▶ BCM288 TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA AND CULTURE INDUSTRIES
Co-production between two companies is common especially in more internationally-based films, typically co-production happens when a particular company wants to produce the same movie together — in the case of international films; a company from one country will want to collaborate and work together with another company from a different country (Sorrentino, Sicilia, & Howlett, 2018).
Let’s use the film The Karate Kid from 2010 as an example, because of the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics at the time; Overbrook Entertainment — the production company for Sony – pitched that maybe the remake of the movie should be filmed in Beijing, China (Horn, 2010). China is the most populated nation in the world, the American company is most likely aware of it thus why they made the pitch — the film market in China is the most fast-growing market to-date, which makes it easier and quicker to gain a lot of money (Jones, 2015).
The biggest reason as to why companies and industries from the U.S. would want to co-produce films in China especially is because of the mainland market and their large appeal to Western movies — and not to mention the market is quite a big number in Hong Kong as well (Li, 2010). Collaborating with another country means that the film will be open to two different markets and creating a greater pool of audiences, although in China there were some scenes from The Karate Kid that were cut (like the kissing scene) due to the policies of censorship in China — this still doesn’t change the fact that because the film was set in China itself, locals from the country will feel more culturally appreciated since the film was set in their hometown rather than just a depiction of it and as a bonus foreigners are more aware as well.
So it seems that having a film co-produced is more beneficial to film industries and companies; the film that would be co-produced would reach a global scale rather than just be famous in one country — this also opens the door to new audiences and boosting creativity and appeal in more than one country. The finance department in both countries will be pretty happy as well to be earning a share in the film that’s co-produced and not only particularly earning but saving as well considering that the production and release would be budgeted since the film is co-produced.
References:
- Horn, J. (2010, May 30). ‘Karate Kid’ update breaks down some Chinese walls. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-may-30-la-ca-karatekid-20100530-story.html.
- Jones, S. (2015, June 12). The Future Is Now: China and US Co-Produced Films. Retrieved from https://blog.hollywoodbranded.com/the-future-is-now-china-and-us-co-produced-films.
- Li, A. (2010, July 1). China invests in ‘The Karate Kid’. Retrieved from https://archive.shine.cn/feature/events-and-tv/China-invests-in-The-Karate-Kid/shdaily.shtml.
- Sorrentino, M., Sicilia, M., & Howlett, M. (2018). Understanding co-production as a new public governance tool. Policy and Society, 37(3), 277–293. doi: 10.1080/14494035.2018.1521676
Jessica Pauline Camille Ablog Mercado 