[電影業的機遇] What are the reasons for the decline of Hong Kong film industry?

Challenges of the film industry in Hong Kong

Background：

Shrinking number of cinema seats: Spurred by the buoyant property market and facing increasing competition from home video entertainment such as VCDs and DVDs, many big local cinemas have been demolished for development into more lucrative residential and commercial buildings. In 2015, there were only 47 cinemas left with 37 800 available seats, down by 60% and 70% compared with 119 cinemas and 122 000 seats in 1993. This inevitably has a strong adverse impact on the overall box office in Hong Kong.

Crowded out by foreign movies: Local audiences have been increasingly attracted to imported movies especially the big-budget Hollywood movies, in line with the viewing preference of audiences elsewhere. As a result, the box office of foreign movies in Hong Kong increased four-folds over the past two decades to HK$1,602 million in 2015, quadrupling their share in the overall box office of Hong Kong from around 20% in 1992 to about 80% in 2015. By contrast, the share of Hong Kong movies plunged from around 80% to around 20% over the same period.

Weakening overseas appetite for Hong Kong movies: Overseas box office used to be an important revenue source of Hong Kong movies in the 1980s and 1990s, especially from Taiwan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. Yet overseas appetite for Hong Kong movies likewise waned since the early 1990s, as overseas audiences were drawn to Hollywood movies as well. It is estimated that the overseas box office for Hong Kong movies (excluding the Mainland market) plunged by more than 80% from a peak of HK$1,860 million in 1992 to just around HK$300 million in 2014.

四大原因導致電影行業萎縮

1. 電影院座位數目持續縮減
2. 被外國電影取代
3. 海外市場對香港電影的興趣減弱
4. 電影盜版猖獗

Current Measures:

Under CEPA, while local movies entirely produced by Hong Kong companies can be exempt from the import quota set for foreign movies in the Mainland, Hong Kong-Mainland co-production can also be distributed as domestic movies in the Mainland.

Hong Kong Government injected HK$200 million into the Film Development Fund to help boost filmmaking and nurture local talent, Moreover, it had decided to give an extra HK$20 million to the fund to help subsidise the cost of promoting films on mainland China.

Benefits:

1) As this market is about 27 times that of Hong Kong, it has widened considerably the market horizon of local film makers.

2) Hong Kong-Mainland co-production can also widen the sources of investment funds of local film makers on the one hand, and create more job opportunities for local talents on the other. The business performance of the local film industry improved over the past decade.

由於內地市場的規模約為香港市場的27倍，拓闊了本地電影製作人的市場發展空間。此外，香港與內地的合拍影片，既可為本地電影製作人拓寬投資資金來源，又可為本地人才創造更多就業機會。業務表現在過去10年間亦同時改善。

Challenges:

Film makers in the Mainland are more sophisticated and self-sufficient in film making and this may reduce the opportunities for co-production with Hong Kong film makers over time.

內地電影製作企業在電影製作上越趨成熟，亦可自給自足，這或會減少香港電影製作企業參與合拍影片的機會。

Hong Kong movies need to face intensifying competition from foreign movies especially from Hollywood. By virtue of its attractive cast and big production budget, foreign movies are under strong demand in the Mainland. While imported movies accounted for only 16% of the films commercially released for screening in the Mainland in 2015, they took up almost 40% of the overall box office.Reportedly, import quota for foreign movies under the revenue sharing model is likely to be relaxed further in the next review scheduled for 2017.

其次，香港電影需要面對外國電影的激烈競爭，尤以荷里活電影為然。憑着其強勁的製作陣容和龐大的製作預算，外國電影在內地甚具叫座力。2015年，在內地作商業發行並上映的電影中，進口電影雖然只佔16%，但這些電影佔整體票房接近40%。內地繼於2012年把以分帳模式進口的外國電影配額由20部增至34部後，據報或會在2017年的檢討中進一步放寬配額。

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