Entertainment Industry China

Like modern-day Marco Polos with cellular phones, Hollywood executives are venturing to China seeking the same kind of profits they reaped exporting fantasy to the rest of the world. But despite China's promise of 1.3 billion potential customers, a burgeoning middle class enamored of entertainment, a flourishing creative community and a growing, less shackled economy, the largest untapped market for American movies and TV shows remains maddeningly out of reach.

Viacom Inc. signed a landmark deal this week to launch Nickelodeon in 40 million Chinese households May 1, marking the second time the entertainment company has been allowed by the Beijing government to take its U.S. brands into Chinese homes. Under a 3-year-old pact, Viacom is already bringing MTV to 54 million households in China, the world's largest television market based on the 300 million homes with TV sets. That is three times as many television households as in the U.S.

China said foreigners could not wholly own entertainment businesses, a move that could cool overseas investors' interest in theme parks and movie theaters. The new regulations, which take effect July 1, expressly forbid wholly owned foreign projects, according to a copy of the laws published by New China News Agency. Other items among the 47 clauses of the public entertainment law ban drugs, prostitution, anti-national activities and violence at places of public entertainment.

Tong Xiangling was window-shopping here when a government car pulled up and he was hauled to an audition that would change his life. Two songs later, Mao Tse-tung's wife, Jiang Qing, personally cast him as the People's Liberation Army officer and bandit impersonator in the revolutionary opera "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy." His suave character played like a Communist James Bond, and the role catapulted Tong to superstardom during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

High Fees for Pop Stars to Be Curbed: China's Ministry of Culture will issue new rules to curb concert fees. Some Taiwanese and Hong Kong entertainers have received up to $518,000 per show, charging about $88 a ticket. Chinese stars' fees averaged $264 a show in 1990.

Sitting in a cocktail lounge of a five-star hotel, chain-smoking American cigarettes and drinking coffee, novelist Wang Shuo managed a brave smile, though he hardly looked like one of the tough-guy characters in his popular fiction about China's criminal underground.

Tong Xiangling was window-shopping here when a government car pulled up and he was hauled to an audition that would change his life. Two songs later, Mao Tse-tung's wife, Jiang Qing, personally cast him as the People's Liberation Army officer and bandit impersonator in the revolutionary opera "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy." His suave character played like a Communist James Bond, and the role catapulted Tong to superstardom during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

Here's the script: A group of foreigners comes to an exotic land seeking fortune and opportunity. A tempestuous relationship develops with their potential partners, driven by hope, greed and mistrust. It turns into a trial of patience and punishment. The directors, cast and the ultimate ending keep changing. This is the story of making and selling movies in China, and film producer Megan Gathercole could write the script.

Viacom Inc. signed a landmark deal this week to launch Nickelodeon in 40 million Chinese households May 1, marking the second time the entertainment company has been allowed by the Beijing government to take its U.S. brands into Chinese homes. Under a 3-year-old pact, Viacom is already bringing MTV to 54 million households in China, the world's largest television market based on the 300 million homes with TV sets. That is three times as many television households as in the U.S.

BEIJING -- China's battle of the superheroes ended up being won by ... a group of aging action stars. In a surprising outcome, "The Expendables 2" has outgrossed both "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Amazing Spider-Man" in China. The ensemble action movie starring Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jet Li has grossed $54 million in China as of Sunday, according to research firm Artisan Gateway. "The Expendables 2" opened in the world's most populous nation Sept.

Here's the script: A group of foreigners comes to an exotic land seeking fortune and opportunity. A tempestuous relationship develops with their potential partners, driven by hope, greed and mistrust. It turns into a trial of patience and punishment. The directors, cast and the ultimate ending keep changing. This is the story of making and selling movies in China, and film producer Megan Gathercole could write the script.

Like modern-day Marco Polos with cellular phones, Hollywood executives are venturing to China seeking the same kind of profits they reaped exporting fantasy to the rest of the world. But despite China's promise of 1.3 billion potential customers, a burgeoning middle class enamored of entertainment, a flourishing creative community and a growing, less shackled economy, the largest untapped market for American movies and TV shows remains maddeningly out of reach.

China said foreigners could not wholly own entertainment businesses, a move that could cool overseas investors' interest in theme parks and movie theaters. The new regulations, which take effect July 1, expressly forbid wholly owned foreign projects, according to a copy of the laws published by New China News Agency. Other items among the 47 clauses of the public entertainment law ban drugs, prostitution, anti-national activities and violence at places of public entertainment.

Sitting in a cocktail lounge of a five-star hotel, chain-smoking American cigarettes and drinking coffee, novelist Wang Shuo managed a brave smile, though he hardly looked like one of the tough-guy characters in his popular fiction about China's criminal underground.

High Fees for Pop Stars to Be Curbed: China's Ministry of Culture will issue new rules to curb concert fees. Some Taiwanese and Hong Kong entertainers have received up to $518,000 per show, charging about $88 a ticket. Chinese stars' fees averaged $264 a show in 1990.

Seeking to compete on its own terms in the lucrative entertainment industry, China announced a government-funded project Tuesday to promote an alternative to DVDs and "attack the market share" of the global video format. The rollout of the long-planned project, known as EVD, or enhanced versatile disk, was timed to coincide with the beginning of what China calls the "golden sales" period -- known elsewhere as the Christmas shopping season.

Hollywood super lobbyist Jack Valenti was hobnobbing at the Cannes Film Festival last week but not even that elite extravaganza could distract him from the less glamorous role he is playing back home: lobbying for the new trade deal with China. Valenti took time from his four-day trip on the Riviera to call six wavering House members in Washington and urge them to support a bill that would normalize U.S.-China trade ties. The calls were hardly isolated incidents.