Disney has spent $200m on the live-action remake of,'Mulan' in the hope of conquering the Chinese box office
gallop into China, armed with sinister, supernatural powers. As they thunder towards the capital, it falls to a simple country girl to foil the attack. Over mountains and across deserts, dodging arrows and unleashing batteries of fireworks, in 115 action-packed minutes plucky Hua Mulan sees off the dastardly foreigners and brings honour to China.
However, Hollywood’s desire to capture both Eastern and Western imaginations—and wallets—increasingly faces two sets of problems in China. First, mainland studios are giving Tinseltown a run for its money on their home turf. And China’s censors are becoming more active in shaping the tales that Hollywood tells, imbuing America’s soft power with Chinese characteristics and angering American politicians. The great screen romance between Hollywood and China is turning into more of a drama.
As Chinese audiences flocked to watch American films, Chinese media and tech companies rushed to invest in them. In 2016 Dalian Wanda Group, a conglomerate, bought Legendary for $3.5bn. It also snapped up real estate next to the Beverly Hilton hotel in the heart of Tinseltown. In 2013, at the launch of its own huge studio in Qingdao, the Oriental Movie Metropolis, Dalian Wanda paid stars including Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman to attend.
Audiences in big Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai can relate to Western fare, says Lei Ming ofEntertainment, an audience-analysis firm, but people in smaller, provincial cities do not. And they are the fastest-growing audience: third-tier and fourth-tier cities, roughly those with fewer than 3m residents, account for 40% and rising of China’s box office, according to Maoyang, a ticketing platform.
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