Fanning Chinese Fandom Through Japanese Animation Is a Winning Strategy for China’s Road Movies

variety.com:

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Independent Chinese film distributor Road Movies has already tasted success with a succession of imported Japanese animation films.

But the company says that China’s youth market is best accessed through a vastly broader strategy that embraces IP, fandom, events, retail and merchandizing. “Our aim is to be a Chinese Disney – not in scale.

But in terms of being a integrated service,” said Cai Gongming, the company’s entrepreneur founder and CEO. He was speaking Wednesday in Tokyo at a seminar organized by TIFFCOM, the rights market that is allied with the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Many in the audience were his suppliers, purveyors of Japanese content, who have witnessed Cai’s China box office success with titles including “Suzume,” “The First Slam Dunk” and “Spy x Family Code: White.” In a market where imported films were last year squeezed down to a less than 15% share, Japanese film have held up well. “Top Japanese animation titles can perform as well as Hollywood studio movies in China, but there are not as many,” Cai said. “Japanese [film IP] is getting stronger in China, because it is backed by TV series, which are shown widely in China, and have a fan base that is more active,” said Cai. “And this is happening despite the two countries tense geo-political relationship.” The carriage of Japanese content on Chinese TV and streaming platforms has particular significance.