France and China sign co-production agreement

By
David Hancock

May 18, 2010

One of the leading established film producing countries, France, has signed a co-production agreement with China, cementing the latter's position as an increasing power in the global film production world. This is the fourth such treaty that China has signed, after Italy, Australia and Canada. In addition, China has also stated in the past that it is negotiating treaties with UK and India. For French producers co-producing with China, the clear attraction is that their projects will not be subject to the standard import quota for foreign films, being treated as local films. Chinese box office is growing fast, increasing 44 per cent in 2009 to reach $907.9m, with further strong growth looking likely in 2010, following a 134 per cent increase in first quarter of 2010 over same period last year to reach RMB2.93bn ($429m) in three months to March 2010.

China is now a major film production force, with an output of 456 films in 2009. Many of these films though do not receive a theatrical release, and go straight to a DVD market plagued by piracy. Part of the problem is the lack of modern screens. However, as new screens are built (there are now 4,700 modern cinema screens), the logjam in the distribution market that stops a high proportion of local films being released will ease, albeit quite slowly, and open up screens for co-productions.

Tags:

Countries: France China
Companies: CNC SARFT