No. 1 films at the box office may not be blockbusters after all…
The News Lens
Date: 2016/08/16
By: Olivia Yang
The long-running saga over murky box office numbers in Taiwan does not appear to be
Photo Credit: Corbis/達志影像
anywhere near being resolved, despite a recent meeting between the government and industry players in Taipei.
The Ministry of Culture on Aug. 12 held a public hearing to discuss the transparency of box office reports with representatives from film companies, academics, motion picture associations and other personnel from the film industry.
In the past, Taipei was the only part of Taiwan that collected box office statistics, and an estimate country total was calculated by doubling the numbers for Taipei. The lack of accurate box office reports gave room for multiple film distributors to make concurrent claims to having “a No. 1 film at the box office.”
Many smaller theaters outside Taipei operate under tight budgets and have difficulty estimating future audience numbers. Rather than splitting the box office revenue with distributors, local theaters often have agreements with distributors to purchase the full rights to show major blockbusters, which means they are free to collect the entire box office revenue .[FULL STORY]
