High box office earnings nothing to brag about

The overall box office earnings of the Chinese mainland hit 6.76 billion yuan ($1 billion) during the Jan 22-27 Spring Festival season, compared with 6.04 billion yuan of the same period last year.

Full River Red, a film telling a patriotic story of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) from the angle of common soldiers, and The Wandering Earth II, a science fiction film, were the two most popular movies, both directed and produced by Chinese, with their box office receipts reaching 2.61 billion yuan and 2.16 billion yuan respectively.

Apart from the dazzling visual effects that have almost become a standard configuration of all blockbusters today, the plot of the first and the imagination of the latter were their biggest draws.

As the film market in many countries has languished to varying degrees even after their previously strict virus controls were lifted, the performance of the two films should be taken as an encouraging sign by Chinese filmmakers who are uncertain about the prospects of the industry. It clearly shows that after three years of dormancy the Chinese film market can recover as long as the stories are well told.

Since people are increasingly glued to their mobile phones, going to the cinema has become a new way for families to celebrate the Lunar New Year as a communal activity. That's why filmmakers are paying more attention to the Spring Festival season, and why the competition in the season will only become much fiercer in the future.

However, it cannot be ignored that it is the strict quota on imported films that has saved domestic filmmakers from facing even fiercer competition with foreign movies. The system was originally set up to strive for more time and space for the Chinese film industry to realize leapfrog development so that it could catch up with that of the developed countries and go to the world market.

Yet, it has become increasingly obvious that Chinese filmmakers have become reliant on this safety net. As a result, few seek to go global any more, preferring to compete with each other at a low level for domestic market share, which is all about contracting big-name performers and investing in expensive post-production, rather than exploring the possibilities of the cinematic art and telling Chinese stories to the world in an appealing way.

With the protection mechanism in place, movies have inevitably become a comfort zone for speculators in China. As a result the Chinese film industry is drifting farther from the center of the world stage. The industry always pretends to be blind to the poor performance of Chinese movies in the overseas market. And the high box office revenues at home are really nothing for domestic filmmakers to brag about.