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Market In Focus: Filmart Aims To Reassert Regional Hub Status Amid Mixed Box Office And Shifting Streaming Landscape In Asia
This year's Filmart is taking place against a complicated backdrop, both in terms of market realities and the shifting geopolitics of the region.
Although China’s box office has come roaring back, reaching $1.1BN (RMB8BN) over the recent Lunar New Year holiday, imported films are not sharing in the bonanza and mainland Chinese companies are not participating in international markets at the level they once did. And amidst all these market woes, Hong Kong itself has not fully recovered its sparkle as a regional events hub, one year after opening its borders, as it counters negative publicity ranging from declining political freedoms to capacity issues at its major airline, Cathay Pacific, and the recent press storm around footballer Lionel Messi not playing as promised at a friendly match in the city. Among Chinese buyers, it’s unclear whether it’s politics or market forces (or a combination of both) that is holding them back as China appears to have loosened its quota restrictions over the past year and has recently been experimenting with more open distribution models.
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