Hollywood comes to China

Hollywood opens his agency in China. William Morris's agency expands its California sphere of influence of the opening of a new office in Shanghai, the main economic center of China. The company signed a large -scale contract with the organizers of the Shanghai International Film Festival to celebrate its arrival.

In search of new spheres of influence, the large agencies of Hollywood in recent years have been striving to expand the network of their representative offices abroad in order to cover all possible directions as much as possible, starting with the release of video games and ending with the organization of festivals and concert tours.

The largest form of expansion of activity is the creation of diversified corporations. Hollywood agencies now replenish their corporate lists with giants such as General Motors and Coca-Cola.

The geographical expansion of the field of activity of the film industry agencies rose on the agenda recently. The reason for this decision was a significant reduction in the income of leading Hollywood agencies within the country. Recently, they fluctuate within 10%.

Despite the popularity of Asian cinema growing in recent years, from Hong Kong militants to Japanese animation, not one of the Hollywood agencies has launched commercial activities in this area.

The first prize at the Shanghai International Festival, which became the first client of the William Morris agency in China, received the Iranian film "The Tradition of the Murder of the Lover".

This week William Morris finally opens the office of his permanent representation in Shanghai. Given the appearance of numerous competitors in the Chinese market, it was very difficult to do this. About this writes The Wall Street Journal (translation on the website inopressa.ru ).

Having opened the doors for foreign investment in the 1980s, China is experiencing a real heyday of the economy. In it, the entertainment market is growing rapidly, which, according to the latest forecasts, will distill Japan and will become the second largest in the world by the end of this decade. Another important circumstance: in 2008, Beijing will be the venue for the Summer Olympic Games.

William Morris sees two main directions of his activity. The first is the traditional business to identify talents, including the search for outstanding actors and directors. William Morris hopes to find talented Chinese actors who want to work in Hollywood, as well as invite the famous Hollywood stars to work in China (in the list of customers of the agency there are such talents of the “a” group as Russell Crowe and Kirsten Dunst).

Another area is potentially more profitable corporate cooperation with local agencies. Here you can include assistance to Western clients in establishing business contacts with rapidly changing the work of the Chinese media and providing them with information about what can be most profitable to invest their advertising dollars. Here you can also include the supply of goods, advertising services and sponsorship investments in large -scale entertainment events.

"The Shanghai International Film Festival, the first Chinese client of the William Morris agency, gives the agency a solid point of support to affirm himself in the creative circles of China," says Grace Cheng, whom the agency sent to Shanghai to start work. The agency hopes that thanks to participation in this event, it will strengthen its authority among leading Chinese film actors. On the other hand, the same film festival will help the agency establish itself among Western filmmakers and attract more sponsors to the festival.

The stumbling block can be large Chinese agencies, many of which William Morris will step on heels. “We are not going to compete with Chinese agencies,” says Viatt. “On the contrary, we established good partnerships with them.” He also said that William Morris’s agency is negotiating with local entertainment agencies, the media and investors about the possibility of strategic partnership.

Nevertheless, the agency will still take some time to learn how to make money in China. Many competing agencies also plan to establish themselves in China, but it seems that none of them have yet attempted to take decisive steps.

“It is still difficult to say to what extent the American film industry agencies will be able to do what they do in Hollywood and New York in China,” says Harold Vogell, an analyst at the entertainment industry. “I don’t think they can succeed there right now.”