Written by on Oct 8, 2014. Posted in Incentive News

China plans $163m in annual filming grants for movies shooting at Qingdao studio

China is planning to launch an annual film grant programme worth about USD 163 million for movies that shoot at the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis. Plans for the USD 8.2 billion studio on China’s east coast were announced by the Wanda Group last year.

The Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis is set to offer a 100,000-square-metre studio complex alongside hotels, bars and a theme park. A high-profile launch event in September last year was attended by stars including Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman.

Producers filming at the studio will be able to get grant subsidies worth up to 10% of their production company’s annual revenue.

Several studio facilities are currently being planned in China, mostly in the east of the country. Development work will start next year on China Film World, a theme park and studio complex being built near Shanghai and plans are also being put together in the same area for a new Film City through a partnership with Cannes. Hengdian World Studios has been long-established within a few hours’ drive of the city.

China is yet to launch a formal country-wide filming incentive programme for international filmmakers. The government did, however, recently announce new incentives designed to boost the domestic industry and these could also benefit international co-productions.

Individual deals have been negotiated in recent years for high-profile Hollywood movies. The producers of Transformers: Age of Extinction had high-level government meetings to film in Hong Kong and parts of mainland China, a process that was ultimately designed to give the film better access to the Chinese market on release.

The Chinese government allows fewer than 40 international movies to be released in Chinese cinemas each year, but Hollywood imports have proven instrumental in sustaining the industry. Transformers: Age of Extinction has become the most successful movie in China’s box-office history.

(Image: Paramount Pictures)