Hollywood’s Red Dawn: China’s Restrictions on American Film

The Chinese film market has undergone unprecedented expansion in the past 17 years. As North American box office revenues drop, Hollywood film studios often rely on the Chinese market to balance the costs of blockbuster films. However, Beijing maintains strict regulations on China’s film imports, including annual quotas on the number of foreign films released, limits on the share of grosses Hollywood studios can receive from their films, and content censorship based on Communist Party directives. Many of these regulations are designed to incentivize Hollywood studios to co-produce films with Chinese companies. Through co-production agreements, Beijing anticipates that Chinese filmmakers will eventually gain enough experience to replace their American collaborators. Faced with these restrictions, Hollywood studios and U.S. officials have several options to negotiate for fewer trade barriers, or to retaliate with restrictions of their own