Hollywood's China dreams get tangled in trade talks

Xi says no regrets, Marxism still totally correct for China Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at an event commemorating the 200th birth anniversary of Karl Marx in Beijing | Reuters

Hollywood's push for greater access to China's booming film market—delayed since last year—has become tangled in broader trade talks between Washington and Beijing, a potentially thorny position amid whipsawing trade relations.

Negotiations to raise a Chinese quota on imported films and boost the share that overseas producers get of box office takings are now being discussed within the broader framework of a U.S.-China trade stand-off, four industry sources said. The shift from earlier talks is a double-edged sword for U.S. producers looking at China's $8.6 billion cinema market. It could be bad news if broader talks go sour, but it could offer a potential path forward if the two countries find common ground.

"It wouldn't really hit the domestic movie business much whether we bring in more foreign movies or not," said Yu Jianhong, vice president of Beijing Film Academy. "This should be something both parties can agree on."China's quota system allows 34 imported movies a year to be shown in theatres, while overseas producers get a 25 percent share of box office takings—less than in other international markets. Since 2016 a handful more have been allowed in via a "cultural exchange" channel.

In a government document provided to the U.S. delegation in Beijing two weeks ago, Chinese negotiators said that opening up the market more for U.S. movies was a concession China could offer to Washington as part of a broader trade deal. The document, seen by Reuters, said that China was "willing to discuss expanding movie imports with the U.S. side". Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is currently in Washington leading a Chinese trade delegation on a second round of talks to find a deal with the United States and avert a full-blown trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

China on Friday said it was dropping an anti-dumping probe into imports of U.S. sorghum, a conciliatory gesture hours after U.S. officials familiar with the matter said China was offering a package to slash the U.S. trade deficit by up to $200 billion. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump criticised China as being "very spoiled" on trade with the United States but said he was aiming for an overall deal with Beijing.

U.S. studios had hoped for an improved deal for imported films last year. This, however, had been held up as Beijing rejigged its film regulator, handing more control to the ruling Communist Party, and then as trade tensions with the United States grew. "The movie deal is essentially on pause," one person familiar with U.S.-China negotiations on the movie agreement told Reuters, adding that Beijing's willingness to ease up would likely be swayed by the state of trade tensions.Hollywood producers are pushing for more access, but a bigger share of revenues was even higher on the agenda, especially as locally-made productions became more competitive. China has become a key market for U.S. studios from Walt Disney Co to Universal Pictures.