China’s anniversary film breaks 400M yuan mark, still lags ‘Transformers’ record

China’s anniversary film breaks 400M yuan mark

HONG KONG — China’s blockbuster anniversary film to mark 60 years of communist rule has broken the 400 million Chinese yuan ($59 million) mark, but still lags the all-time box office record set by “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” earlier this year, a publicist said Tuesday.

“The Founding of a Republic” had earned nearly 410 million yuan ($60 million) as of Monday, Weng Li, the main spokesman for state-run China Film Group told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

That figure compares to the 430 million yuan ($63 million) brought in by Hollywood’s “Transformers” sequel earlier this year, which broke the 11-year record of 360 million yuan set by “Titanic” in 1998.

Weng declined to say if he expects “The Founding of a Republic” to break the “Transformers” record, which would be a big source of national pride for China.

Shot to commemorate the communists’ victory over the then-ruling Nationalist Party in the 1940s, the film is also politically important, with many stars taking part for free. Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Stephen Chow and Zhang Ziyi have mere cameos.

“We’re not chasing that (the ‘Transformers’) record,” Weng said, adding that China Film Group was now focusing on discounted and free screenings for poor rural areas to “give back” to the public. He said while most major multiplex chains are still showing the film, they have scaled back the number of screenings.

“If people keep watching the movie, they will keep screening it,” he said.

The impressive run by “The Founding of a Republic” was also helped by the lack of foreign competition when it debuted on Sept. 16. Likely under pressure to boost a patriotic movie, many theater operators also stuffed their schedules with showings. China Film Group issued about 1,400 copies of the movie. China had nearly 4,100 screens at the end of 2008.

The Chinese government also protects local films by limiting the number of film imports on a revenue-sharing basis to 20 a year, a quota that effectively limits Hollywood blockbusters to 20 slots annually.

“The Founding of a Republic” is already China’s best-selling local movie ever, breaking the previous mark of 320 million yuan ($47 million) set by Feng Xiaogang’s 2008 romantic comedy, “If You Are the One.”

China’s box office is booming, but still comparatively small compared to the U.S. market. Government statistics show that revenues surged from 920 million yuan in 2003 to 4.3 billion yuan ($630 million) 2008 — compared to $9.8 billion in the U.S. last year.