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British superspy finally arrives in China

A Chinese woman walks past an advertisement poster for the latest James Bond movie in Beijing, China, on Friday. PHOTO: AP

James Bond is finally coming to Chinese cinemas and producers of the British superspy's latest romp, Casino Royale, are pulling out all the stops to promote it.

Sony Pictures hired experts to get the Chinese-language dubbing of the movie's gambling jargon just right. The new 007, Daniel Craig, will be flying in to lend star power today at the Beijing premiere. The film is due to be shown on 1,000 screens throughout China.

But even if Bond's big-screen Chinese debut is a hit, Sony stands to make little money in a market where the state-owned monopoly distributor keeps most of the box office revenues.

The dilemma highlights the conflict between foreign ambitions in China's film market of 1.3 billion potential viewers and Beijing's desire to protect its own studios.

Bond should get a good reception, said Li Chow, the general manager in China for Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corp.

"I think it will be very well received," Li said. "Everybody here in China knows the Bond films and there are very high expectations, so we hope it will be very successful," Li added.

Until now, Bond has been a flop with Chinese censors, though earlier movies are available on pirated DVDs.

Authorities rejected 2002's Die Another Day, starring Pierce Brosnan as Bond, reportedly due to its depiction of North Korea, a close Beijing ally, as a gangster haven.

For Casino Royale, a tale of poker and terrorism, Sony submitted the film to the Chinese censors as early as possible and discussed its content with them, Li said.

"The censors didn't request any cuts," she said. "What we told them is, we are fighting a common enemy, terrorists. That was well accepted."

Sony hopes to show the film for at least one month, Li said.

"We expect this to be the highest-grossing foreign film [in China] this year," Li said.

Li declined to discuss financial details.

But the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which represents Sony and other Hollywood studios, said China's state-owned distributor, China Film, gives foreign studios just 13 percent of box office revenues, the lowest such rate of any country.

Worldwide, the average is 50 percent, the MPA said.

So if Casino Royale takes in 100 million yuan (US$12 million) -- a high figure for a Chinese release -- Sony would get just 13 million yuan.

To protect its filmmakers, Beijing limited imports last year to 50 titles for theatrical release, including those from Hong Kong, figures from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television showed.

Dozens of additional foreign movies get limited release on DVD through Chinese distributors. Pirate DVDs of the most popular titles from abroad are widely available from black market vendors.

Regulators also try to maximize revenues for Chinese studios by barring foreign films from theaters during holidays and school vacations, when audiences are biggest.

Foreign governments are pressing Beijing to raise its quota and studios are asking China Film for a bigger share of ticket sales, but no progress has been reported.

For Casino Royale, Sony took the unusual step of hiring two Chinese directors instead of one to dub it into Mandarin, one for voices and the second for technical details, Li said.

"For gambling terms and all that, it's very difficult to translate," she said. "So sometimes we used a word that explained what was happening, rather than using a gambling term."

The studio is advertising in newspapers and on TV and billboards, Li said.

"We are everywhere," she said.

Casino Royale has been available in China since last month on black-market DVDs dubbed in Russian, possibly reflecting their origin in Russia, a major source of pirated goods.
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