In June 2013, the film “World War Z” (original title “World War Z”) will be released with Brad Pitt and a budget of $175 million. At the moment, by and large, the film is ready, but at the end of March, Paramount studio management unexpectedly made some changes to the script. The scene in which the characters argue about the origin of the virus that started the zombie apocalypse and come to the conclusion that it originated in China has been edited. The studio bosses conferred and asked the producers not to mention the country in this episode - out of harm’s way, because Paramount intends to distribute the film in China, and there is no such thing as too much precaution.

Of course, the phrase “China dictates its will to Hollywood studios” may seem strange at this point, given the stereotypes about the Chinese self, the people's reluctance to Westernize, and the dream factory's belief in standardization, a method perfected by companies like Gillette and McDonalds. The products of these companies are almost the same throughout the world. Of course, some manufacturers still sometimes have to localize their products (for example, they replaced the letter in the name of Dosirak noodles), but Hollywood throughout its entire history did not even walk the earth with an air of triumph, but simply did not pay attention to those around them and filmed only for Americans. The strategy worked - film production was in great demand by default.

But times have changed, and now the film studios really dictate the terms - and they record. The reinsurers at Paramount know what they are doing, because before Western films are released onto Chinese screens, they are carefully studied by an office known as the State Radio, Film and Television Commission. And then he edits it to his taste. There they may turn a blind eye to, say, violence, but the censors have zero tolerance for any negative mentions of China and the Chinese. Local film censorship is more demanding than other dead people - it makes sure that only good things are said about the Celestial Empire and preferably little by little. And it’s better, as always, not at all.

Examples arrive regularly. “Men in Black 3” was allowed to be shown in China only after scenes with the Chinese were removed from the film, including episodes when the aliens disguised themselves as employees of an oriental restaurant. Scenes with the hero Chow Yun-fat from the film “Pirates of the Caribbean: At the End of the Earth” were completely erased - the authorities considered the character almost a racist caricature.

And, of course, any hint of the existence of social disorder in China does not have the slightest chance of survival. Moreover, in castrated films there is actually no special sedition; at worst, the films casually mention “some individual shortcomings that have not yet been completely eliminated in our society.” For example, in the localization of the film “007: Skyfall,” several lines in the subtitles were translated with a distortion of meaning. In the original they talked about Chinese organized crime, human trafficking and child prostitution. In addition, after meeting with the censors, the film had one less episode - the scene of the murder of the Chinese bodyguard was removed.

The last step is difficult to comprehend, but it becomes clear that the Bond film is still lucky when looking at the distribution fate of Cloud Atlas. The Chinese version of the film by Tom Tykwer, Lana and Andy Wachowski was 40 minutes shorter than the original. The film was stripped of nudity and scenes that the censors deemed “weakening or confusing to the plot”—even though they obviously didn’t like the future depicted, the totalitarian technocratic dystopia of New Seoul. It is not surprising that film producers are trying to act preventatively - this is where self-censorship begins.

Marvel and Disney, however, went even further than their Paramount counterparts at the end of March. They announced that they would simply make their Iron Man 3 in two versions - one for China and one for the rest of the world. And here it is no longer a matter of self-restraint - on the contrary, the localized film will delight the Chinese with additional scenes and the popular actress Bingbing Fan, who will not be seen by residents of other countries. The filmmakers' press release does not directly mention the Chinese authorities, but it is written in such a way that it becomes obvious: the main goal of the studios is to flatter the regulatory body.

But this body censors only those films that were able to reach distribution at all: in China there is a strict quota on their number. By law, only 20 foreign films a year make it into local cinemas - in 2012 the quota was expanded to 34 films, but these additional 14 films must be in 3D format. In short, because of the quota, only those who have learned better than others how to negotiate with the Chinese State Administration for Radio, Film and Television are able to show their films to the Chinese.

And these circles of bureaucratic hell are followed by more and more. For example, of the price of a ticket sold in China, the manufacturer leaves not a quarter (about the same rate in other countries), but a pitiful 13 percent. In addition to all of the above, Chinese authorities can arbitrarily set and easily reschedule premiere dates for imported films. Thus, the aforementioned “Atlas” and “Skyfall” were released on screens around the world in November 2012. And in China, their premieres took place in January 2013 - according to rumors, the government moved the release dates to support the locally produced films “Back to 1942” and “The Last Meal,” which were released in November.

Still from the movie “007: Skyfall”

With all this, every year American film studios, at the cost of superhuman efforts, smuggle another couple of dozen of their films into the distribution of the People's Republic of China. The reasons for this excitement are clear. In 2012, the Chinese film market, overtaking the Japanese, took second place in the world in terms of box office receipts after the North American one. The growth in revenue from ticket sales last year was 36 percent, and in total the Chinese watched 17.07 billion yuan worth of movies in 2012 - $2.7 billion. For the combined US and Canadian market, this figure was 10.8 billion. The Chinese market is not slowing down its growth rate, and against this background, bullying film producers ceases to seem like tyranny - rather, it is a tool of training. As Lenin wrote, there are conditions under which violence cannot produce any results, and there are conditions under which violence is both necessary and useful.

