Hit or miss: Oscar for Alibaba's "Green Book' no guarantee for China success

Damai Entertainment Holdings

28/02/2019 07:02

By Pei Li and John Ruwitch
    BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The big upset at the
2019 Oscars by "Green Book" was a victory for its Chinese
investor Alibaba Pictures  1060.HK , but there is no guarantee
the best-picture winner will be a hit when it opens this week in
China where viewers prefer blockbusters.
    Set in the south of the United States in the 1960s, the film
follows the friendship of a working-class Italian-American man
who was a driver and fixer for a gay African-American pianist.
    The low-budget movie is scheduled to hit Chinese theatres on
Friday, marking the first nation-wide release of a film of its
kind, centred on race relations, in a market more receptive to
blockbusters such as "Transformers" and "Fast and Furious".
    Its release indicates Chinese censors are evolving when it
comes to themes like homosexuality. While that does not mean
regulators have fully embraced gay elements in films, they at
least "don't see it as a dark side that needs to be covered up",
said Wu Jian, an Alibaba Pictures analyst.
    "Django Unchained", an award-winning Western involving black
slaves directed by Quentin Tarantino, was yanked from China
theatres the day it premiered in 2013, and only allowed to be
re-released a month later after graphic sequences were cut.
    Wu is betting the post-Oscars glow will drive box office
earnings for "Green Book" in China. "With its momentum after
winning the Oscar it could even reach 300 million yuan if third-
and fourth-tier cities can receive this movie," he said.
    But that would still be far behind "Fast and Furious 8's"
earnings of 2.67 billion yuan ($400 million) in 2017, the best
performance by an American film in China so far.
    "The Revenant", which won Leonardo DiCaprio a Best Actor
Oscar, brought in less than 400 million yuan in 2016, making it
the best performing Academy Award winning film in China.  
    "Green Book's" victory is the first time a film backed by
Chinese capital has snagged Best Picture.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N20I0E6
    "We have a saying: You need to dare to dream, because what
if one day it is actually realised?" said Zhang Wei, President
of Alibaba Pictures.
    Alibaba's investment in "Green Book" marks a shift from
Chinese companies' fixation on blockbusters.
    "If 'Green Book' fares well in China, maybe companies here
will start to focus more on investing in small- or medium-budget
movies that have good stories," said Huang Qunfei, deputy
general manager of state-backed Huaxia Film Distribution Co.
    
    OVERSEAS SPLASH
    E-commerce giant Alibaba Group  BABA.N , through its 50
percent stake in Alibaba Pictures, has been cranking up its
efforts to grow its film business.
    "Green Book" is the latest in its string of successful movie
investments, including "Dying to Survive", a top grossing film
in China last year, and "Wandering Earth", a sci-fi film which
has bagged more than 4.4 billion yuan since its February debut
and is slated to appear on Netflix  NFLX.O .
    Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma said he had watched "Green Book"
three times and would do it again.
    "Good movies are not built on piles of cash. I think this
movie brings a lot of reflection, and the production cost was
very low...I think Chinese movies are not far from an Oscar."
    Alibaba Pictures invested an undisclosed amount in "Green
Book", co-financing it with others including Participant Media
and DreamWorks Pictures.
    China is the second-largest movie market globally after the
United States, although it already has more movie screens after
years of rapid expansion in theatre networks. Its box office
revenue rose 9 percent in 2018 to 61 billion yuan.
    Alibaba Pictures hopes more Chinese films can make a splash
abroad. "We have a mission...to export better content and let
the world better understand China," its president, Zhang, said.
    "A lot of mainstream Western opinions hold that in Chinese
films there remains a depiction of China that is suffering, they
don't understand China's development."
 ($1 = 6.6812 Chinese yuan)

 (Reporting by Pei Li and John Ruwitch; Editing by Himani
Sarkar)
 ((Pei.Li@thomsonreuters.com; +86 18810385187;))