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The Multiplex in Japan, South Korea, and China

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Abstract

Hanson examines multiplex developments in three national markets: Japan, South Korea, and China, all of which are expanding rapidly, but which have particular domestic conditions that contrast sharply with each other. South Korea has the world’s most enthusiastic cinemagoers per capita, with the multiplex the wholly dominant cinema form and based entirely on domestic operators. Japan is a multiplex market grown initially largely by US and British entrants, though all have exited the market subsequently, leaving it to domestic exhibitors. Finally, China is both the fastest growing film market in the world and one of the most complex to do business in and with.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Philip Singleton, Executive VP of AMC, quoted in Alan Waldman, “The Road to Asia,” The Hollywood Reporter Salute to Showester of the Year Stan Durwood (4 March, 1996), S-10.

  2. 2.

    MPAA, 2018 Theme Report (Motion Picture Association of America Inc., 2019), 9. https://www.mpaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MPAA-THEME-Report-2018.pdf (accessed 10 April, 2019).

  3. 3.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2004 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2004), 4.

  4. 4.

    MPAA, 2018 Theme Report, 10.

  5. 5.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2004, 9.

  6. 6.

    Korean Film Council, Status & Insight: Korean Film Industry 2017 (Korean Film Council, Film Policy Research Institute, 2017), 11. www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/publications/download.jsp?fileNm=Theme413.pdf (accessed 29 January, 2019).

  7. 7.

    Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, Inc., Statistics of Film Industry in Japan, http://www.eiren.org/statistics_e/index.html (accessed 10 January, 2019).

  8. 8.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research China, Hong Kong, Taiwan 2018 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2018), 1.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., 1.

  10. 10.

    “WB: Joint Venture, Per Capita,” BoxOffice 127, no. 7 (1 July, 1991), 24.

  11. 11.

    Garth Alexander, “WB, Grocer to Build Japan Multiplexes,” Variety 343, no. 5 (13 May, 1991), 6.

  12. 12.

    Michelle Magee, “Multiplexes Moving In,” Variety 364, no. 7 (16 September, 1996), 60.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., 60.

  14. 14.

    Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, Inc., Statistics of Film Industry in Japan.

  15. 15.

    Ibid.

  16. 16.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2004, 127.

  17. 17.

    Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, Inc., Statistics of Film Industry in Japan.

  18. 18.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2004, 130.

  19. 19.

    UNIJAPAN, The Guide to Japanese Film Industry & Co-production 2009 (Tokyo: UNIJAPAN, 2009), 14.

  20. 20.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research Japan 2018 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2018), 3.

  21. 21.

    Millard Ochs, “Plexing muscle,” Screen International 1150 (20 March, 1998), 26.

  22. 22.

    Notwithstanding occasional exceptional years, such as 1997 when Princess Mononoke dominated the box-office, when one considers the trends, domestic films account for approximately 35 per cent of the film market in Japan.

  23. 23.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2004, 138.

  24. 24.

    Quoted in Waldman, “The Road to Asia,” S-10.

  25. 25.

    Jon Herskovitz, “Distribs Maintain Hold on Hits Via Archaic Booking Systems,” Variety 371, no. 2 (18 May, 1998), 58.

  26. 26.

    Scott Rosenberg, “AMC Comes to Asia: U.S. Circuit Finds Success in far East,” Film Journal International 102, no. 3 (1 March, 1999), 48.

  27. 27.

    AMC Entertainment Inc., 1997 Annual Report (Leawood, KS: AMC Entertainment Inc., 1997), 16.

  28. 28.

    Rosenberg, “AMC Comes to Asia,” 48.

  29. 29.

    Alan McNair, UCI’s chief financial officer, quoted in Beth Porter, “UCI Looks East,” Film Journal International 100, no. 1 (1 February, 1997), 30.

  30. 30.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia 2007 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2007), 47.

  31. 31.

    Andreas Fuchs, “Tea Houses and Multiplexes,” Film Journal International 100, no. 1 (1 February, 1997), 46.

  32. 32.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research Japan 2018, 4.

  33. 33.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2004, 140–1.

  34. 34.

    Mamiko Kawamoto, “T Joy Opens Second E-Cinema Complex in Japan,” Variety (31 May, 2001). https://www.screendaily.com/t-joy-opens-second-e-cinema-complex-in-japan/405849.article (accessed 30 January, 2019).

  35. 35.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia 2008 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2008), 25.

  36. 36.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia 2012 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2012), 19.

  37. 37.

    Ibid., 19.

  38. 38.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research Japan 2018, 4.

  39. 39.

    Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, Inc., Statistics of Film Industry in Japan.

  40. 40.

    Korean Film Council, Status & Insight: Korean Film Industry 2017, 55.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., 54.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., 27

  43. 43.

    “Cinemas and Their Audiences: Just holding on,” Screen Digest (September, 1992), 206.

  44. 44.

    Ibid., 203.

  45. 45.

    Sangho Kim, “Cinema Demand in Korea,” Journal of Media Economics 22, no. 1 (March, 2009): 36–56.

  46. 46.

    Yeongkwan Song, Audiovisual Services in Korea: Market Development and Policies. ADBI Working Paper 354. (Tokyo: Asian Development Bank Institute, 2012). http://www.adbi.org/working-paper/2012/04/16/5048.audiovisual.services.korea/ (accessed 29 January, 2019).

  47. 47.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2000 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2000), 93.

  48. 48.

    Sohee Kim, “Foreign Correspondence: Korea Scene,” Film Journal International 101, no. 4 (1 April, 1998), 128.

  49. 49.

    Cheil Jedang was an early investor in new US studio Dreamworks SKG, buying 11 per cent of the stock for $300 million in return for the rights to distribute the company’s films in Asia outside Japan for ten years.

