China Media Monitor Headlines Archives

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) has issued a notice regulating the Internet and vending machine sales activities of foreign-invested enterprises. Foreign enterprises wanting to operate Internet sales businesses must submit applications to the provincial commerce department in accordance with the "Measures for the Administration on Foreign Investment in Commercial Fields" and related laws. Foreign-invested enterprises providing Internet services to other trading parties via their Internet platforms should apply for licenses to operate ‘telecommunication value-added business’. This license is issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT). Foreign-invested enterprises directly engaged in sales of commodities via their Internet platforms must register at the telecom management department.

The notice noted that foreign-invested enterprises established as vending machine operators or which want to expand into the vending machine business must submit applications to provincial commerce departments for approval.

September 3 saw Liu Binjie, director of General Administration of Press & Publication, on his visit to Britain, sign a copyright strategic cooperation agreement with United Kingdom intellectual property minister Judith Wilcox. The two sides agreed to hold regular formal meetings on discussing the major issues of copyright, copyright-related information exchange, sharing of best practice on copyright legislation and enforcement, provide training opportunities for each other and negotiating on major international copyright matters.

China Film Group Corporation recently received distribution rights for the Sino-German 3D animated co-production Little Big Panda (Xiongmao Zongdongyuan) directed by Greg Manwaring, which will premiere in mainland China during the next winter holiday. The production companies involved include Benchmark Entertainment Picture Productions (Germany), Angels Avenue (Belgium), Les Films De La Perrine (France), Motion Investment Group (Belgium), Juventy Films (Spain), ORB Filmproduktion (Germany) and Yisang Media Investment (China).

Hollywood Feature Inception, premiering in mainland China on September 1, made RMB93 million (US$14 million) at the box office in its first 5 days, only trailing three imported films Avatar (2010), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Transformers (2007) by first week box office receipts. Inception in both IMAX and standard formats is sure to exceed RMB300 million (US$44 million) and may reach RMB400 million (US$59 million) in mainland China, according to an unnamed insider.

Domestic film After Shock (Tangshan Da Dizhen) had made RMB650 million (US$96 million) at the box office in mainland China as of midnight August 31, having premiered on July 22, according to Huayi Bros’ bulletin. Its total production cost was RMB120 million (US$18 million), of which Tangshan Municipal Government, Huayi Bros and China Film Group Corporation (CFG) invested RMB60 million (US$9 million), RMB53 million (US$8 million) and RMB7 million (US$1 million) respectively. Huayi Bros will make a net profit of RMB77 million (US$11 million) from the total box receipts to date, after the other two investors above and cinema lines extract their profit. Besides, Huayi Bros will also share profits from product placement. After Shock (Tangshan Da Dizhen) also launched in Hong Kong and Taiwan on July 22 and August 20 respectively, with box office receipts reaching HK$15 million (US$2 million) and TWD18 million (US$563,336) as of midnight August 31. Huayi Bros made a net profit of RMB80 million (US$12 million) in 2009.