new willingness to reinterpret China for both domestic and international audiences.
3.
From Plan to Platform: Entering the MarkeT
It was not until the 1990s that genuine commercial reform reached Chinese cinema. Policy began to separate production, distribution, and exhibition; box-office revenue replaced state allocation as the key measure of success; and foreign films re-entered through limited revenue-sharing imports such as The Fugitive (1994).
As market incentives expanded, a new generation — later termed the Sixth Generation — emerged. Directors like Jia Zhangke, Lou Ye, and Wang Xiaoshuai turned their cameras toward urban and marginal realities: migration, dislocation, and life on the edge of reform. Their films, often made independently or semi-underground, reflected the fragmented modernity of 1990s China.
This was the period when cinema began to align structurally with the broader reform economy — balancing state guidance with market experimentation. By the early 2000s, the foundation for a genuine film industry, not merely a state apparatus, had been laid.
3.
Looking to Where Growth Is Actually Happening
If Western markets are contracting, Australian producers must look to regions where growth persists—and that increasingly means Asia.
Australia has expanded its co-production framework, signing a new treaty with India in 2023 and building links across Southeast Asia. Yet in terms of scale, China remains unmatched.
Despite recent fluctuations, China is still the world’s second-largest film market.
2024 box office revenue: US$5.8 billion.
By October 2025: already surpassing that figure.
Chinese New Year 2025 alone: US$1.3 billion, a record high.
For comparison, India's 2024 box office reached US$1.37 billion. Southeast Asia's combined box office across all countries totalled approximately US$760 million. Australia's own domestic market generated around US$640 million. Chinese film market is more than four times larger than India's, seven times larger than Southeast Asia combined, and nine times larger than Australia's entire domestic market.
The Australia–China Co-Production Treaty (2007) offers a formal framework that treats certified productions as domestic in both markets—bypassing China’s foreign film quota and accessing incentives on both sides. On paper, it’s a ready-made opportunity.
4.
Urbanisation as the Hidden Producer
Urbanisation was the physical expression of China’s Opening Up, and cinema one of its clearest symbols.
From 2003, as private and foreign capital flowed into theatre construction, multiplexes became the anchors of new shopping malls and emblems of prosperity.
Between 2003 and 2020, China’s screen count rose from roughly 1,800 to more than 75,000 — tracing the reform economy’s reach from coastal zones to inland cities. Cinemas became civic spaces for a middle class whose leisure habits reflected rising incomes and urban aspiration.
But infrastructure was only half the story. As the physical screen network expanded, another, invisible one — the smartphone — became just as central.
Audiences across China began streaming films, series, and short videos online, creating a new axis of competition. The question now is not how many screens China has, but whether those screens can still offer experiences compelling enough to pull people away from their phones.
5.
The Collective Imperative
This is where industry collaboration becomes essential. Screen Australia, state agencies, Ausfilm, and guilds can provide market intelligence, facilitate co-production missions, and help de-risk early partnerships. But producers themselves must lead the shift.
That means:
Designing internationally viable projects from inception
Building enduring relationships with overseas partners
Investing in market literacy and regulatory understanding
Collaborating across the Australian industry to share knowledge and access
Embracing genuine co-production—creative as well as financial
The global content economy rewards scale, agility, and partnership. Australia must participate on those terms.
“International co-production isn’t about finding foreign money for Australian stories. It’s about creating stories that belong to more than one market.”
6.
Legend’s Commitment
At Legend Media Group, we’re acting on this imperative.
We’re developing projects and partnerships that leverage Australia’s creative talent with Asia’s market potential. We know it’s complex—cross-cultural production always is—but the fundamentals are strong.
China’s scale is undeniable. The treaty framework exists. Australian creativity remains world-class. What’s required now is collective intent—to look outward, build partnerships, and pursue opportunities beyond our shores.
This is not about abandoning Australian stories or government support. It’s about expanding the ecosystem—accessing more capital, spreading risk across a larger slate, and building sustainable production businesses that can compete globally.
At Legend, we believe the opportunity is real—and the time is now.
Legend Media Group is a Perth-based film and television production company specialising in international co-productions.
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