China's first-ever law for the film industry streamlines and codifies the movie-making process to promote local productions, while simultaneously addressing more practical matters like box office inflation, experts said.
Under the country's new film law, the number of reviews for each film will be reduced from the previous two to just one. That means movies will still need approval before a theatrical release, but will no longer need the previously required approval before production can begin.
The new law, which took 13 years to formulate and will take effect in March, also decentralizes the approval process for films, allowing local reviewers to make decisions. All movies screened in China must pass a review by a censor, which can block the release of any movie considered objectionable or request that sensitive scenes be removed.
"It will make things easier if the central government delegates powers to provinces and cities," said a source inside a film production company who spoke on condition of anonymity. "However, each film will still need to get a screening license from (the national film regulator) before being released in theaters."
The new law also takes aim at theater owners and distributors who inflate ticket sales, allowing fines of up to 500,000 yuan for such offenses.
Such box office inflation has become rampant among promoters eager to create buzz to attract moviegoers. The problem came into focus in March when the film regulator discovered a Beijing distributor held more than 7,600 "ghost screenings" and bought 56 million yuan worth of tickets after midnight for Ip Man 3, a martial-arts movie starring former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson.
China's first-ever law for the film industry streamlines and codifies the movie-making process to promote local productions, while simultaneously addressing more practical matters like box office inflation, experts said.
"It will make things easier if the central government delegates powers to provinces and cities," said a source inside a film production company who spoke on condition of anonymity. "However, each film will still need to get a screening license from (the national film regulator) before being released in theaters."
