“To my surprise, buying a movie ticket for a Chinese film in Melbourne turned out to be a difficult thing,” Xin Li said, a fan of Chinese film studying for a Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne.

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“After work, we wanted to see the newly released movie. We found all the cinemas in the center of Melbourne, however, there is no ticket left at 7 pm, and finally, we bought three tickets for 9 pm at Hoyts in Dockland.”

On the first October 2019, two Chinese movies have been released in Australia, My people my country, and The captains. Different from the previous years, it is difficult to buy a ticket at a suitable time.

CMC pictures (Chinese Media Culture) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CMC Holdings established in April 2016. It has overseas cinema distribution, international copyright pre-sale, and international festival public relations. Except for My people my country, and The captains, it has released so many Chinese movies in Australia.

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Ne Zha which has been released on 23 August 2019 is the fastest Chinese film in the Australian movie market breaking the record of more than 1 million box office. As the Chinese film industry develops rapidly, overseas Chinese are increasingly interested in Chinese movies. Such as the movie Wolf Worriers 2 which was released in July 2017 in Australia, accepting 1,4 million box office. Although it was not a huge box office, compared with the mainstream movie of Australia, Ali’s Wedding only accepting 1 million box office in Australia. In 2017, Chinese films were close to $5 million at the Australian box office. The growing interest in such films highlights the growing reality in Australia.

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“Chinese is the main supporting of Chinese film box office in Australia,” Yang Li, an Australian Chinese director.

According to the Australia Bureau of Statistics, the Chinese population(651,000) is ranked second place from 2017 with strong growth since 2002. The Chinese born (651,000 people), having recently moved into the second position, accounted for 2.6% of the population. 

Australia has the largest proportion of international students in higher education, with almost a third of all higher education students in the country being international students. Furthermore, Chinese students make up the biggest share of these international students, with almost three times as many students as second-placed India. 

In the glamorous Sydney Film Festival, the Festival Director explained that a key feature of this year’s line up is the strong showing of Chinese movies. Australia is a multicultural country and I think we’re seeing through the release of films, it’s beginning to reflect the diversity of our country.”

“It also shows that our screens don’t have to be dominated by just Hollywood blockbusters, that there are appetite and an audience for a range of things,” he added.

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In June 2015, Australian cinema line Hoyts was acquired by a Chinese conglomerate, Wanda, for $366 million (approximately 2.319 billion yuan) and entered the southern hemisphere market. Hoyts operates more than 450 cinema screens and 55,000 seats, making it Australia’s second-largest movie exhibitor after Event Hospitality and Entertainment. 

Wanda Cinema also said that the main purpose of the acquisition of Hoyts is to expand the global market share of Wanda Cinema, which is part of the globalization strategy.

“The Australian is still the mainstream audience, Hollywood movies are the most popular type for them,” the director Mr Li said. “As a filmmaker, compared with the Chinese domestic market, the Australian box office is negligible.”

“Most Australian prefer Hollywood movies instead of Chinese movies,” Samuel Taylor said, the student of the University of Melbourne. “We don’t like watching the subtitles of the movie, and because of a different culture, sometimes we could not understand the meaning of the movies.” 

He said he was interested in the newly released movie Joker which was adapted from DC Comics’ eponymous character. He regarded this character as his childhood friend, and he knew all of his stories.

“Unique story themes and advanced shooting techniques are the reasons why we will pay for the film.” He mentioned Three idiots, one of the most popular Bollywood movies. Bollywood movie is full of Indian traditional culture, the music and dance are the unique representatives of the Indian movie.

Chinese films should have their unique style which attracts most people from different cultural backgrounds. Mr Taylor said, he thought Chinese traditional culture could be a particular aspect of Chinese film which is different from the others.

Many film companies will not choose to spend lots of money to introduce a Chinese movie that even had a good box office, due to the high investment. “They can not afford the cost of introducing a popular Chinese film in Australia,” the director Mr Li said.

However, besides releasing Chinese movies in Australia, many Chinese filmmakers prefer to film in Australia. “ The government establishes incentives to encourage the development of the film industry through subsidies,” he said. “Up to 40 percent of total production expenditure is huge welfare for filmmakers.” For example Guardians of Tomb, this movie is Australia’s co-production with China for the 2018 sci-fi thriller.

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“Australia is an inclusive and multicultural country, with the continous progress of Chinese film production, although it is challenging but promising.”

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