Riding the Roller Coaster: Scenes from the Chinese Film Industry

In China, an epic domestic war film The Eight Hundred jump-started the COVID-depressed domestic film market in the summer of 2020. By the end of the year, China claimed number one in terms of box office sales, dethroning North America as the global box office’s center of gravity since the dawn of the motion picture business. How did that happen, and what are the lessons that the pandemic taught national film industries in light of evolving Sino-US relations? This paper teases out political, economic, and cultural forces that have led to the sea change in cinematic fortunes. It further follows a timeline for the combined state-industry responses since the emergence of the virus in Wuhan. Finally, it discusses ramifications of a shifting Sino-Hollywood dynamic in thinking about media industries and crisis management.