The lobbying group for Hollywood’s top studios is auditing China’s box-office figures amid concern that ticket sales have been reported inaccurately, a person familiar with the matter said.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents the six major US studios, hired an accounting firm to audit sales of selected films for the first time, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the matter is private.
The results might come as soon as the third quarter, the person said.
Results of the audit are important for major Hollywood studios such as Walt Disney Co and Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures, because hundreds of cases of revenue misreporting have been documented in China.
In revenue-sharing deals, studios receive 25 percent of box-office sales, so getting accurate figures is vital.
In addition to films shown in China under revenue-sharing agreements, Hollywood studios export movies to the nation on a flat-fee basis.
Ticket-sales growth slowed to less than 3.7 percent in China last year, compared with more than 35 percent average growth in the previous five years. China is still growing faster than the rate of about 2 percent for North America last year, MPAA data showed.
Hollywood’s biggest studios have been counting on growth in China, where consumer spending on movies is expected to surpass that of the US in coming years.
For example, Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures, Sony Corp’s Sony Pictures and Paramount have struck deals with local partners to fund movies and help market them in China.
Others such as Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros, in collaboration with Chinese companies, have started local-language productions.
Yet, the figures do not always add up.
In November, China approved new fines for falsifying box-office sales, in some cases as much as five times the illegal gains.
The Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication Radio, Film and Television penalized more than 300 theaters in March for under-reporting ticket sales, the regulator said at the time.
The biggest penalties were 90-day suspensions of operations for exhibitors that understated revenue by more than 1 million yuan (US$146,817). Theaters and distributors face revocation of licenses in “very severe” cases, according to the law, which took effect in March.
Hollywood’s audit is part of a market-access agreement Chinese officials reached with the MPAA almost two years ago, details of which have not been disclosed to the public
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”