"It's not just Hollywood films," MPA Vice President Michael Ellis told journalists in Beijing. "Everybody is getting ripped off."
According to a study commissioned by the American industry lobbying group, 55 percent of the loss was shouldered by the local Chinese film industry, and just 21 percent by MPA member companies.
The main reason why MPA members seemed to suffer relatively small losses is local rules that severely constrain market access available to foreign film producers, Ellis said.
"We can only bring in — internationally not just Hollywood — 20 revenue-sharing films a year," he said.
Rampant piracy in China, a market potentially as big as Japan, is fueled by the fact that so few movies are available, he said.
"The China movie piracy rate based on independent research is 93 percent," Ellis said.
"Unless you open up the market and you build a legitimate film industry here ... you would always have this vacuum," he said.
However, there is some progress in fighting piracy in China, as the government has shown recognition of the problem and the court system has developed," he said.
RSS