A review of Netflix’s acquisition of Chinese-language films

One can’t help to wonder, what does Netflix try to achieve via their Chinese-language cinema programme?

In the past few years, Netflix attempted several times to enter the biggest streaming market globally, China. However, the country remains the toughest territory for it to break through, comparing to its other international expansions. So far, Netflix’s collaboration with China mainly focuses on two models, coproducing/financing (e.g. US and Them, 2018) where the platform automatically has the content’s global distribution right excluding China; and licensing, to platforms (e.g. Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak to Alibaba’s Youku) or for theatrical releases (e.g. Marriage Story, 2019).

There is a very important logic that one must be aware of, related to any international distribution collaboration with China. In order to encourage Chinese partners to promote foreign contents in their market, it is also in the national Film Bureau’s interest to know a company’s ability to promote Chinese films internationally in return. This mentality is closely aligned with the “win-win” cooperation rhetoric that has been actively sending out to the world, from the perspective of international relations and trade. Certainly, China Film Bureau’s expectation needs to be constantly guided and advised by experts within the country too. Despite its rapid development, it is unrealistic to think that China’s film industry can take over Hollywood’s legacy in a short period of time.

What can we learn from Netflix (UK & Ireland)’s current programme of Chinese-language films, if we review its latest acquisitions (see Table 1 below) within this context explained above?

There are currently around 114 Chinese-language films available on Netflix (including those from the Mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan and Singapore), in the UK and Ireland territories. Unlike the MENA region where Front Row Filmed Entertainment acts as Netflix’s local sole aggregator, there is yet a similar role for China. In my view, Netflix’s current acquisition strategies for Chinese-language films are not necessarily well defined, for the following reasons.

The list of films that are available on Netflix seems to be a little random and inconsistent. The Wandering Earth (2019) is certainly an obvious and strategic choice to have, due to the sensations it produced both within the country and internationally. The acquisition of The Wandering Earth last year, its news coverages in Chinese enabled the brand of Netflix to be wider known in China. But its best selection choice can also go from Zhang Yimou’s Shadow (2018) to the worst of Love O2O (2016); the latter is only rated 4.5/10 on Douban. Within this list, there are more titles from Hong Kong SAR than films from the Mainland. These Hong Kong titles also have a longer online period than other Mainland films.

If we look at the list more closely, it is also unclear what the target audience within the UK and Ireland that Netflix aims to reach, via this programme. Currently, there are more than 100K Chinese students registered in the UK. This is perhaps the additional target group that Netflix would hope to include as their members (with approximately an additional of £1 million revenue). The current subscription price is totally affordable for this group of potential customers. Most Chinese student streamers already have a habit to subscribe to multiple platforms in parallel back in the country. However, the reason for them to subscribe to Netflix is definitely not for its Chinese content. Not only because these contents are not often up to date, but also it is because these students might want to see something different from their usual Chinese platforms. Chinese students normally have their “channels” to catch up with the latest platform updates from back in the country. Otherwise, they can also see the latest films via theatrical same-day releases enabled by local distributor such as Trinity Cine Asia.

In short, the Chinese (or Chinese-language) contents on Netflix are not strong enough to attract Chinese student users in the UK and Ireland, and very few of them would actually watch these films on this particular platform. In order to better recruit this specific target group audience, the regional office will be better off focusing on tailored marketing campaigns (such as via WeChat and Weibo) and to rely on their reputable US and UK content.

Is Netflix’s acquisition trying to promote Chinese cinema to non-Chinese speaking audience globally then? Even this strategy seems to be in a dilemma. Comparing to other platforms such as Mubi, Netflix does not have a curatorial mindset for its Chinese-language films. The strongest line up on the platform is perhaps the Infernal Affairs series, where audience is able to watch three of the films back to back on the same platform. The series has previously  gained an international reputation via its remake by Martin Scorsese. The series of A Chinese Odyssey s also an obvious choice, but why not to include more other films with/by Stephen Chow? How about other successful series from the Mainland such as Detective Chinatown? While there is an evidence for Netflix to embrace some older Hong Kong martial arts classics before the 1990s, its fragmentary collection can yet compete with Amazon’s increasing volume. This specific group of martial arts film followers is also more used to purchase DVDs, such as those released by 88 Films.

Dying to Survive (2018), in my opinion is a film that could potentially cross-over different international audience. Unfortunately it is not available on Netflix (in the UK and Ireland), but at least Filmdoo has the sensitivity to pick it up for their own platform. Another issue is that most Netflix’s local (none-Chinese speaking) subscribers in the UK and Ireland are less interested in foreign content with subtitles. There have been several complains on Twitter about the increase of Chinese and Indian content on Netflix with a disappointment. Understandably, they are very unlikely to view these acquired Chinese films but if this is the case, who would? Although being available to “everyone”, the viewing number must be considerably low for some less well-known titles. If we use the viewing statistics as a reference, we would not agree that this is a successful distribution model for Chinese films overseas that could impress the national Film Bureau back in China for further negotiation.

One must question, then, what does Netflix want to do with their Chinese-language content collection? This is a hard balance to achieve and something worth thinking about. Regardless, it certainly needs to have a strong vision, with more curation planning behind its future acquisitions.

At the moment, its Chinese-language cinema programme fails to impress Chinese students in the UK, potential partners in China and the local audience (both those who are knowledgeable about Chinese cinema and those who are not). Can a platform satisfy the cinephiles while educate a new group of audience without any pre-knowledge of Chinese-language films?

Finally, how can any decision guided by algorithm be adequate, if there is hardly any traffic to begin with?

Table 1: A list of Chinese-language films currently available on Netflix (UK & Ireland)

* This data was updated up until May 13 2020.
* Not all the films below are from Mainland China. Some of these titles are from Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong SAR.
* Please kindly reference this article if you wish to use the data below.

*A note for fellow academics:

The list above included Chinese-language films from different territories: Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan and Singapore. This commentary article focuses specifically on the topic of Netflix, its relationship with Mainland China and overseas Mainland Chinese students in the UK. But it does not mean that the author is not aware of the complex relations among all regions, its related identity politics in relation to Chinese-language cinema.

The author is well aware of how the term “Chinese-language film” has been heavily theorised, territorialised and that which is still in on-going debates. While this is a public, industry facing piece, I shall participate in these theoretical conversations in a different context elsewhere. 

Thank you for your understanding.