For Hollywood, the road into China has become such a long march that film executives are rethinking their expectations for the elusive market.
The decision by Chinese officials this month to abruptly pull "The Da Vinci Code" from theaters, even though the thriller was a hit with moviegoers, marks the entertainment industry's latest frustration with a communist government that critics see as wary of Western media, overprotective of its filmmakers and lax on rampant piracy.
China "is making a transition from insulated country to more openness," said Jim Gianopulos, co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment. "Anybody who thought China would be an overnight bonanza was wishfully hoping."
With 1.3 billion people and a growing middle class, China is a market that has long made studio executives salivate, especially since officials in 2001 doubled the number of foreign films shown annually in its theaters, to 20. Hollywood's take in China leaped from $24 million in 2000 to $67 million in 2005.
But that amount is relatively small for a country that size. The industry made about the same in Switzerland last year.
Veteran entertainment lawyer Peter Dekom, who advises clients on China, said it was impossible to forecast how much money could be made there.
"They will open up the doors wide and tell everybody to rush in, and six months later they'll say, 'That's not what we want,' " Dekom said.
Many industry executives wonder whether they would be better off covering their bets by developing other overseas growth markets such as India and Russia. Walt Disney Co. recently hired a former Russian media executive to head a new office in Moscow. Sony Pictures Entertainment is planning its first Indian film, "Saawariya," a collaboration with leading Bollywood director Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
Executives are especially disillusioned that China hasn't done more to stop the sale of cheap bootlegged movies that proliferates on its streets.
On Friday, in front of the Beijing Friendship Store a few blocks from the U.S. Embassy, a man carrying a black shoulder bag was working the street. The 35-year-old man, who would identify himself only by his family name, Li, said he had been doing this for six years. Even though "The Da Vinci Code" is no longer in theaters, the man said, he sells five or six bootleg versions a day, making it his top seller.
His DVDs generally go for the equivalent of 70 cents to $1.10, depending on how aggressively customers bargain. He said he earned about $120 a month.