But conditions need to be created. By the mid-1980s, the Chinese film market was in a deplorable state: the industry was virtually destroyed by the Cultural Revolution, and neither the consumer nor the potential producer had enough funds for cinema. The government, instead of saving the remains of the film industry infrastructure, began its construction virtually from scratch. It was decided to stimulate the market by organizing public-private partnerships, the purpose of which would not be to make a profit, but to reinvest in order to intensify the market itself. First of all, the volume of distribution was increased so that cinemas became available to the maximum number of residents. Consumption was stimulated by subsidies and benefits - for example, for one hundred yuan one could purchase a subscription for 30 sessions. In production, the emphasis was on the shaft, and not on trying to catch a non-existent black Confucian cat - Chinese films could not compete with Hollywood ones, but in the late 1990s it was more important to get the population into the habit of going to the movies. Through these methods, China achieved that by the second decade the country had 1.3 billion potential viewers.

Against this background, it is clear why American manufacturers respond to the tricks of the Chinese authorities in a stereotypical way: wipe it off, smile, try again. The game is worth the candle - now the market looks extremely attractive for Hollywood. It is safe to assume that successful film studio negotiators working with the Chinese authorities have, in addition to diplomacy, also mastered the art of being humble. In a tactical approach, it makes US filmmakers akin to an ascetic stylite who continues to stand his ground no matter the snow or the heat - an excellent method for situations in which nothing depends on one of the parties.

All this “stay there, come here” is part of the official policy of the CCP, which wants to introduce Western culture to the population, but not to the detriment of the regime. But behind this there is one global problem. In the Chinese tradition of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a formula “ti yun”: “Chinese is the basis, and Western is for practical application.” This formula, in general, still works now, when a generation has grown up in large cities that has only seen GDP growth of 10 percent per year and feels wild - legitimate - pride in the country. There are fewer and fewer people fascinated by the Western value system.

In relation to cinema, this means that with the growth of the Chinese market, the quality of the audience has also grown, which is not at all characterized by the desire for a cargo cult and which will ultimately choose Chinese, comparable in quality to Hollywood. And the figures for 2012 are clear evidence of this: the leader in local film distribution was the film “Confusion in Thailand,” filmed about China and in a language understandable to the Chinese. It is the first Chinese film to gross over $200 million in its homeland, breaking the record set by Avatar in 2009. In the USA, by the way, he earned an amount that falls within the statistical error - several tens of thousands of dollars. Vice President of the portal boxoffice.com Phil Contrino believes that very soon the Chinese will no longer be satisfied with films about American football, in which a panorama of Shanghai is shown for ten seconds - just as the Americans would not be satisfied with a film in which the landscapes of New York are briefly shown, but the story is about something completely different and completely incomprehensible.

DVD store in Shanghai Photo: Claro Cortes / Reuters

A loophole for both producers and audiences could be the creation of films by joint ventures - such films are not considered imported, so they are not subject to the quota. True, according to local laws, the share of foreign capital in a joint venture cannot exceed 49 percent. However, this does not hold back filmmakers - they are ready to invest in actual Chinese cinema; just remember that companies like Fox International and Dreamworks Oriental were created specifically to work with Chinese partners. And in early April it became known that two Chinese companies - China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises - would be producing the fourth Transformers along with Paramount. However, the legislation on joint ventures will be tightened in the near future so that more and more Western technologies are used, and less and less money is taken out of the country, and venture capital will not be a formal loophole.

What's even more interesting is that the joint ventures are ramping up production of Chinese-language films—partner Warner Bros. In 2013, Village Roadshow will begin producing eight films for the Chinese market and will release in China Keanu Reeves' directorial debut, Man of Tai Chi, filmed with Universal's money. Moreover, this company recently had a very successful release of Journey to the West: Conquering Demons. The title shouldn’t be confusing—the film is based on one of the “Four Great Works,” a 16th-century novel considered a classic of Chinese literature. "The Journey" has every chance of breaking the record of "Confusion in Thailand." Of course, not everything is rosy: the film market is flawed, piracy is rampant in its most uncivilized form, the profitability of film production is unstable, and local films sometimes do not even make it to Chinese cinemas. But a trend is a trend.

At one time, the West brought harmful, unpleasant or simply economically unprofitable industries to Southeast Asia, providing the local population with work and themselves with sneakers. When sweatshop workers are afraid of losing their last penny of earnings, they do not dare make a word and agree to any conditions. According to the Ernst&Young company's forecast, by 2020 the Chinese film market will overtake the North American one in volume, and there is a feeling that then the Celestial Empire will respond symmetrically. It will have a controlled manufacturer of high-quality goods, whose production will be located abroad, while the capital will remain within the country. The Party orders - Hollywood will answer “Yes!”, film what is needed, tolerate censorship and even understand the numerous linguistic and ethnic subtleties. To paraphrase the classic, there is no such feat that capital would not undertake for the sake of a three hundred percent profit.

The dragon spread its wings