Will Asia’s Distribution Landscape Ever Return To Normal?
And what was normal anyway? These were some of the big questions being debated at Focus Asia, the industry platform of Far East Film Festival (FEFF, April 22-30) in Udine, Italy, which has turned out to be one of the first major in-person interactions between the Asian and European film industries during the pandemic. Also this week, speculation over China easing its clampdown on its local tech industries; James Murdoch and Uday Shankar’s Bodhi Tree Systems pumps $1.78bn into India’s Viacom18; an Arizona-based private equity firm buys STX Entertainment; and Amazon Prime Video announces a bumper slate of originals and a TVOD service for India.
FOCUS ASIA: Asia’s theatrical markets and selling to the streamers
While CinemaCon participants were having their minds blown in Las Vegas by impending big screen extravaganzas including Jurassic World: Dominion and Avatar 2: The Way Of Water, film industry folk from Asia and Europe were in Italy debating the realities of the post-pandemic theatrical landscape (not that we’re truly ‘post’ anything, but let’s try to stay positive). On a panel entitled ‘Asian film distribution: Post-pandemic, Pre-what?’, moderated by Variety Asia Editor Patrick Frater, four sales agents and producers discussed whether Asia’s theatrical market will ever rebound back to pre-pandemic levels, and whether selling to the streamers will ever make up the shortfall if not.
As the northern hemisphere heads into spring and learns to live with Covid, most Asian territories are slowly reopening their borders and their cinemas, with the notable exception of China. But producer and former sales agent Michael Werner said there’s still a huge amount of uncertainty, although it’s clear that audience habits have changed: “People are not as inclined to go to the theatre as they used to be,” said Werner, who is a long-time Hong Kong resident. “In Hong Kong, in particular, if young people are going to the cinema, it’s for a Marvel or superhero or genre film, but everything’s changed and it’s not clear it’s coming back in the way it once was.”
