As far as Hollywood is concerned, the Chinese film market is an absolute gold mine; an endless source of limitless monetary potential. In case you haven't noticed, China's population is on the larger side - if you can get even a small portion of the people living in said country into movie theatres, it's going to pay off in a big way (like, a billion dollar way). Which is why - in recent years - Hollywood has made the conscious decision to not only team up with Chinese distributors in order to get their movies circulated (Chinese companies have also helped in financing), but have opted to actually target their films towards Chinese movie-goers in ways you might not have caught on to. That might mean setting a portion of the film in Shanghai, or having more Chinese advertisements in the background of shots, or an additional Chinese character (or two). And the Chinese are absolutely loving it, apparently; they find the nods to both their country and their culture absolutely hilarious. Yang Yufan, a Chinese advertising expert, explained why: "When Hollywood studios started adding Chinese elements to their films about three or four years ago, it made us feel great - we thought: 'Wow, China is really awesome, it's a really important country now.'" Which perhaps explains why a large number of the 10 highest-grossing movies of all-time in China happen to have been made in the United States, of course. But the list isn't dominated entirely by Hollywood flicks and is actually rather eclectic. Can you guess which blockbusters made the cut?
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
