Shanghai's star turn as Hollywood of the East

Alexia Kalteis performs in the musical Rock On! Halloween at a popular theater in Shanghai. Photo provided to China Daily

RIDING THE BOX OFFICE BOOM

Shanghai increasingly favored by sci-fi filmmakers

Shanghai Int'l Film Festival closes

Forbes predicted last year that China's box office will seize the No 1 spot from the United States by 2020 if it continues to grow at its current rate, fueled by a rapidly growing middle class and the government's plan to add thousands of new theaters nationwide.

China went from having just 1,300 theaters in 2002 to 13,000 in 2012. That same year, US box-office revenues stood at $10.8 billion compared to China's $2.7 billion. The key difference is shown in on-year growth: Revenue jumped 30 percent in China from 2011 but just 6.5 percent in the US. China's box-office revenue grew by another 27.5 percent last year to $3.6 billion, according to local media.

Unlike their American counterparts, Chinese audiences are more prepared to shell out for 3-D and IMAX formats, which appeals to makers of large "spectacle" films.

Some of Ironman 3 was shot in China, while Michael Bay's Transformers 4: Age of Extinction features Chinese actress Li Bingbing and used four Chinese cities including Chongqing and Tianjin among its filming locations.

The big-budget summer blockbuster concluded the 17th Shanghai Film Festival on Sunday, two days after its global premiere in Hong Kong.

As last week's film festival confirmed, Hollywood heartthrobs and leading ladies are flocking to China to help tap the local market. Hugh Grant attended the curtain-raiser on June 14 with Grace of Monaco star Nicole Kidman. The film had its global premiere in the city on June 15, two weeks after Angelina Jolie was photographed on the Bund promoting Maleficent, Walt Disney's revisionist fairytale in which she plays the villain.

This is part of a bigger push into Asia by US studios that had Captain America's Chris Evans causing traffic chaos in Seoul in April as he and other crewmembers filmed scenes for Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Meanwhile, one of China's richest men, Wang Jianlin, is building the world's largest film studio and resort complex at an estimated cost of $5 billion some 500 kilometers north of Shanghai in the coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province.

Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis will produce 30 foreign and 100 domestic movies a year in the initial phase, according to press releases from Wang's Wanda Group. It will also include an indoor water park and seven hotel resorts. Kidman, Leonardo DiCaprio and John Travolta attended a promotional event there last summer.

Wang also hopes to launch a government-supported annual film festival in Qingdao in 2016 that he boldly predicts will one day be as big, if not bigger, than Cannes.