中国电影产业

　　Kung fu propaganda

　　中国功夫的大肆宣传

　　There’s a ton of easy money in praising the party

　　赞美共产党就可以轻松大量获利

　　Jul 14th 2011 | HONG KONG | from the print edition

　　THERE are two ways to make a box-office smash. One is to take an exciting script, hire famous actors, shoot a rollercoaster of a film, distribute it widely and market it deftly. This is the Hollywood way, and it worked pretty well for Harry Potter.

　　创造轰动票房记录的方法有两个：一是采用刺激的剧本、巨星演员、出色的电影拍摄手法、广泛发行以及成熟的市场运作。这是好莱坞方式，《哈利波特》就是靠这种方式运作的很成功。

　　The Beijing way shares some features with the Hollywood way, such as hiring lots of stars and distributing the film widely. But the magic ingredient behind China’s latest blockbuster was one unavailable to the mightiest Tinseltown mogul. It was the power of the party.

　　北京方式于好莱坞方式有些特征是相同的，诸如邀请很多明星以及广泛发行。但中国最新一部巨作中神奇的成份就连最伟大的好莱坞大师也无法做到，那就是共产党的力量。

　　“The Beginning of the Great Revival”, a celebration of the founding of the Communist Party, opened at every cineplex in China on June 15th, in time for the party’s 90th birthday. Competing films with a shred of drawing power were blocked, even the awful “Transformers 3”. Many state-owned firms ordered their staff to attend. Schools organised trips so that pupils could watch and learn from the exploits of a youthful Mao Zedong. Government departments deployed waves of bureaucratic bottoms to fill seats. Online reviews alleging that the masterpiece was rather dull were censored. Success was assured.

　　庆祝共产党成立的《建党伟业》于6月15日在中国所有电影城公映，恰恰赶上建党90周年。任何对观众有一丝丝吸引的竞争电影都被拖延，即使是《变形金刚3》。很多国有公司都组织员工观影，学校也同样组织学生们观影，让他们学习年轻时代毛泽东的丰功伟绩。政府部门安排一波波基层官员将电影院填满。网上声称该巨作很无趣的评论也被删除。影片成功得到保证。

　　The film was not, as you might imagine, a piece of government-produced propaganda. It was a piece of for-profit propaganda, produced by the country’s biggest film company, the China Film Group (CFG). Along with a smaller firm in which it holds a 12% stake, CFG controls more than half of all domestic film distribution in China. The two firms also distribute the 20 foreign films that China allows in each year.

　　该电影不是你想象中的由政府制作的宣传片，而是一部商业电影，由中国最大的电影公司——中国电影集团（CFG）摄制。与其控股12%的较小电影公司一起，中国电影集团控制中国半数以上电影的发行。中国每年允许发行20部外国影片，也是由这两个公司共同发行。

　　CFG spins tales of love, disaster, war and kung fu, of course. But the easy money is in patriotic pap. In recent years, the firm has produced “Nanking! Nanking!” (about heroic Chinese resistance to Japan during the second world war) and “The Founding of a Republic” (about the Communist takeover in 1949).

　　中国电影集团的电影都是围绕着爱情故事、灾难片、当然还有中国功夫。但是最容易获利的就是爱国题材。最近几年，该集团已经制作了《南京！南京！》（关于二战时期英勇的中国人民反抗日本侵略）以及《建国大业》（关于1949年中国共产党执政）

　　Such films are profitable partly because their stars do not expect to be paid much, if anything. About 100 famous actors worked for nothing on “The Founding of a Republic”. An even more impressive 172 stars with Chinese ties signed on for “The Beginning of the Great Revival”, for compensation that, according to the director, amounted to less than the cost of lunch boxes for the crew.

　　这些电影赚钱的部分原因是演员们没有很高的片酬，如果有的话。《建国大业》中大约有100位明星义务演出。令人印象更加深刻的是，172位与中国有关系的明星签约出演《建党伟业》，据导演所说，出演的报酬还没有员工中午盒饭的费用多。

　　“The Founding of a Republic” cost 30m yuan ($4.6m) to make and brought in a tidy 420m yuan. “The Beginning of the Great Revival” cost 80m yuan, but has been a bit of a disappointment at the box office, having brought in only 340m yuan so far. Still, that is a return that would thrill any investor in Hollywood.

　　《建国大业》耗资3000万元（460万美元），创收整整4亿2千万元。《建党伟业》耗资8000万元，但是票房收入不尽如人意，至今只有仅仅3亿4千万元。但是，这个收益率仍然会让任何好莱坞投资人都感到振奋。

　　Cinema in China is booming (see chart). In 2010 box-office revenues grew by 64% to just over 10 billion yuan. More than 520 films were made—about as many as in America. Only India produces more. China boasts the world’s largest outdoor film studio, called Hengdian World Studios, which includes a full-scale mock-up of the Forbidden City.

　　中国的电影院正在快速增长（见图表），2010年的票房收入增长了64%，达到100亿元。共发行了520多部电影——和美国一样多，只有印度的发行量比中国多。中国自夸世界最大的露天电影制片厂，称作横店影视城，包括与实物同等大小的北京紫禁城复制品。

　　Tickets to Chinese cinemas are costly—about 80 yuan at weekends. The lack of copyright protection means that almost all revenue must come from the box office rather than from DVDs or television. Audiences are paying for the experience of an afternoon away from their cramped apartments, rather than simply to see the film (illegal versions of which are widely available). Cinemas are clean and airconditioned. Many have state-of-the-art screens and sound systems. The snacks are quite good, too.

　　中国电影院的周末电影票售价大约为80元。版权保护的缺乏意味着几乎所有的收入都来自于票房，而非光碟或电视。观众们买票是为了享受远离狭小公寓的午后时光，而不是为了简简单单看电影（因为倒版随处可见）。电影院干净、有空调，很多还有最先进的屏幕和音响系统，零食也非常不错。

　　Smash hits such as “Great Revival” may not travel well. Foreign bottoms are less biddable. But as Sam Goldwyn supposedly said: “Don’t pay any attention to the critics; don’t even ignore them.”

　　也许像《建党伟业》这样鸿篇巨制电影的票房并不好，从国外引进的那20部电影也不是好欺负的，正如萨姆?戈尔德温假设说：“别把影评人当回事，甚至睬都不要睬他们”。