海角大神

As Hollywood goes to ever-further lengths to captivate the growing Chinese movie audience, its latest effort, "Iron Man 3," seems to have backfired.

The blockbuster broke Chinese opening day box office records last week, pulling in $21 million. But Chinese fans are seriously unimpressed by the rather obvious ploy the producers used in a bid to make the film more attractive to them, and box office numbers have flagged in recent days.

Disney-owned Marvel studios added an extra four minutes to the Chinese version of the movie, giving film goers here a minor plot twist and a few shots of female heart-throb Fan Bingbing and another local star, Wang Xueqi, against a Chinese background.

Disney鈥檚 effort is just the latest episode in US film companies鈥� continuing efforts to grab a larger slice of the Chinese box office pie. Already the second-largest and fastest growing movie market in the world, China is expected to outstrip the United States by 2020, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

But the Chinese "Iron Man 3" scenes were so clearly bolted on and irrelevant to the story line that many people here felt insulted rather than entertained. 鈥淭he Chinese version treated Chinese audiences like idiots,鈥� complains Liu Kunpeng, a young IT engineer. 鈥淚 want to see the same version that the rest of the world sees.鈥�

鈥淭he extra minutes did not help the film commercially and they may even have hurt,鈥� suggests Robert Cain, a film producer who has worked extensively in China. 鈥淎udiences felt manipulated.鈥�

Foreign films are strictly controlled in China. The authorities allow only 34 foreign movies to open each year in China, and let their producers keep only a small share 鈥� generally well under 25 percent 鈥� of the box office revenues.

One way around those restrictions is to co-produce a film with Chinese partners 鈥� Sony chose this route for its remake of 鈥淜arate Kid.鈥� Co-productions are treated as domestic films, and their makers get 40 percent of the box office take.

But the conditions are strict: 30 percent of the money must come from China, 30 percent of the film鈥檚 鈥渕ajor players鈥� on either side of the camera must be Chinese, and the film must reflect a Chinese theme or cultural context.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 a lot to ask of a film 鈥� if you want it to have commercial success outside China too,鈥� says Mr. Cain.

So Hollywood is trying all sorts of tricks, short of co-productions, to make its products appeal to the Chinese authorities and Chinese audiences.

Last year鈥檚 time travel movie 鈥淟ooper鈥� was set partly in Shanghai, and Bruce Willis鈥檚 character spent more time there in the Chinese version of the film than he did in the version released internationally.

Paramount is going even further with 鈥淭ransformers 4," due out next year. Working with Chinese state-run TV鈥檚 movie channel, Paramount launched a casting competition here three weeks ago, seeking on-line Chinese applicants for four roles in the film, 鈥渁 strong stylish man, a geek, a sexy woman and a little Lolita,鈥� according to the TV channel鈥檚 website, which is running the contest. The winners will be presented in a movie channel special in August, organizers say.聽

The producers hope that this will not only give their film valuable publicity, but earn kudos with the Chinese authorities. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good way for the government to know the American film company is eager to participate with the Chinese in the making of the movie,鈥� Sid Ganis, a veteran producer who is working on the project, told The Hollywood Reporter.聽

Such kudos can be worth a lot of money: The producers of "Iron Man 3" earned themselves the right to market their film a year in advance and to release it on one of the biggest movie-going days in the Chinese calendar 鈥� the May 1聽national holiday.

The last "Transformers" movie earned $165 million at the Chinese box office, 20 percent of its international take.

But gimmicks such as extra scenes or local casting are not going to work forever, Cain cautions. 鈥淔oreign producers who want to succeed in China will have to pay more attention to what Chinese audiences want and what Chinese investors will pay for鈥� if they are to compete with ever more sophisticated and popular Chinese films, he says.

鈥淚t will take more investment and attention and understanding than any Hollywood studio has shown so far,鈥� he adds.