Cinema of Hong Kong

Cinema of Hong Kong
A bronze statue on a pedestal, with the city skyline in the background. The pedestal is designed in the image of four clapperboards forming a box. The statue is of a woman wrapped in photographic film, looking straight up, with her left hand stretched upwards and holding a glass sphere containing a light.
Replica of the Hong Kong Film Awards statuette on the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
No. of screens271 (2018)[1]
 • Per capita3.1 per 100,000 (2011)[2]
Produced feature films (2005–2009)[3]
Total56 (average)
Number of admissions (2010)[5]
Total22,500,000
 • Per capita3.2 (2010)[4]
Gross box office (2014)[6]
TotalHK$1.65 billion

The cinema of Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港電影) is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former British colony, Hong Kong had a greater degree of political and economic freedom than mainland China and Taiwan, and developed into a filmmaking hub for the Chinese-speaking world (including its worldwide diaspora).

For decades, Hong Kong was the third largest motion picture industry in the world following US cinema and Indian cinema, and the second largest exporter. Despite an industry crisis starting in the mid-1990s and Hong Kong's transfer to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997, Hong Kong film has retained much of its distinctive identity and continues to play a prominent part on the world cinema stage. In the West, Hong Kong's vigorous pop cinema (especially Hong Kong action cinema) has long had a strong cult following, which is now a part of the cultural mainstream, widely available and imitated.

Economically, the film industry together with the value added of cultural and creative industries represents 5 per cent of Hong Kong's economy.[7]

  1. ^ "香港電影業資料彙編-2018". 創意香港. Archived from the original on 22 May 2021. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  2. ^ "Table 8: Cinema Infrastructure – Capacity". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  3. ^ "Average national film production". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  4. ^ "Cinema – Admissions per capita". Screen Australia. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  5. ^ "Table 11: Exhibition – Admissions & Gross Box Office (GBO)". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  6. ^ Kevin Ma (6 January 2015). "Transformers, Chickensss rule 2014 HK b.o." Film Business Asia. Archived from the original on 11 January 2015. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  7. ^ "Robust film industry is in our best interest". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 1 April 2017.