The Trade Deficit Of China-U.S. Movie And Expansion Strategy In Overseas Market

The movie trade is an important part of cultural trade. Chinese and Americanmovie trade has experienced highs and lows for decades. China has committed toincrease its imports of14American IMAX and3D movies, and revenue sharing hasincreased from13%to25%in2012, ten years after the country entered the WTO.This deal has created new trade opportunities for American films and presented newproblems and challenges to the Chinese movie market. The Sino–US movie trade hasbeen mainly concerned with the export of American movies to China for a long time.Thus, enhancing the competitiveness and influence of Chinese domestic films andexpanding China’s overseas film market have become the highlights of the domesticfilm industry.This paper presents recent research results of scholars in China and in othercountries on the Sino–US movie trade. The import and export movie quantity andbox-office receipts of the Sino–US movie trade were analyzed and compared. Theexistence of many problems such as financing difficulty, theatre chain differences,and overseas market downturn despite high domestic box office results wasdetermined. The trade deficit phenomenon of the Sino–US movie trade has existed formany years. Thus, the main study problem is to determine an effective strategy inpromoting the Sino–US trade and in enhancing the influence of domestic films in theoverseas markets.This study introduces the current situation of domestic films in overseas marketsand analyzes the reasons why domestic films are at a disadvantage in the Sino–UStrade. The movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which has an Oriental culturalbackground, was used as a case study. The factors and characteristics of its success inNorth America in terms of its comprehensive utilization of marketing and maturemarket operations were analyzed. This study developed domestic overseas promotionstrategies (i.e., national policy support and tax regulation, international cinemaacquisition, developing the market function of film festivals and the culture vision offilms, and increasing international film talent training) by analyzing the currentsituation, characteristics, and rules of the Sino–US trade. Developing and optimizing the Sino–US movie trade cannot occur overnight.These goals, which if realized will promote the entire domestic movie market systemcomprising financing, marketing, box office location, and talent cultivation factors,can only be achieved in the long term.