By Brierley Penn
China’s growing importance in the film industry was a topic for hot discussion at the 2012 China Business Summit.
The market for movies in China is huge, and is an industry in which there is great potential for New Zealand to carve a unique niche said China strategist Alan Carroll of Carroll International Partners.
China’s market for films was set to become a five billion dollar industry by 2015, with a significant move towards 3D movies and the establishment of advanced animation facilities. The country was moving in to pick up a great deal of the slack from Hollywood, whose market is declining just as China’s experiences its rapid growth.
“There is an idea in China called Beijing Hollywood,” Alan Carroll informed the summit. “The city is now the biggest movie market in the world.”
Prime Minister John Key was also optimistic about New Zealand’s potential to capitalize on this opportunity. Movies were a three billion dollar business for New Zealand in 2012, with India also recently stepping up engagement with our country in the field. Bollywood is starting to make movies in New Zealand, but Key suggested that more could be done to attract the international industry to our country.
“We are a very good place for movies to be made… Our capability is extremely good.”
The Hobbit created 3000 jobs, and there is capacity for New Zealand to grow our presence in the rapidly expanding Chinese film industry in order to do better there.