  50. 50.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2004, 230.

  51. 51.

    Christopher Alford, “CJ Village at home in Korean exhib’n,” Variety 380, no. 13 (13 November, 2000), 84.

  52. 52.

    Lee Hyo-won, “South Korea’s CJ CGV to Invest $200M in Vietnamese Theaters by 2020,” The Hollywood Reporter (9 April, 2017), https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/south-koreas-cj-cgv-invest-200m-vietnamese-theaters-by-2020-1034929 (accessed 30 January, 2019).

  53. 53.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research South Korea 2018 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2018), 5–6. CGV has a 40.25 per cent interest in Turkish circuit Mars Entertainment and a 38.1 per cent interest in its Indonesian CGV circuit.

  54. 54.

    Korean Film Council, Status & Insight: Korean Film Industry 2017, 54.

  55. 55.

    Ibid., 6.

  56. 56.

    Kim Anh, “Foreign Players dominate blossoming cinema scene,” Vietnamese Investment Review (28 September, 2018). https://www.vir.com.vn/foreign-players-dominate-blossoming-cinema-scene-62707.html (accessed 30 January, 2019).

  57. 57.

    Patrick Frater, “Korea’s Lotte Restructures Film Ahead of Overseas Push, Streaming Launch,” Variety (10 April, 2018). https://variety.com/2018/biz/asia/korea-lotte-restructures-film-creativeworks-1202748912/ (accessed 29 January, 2019).

  58. 58.

    Christopher Alford, “Screening for quality,” Variety 378, no. 10 (24 April, 2000), 56.

  59. 59.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2004, 232.

  60. 60.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia 2008, 49.

  61. 61.

    Korean Film Council, Status & Insight: Korean Film Industry 2017, 56.

  62. 62.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research South Korea 2018, 4.

  63. 63.

    Korean Film Council, Status & Insight: Korean Film Industry 2017, 11.

  64. 64.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research South Korea 2018, 1.

  65. 65.

    “Cinemas And Their Audiences: Just holding on,” 206.

  66. 66.

    “Worldwide Cinema: Key markets strong as global admissions dip,” Screen Digest (October, 2001), 314.

  67. 67.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research China, Hong Kong, Taiwan 2013 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2013), 5.

  68. 68.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research China, Hong Kong, Taiwan 2018, 3.

  69. 69.

    Rebecca Davis, “China Box Office Growth Slows to 9% in 2018. Hits $8.9 Billion,” Variety (2 January, 2019). https://variety.com/2019/film/news/china-box-office-2018-annual-1203097545/ (accessed 4 February, 2019).

  70. 70.

    See Peichi Chung and Lianyuan Yi, “The regionalization of co-production in the film industries of Hong Kong SAR and mainland China,” in Handbook of Cultural and Creative Industries in China, ed. Michael Keane (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2016), 219.

  71. 71.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research China, Hong Kong, Taiwan 2018, 1.

  72. 72.

    Scott Rosenberg, “Reason to Smile,” Film Journal International 100, no. 4 (1 May, 1997), 52.

  73. 73.

    Mark Schilling, “UCI pits Smile into Chinese exhibition,” Screen International 952 (8 April, 1994), 4.

  74. 74.

    “Global Cinema Exhibition: Record Revenues But Dollar Values Mask Local Currency Falls,” Screen Digest (September, 2004), 276.

  75. 75.

    Warner Bros., Warner Bros. International Theatres to Open Multiplex Cinema in Shanghai With Local Partners: Press Release, 4 March 2002. https://www.warnerbros.com/studio/news/warner-bros-international-theatres-open-multiplex-cinema-shanghai-local-partners (accessed 23 December, 2018).

  76. 76.

    Ibid.

  77. 77.

    “Focus On Emerging Markets: China,” Screen Digest (September, 2004), 276.

  78. 78.

    Melissa Morrison, “Having a Lark,” BoxOffice 134, no. 12 (1 December, 1998), 24.

  79. 79.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research China, Hong Kong, Taiwan 2013, 7.

  80. 80.

    Patrick Frater, “Dadi Pays $575 Million for Orange Sky Golden Harvest’s China Cinemas,” Variety (26 January, 2017). https://variety.com/2017/biz/asia/dadi-pays-575-million-for-orange-sky-golden-harvests-china-theaters-1201970458/ (accessed 4 February, 2019).

  81. 81.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research China, Hong Kong, Taiwan 2018.

  82. 82.

    Ibid., 4.

  83. 83.

    Wanda group, Overseas Film companies, http://www.wanda-group.com/movies/ (accessed 26 January, 2019).

  84. 84.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research China, Hong Kong, Taiwan 2018, 4.

  85. 85.

    Patrick von Sychowski, Does Hangzhou Point to Bubble in China’s Cinema Market? Celluloid Junkie (19 November, 2014) https://celluloidjunkie.com/2014/11/19/hangzhou-point-bubble-chinas-cinema-market/ (accessed 5 February, 2019).

  86. 86.

    Yi Lu, “The Malling of the Movies: Film Exhibition Reforms, Multiplexes, and Film Consumption in the New Millennium in Urban China,” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 10, no. 1 (2016): 205–227, 206.

  87. 87.

    Patrick Frater, “IMAX Signs 30-Theater Deal With China’s Jin Yi media,” Variety (3 April, 2018). https://variety.com/2018/film/asia/imax-30-theater-deal-with-chinas-jinyi-media-1202742224/ (accessed 7 February, 2019).

  88. 88.

    Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2004, 67.

  89. 89.

    Dodona, Cinema Industry Research China, Hong Kong, Taiwan 2013, 5.

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Hanson, S. (2019). The Multiplex in Japan, South Korea, and China. In: Screening the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18995-2_11

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