Yes, we have yet another newcomer to Shanghai. It seems Warner brothers got fed up with their London offices, or could not resist the lure of Shanghainese food saw the great potential of the Chinese market. Don’t get too excited, they are not moving and movie or television production here, simply their cinema construction design center. They have a bold figure of opening 6 new theaters each year. For 2006, they already have all of the locations selected and planned. The first is set to open this month in January Chongqing. Does anyone go to movie theaters in Chongqing? Oddly enough, there are no plans as of yet to open theaters in Shanghai, even though that is their base of operations. 

If you ever wanted a gauge by which to measure China’s interest in going to the movies consider this: the US has about 39,000 movie screens serving a population of less than 300 million, while China with 1.3 billion people has a measly 2940 screens. This means 1 screen per 7700 people in the US, while it is 1 screen per 442,000 in China. I guess China will be needing more seats!Warner Brothers is betting on technology as well, as they are planning to build digital theaters in Beijing.
Millard Ochs, president of Warner Brothers international cinemas commented about making Shanghai the Headquarters for their planned “invasion” of Asia: 

“We’ve been developing an operations program in China. We would like to pursue Vietnam and India, and it’s much easier to do that from China than London.”

He then went on to say something blatantly true, but seemingly out of the scope of many:
“Half the world population is there, so that’s our direction.” 

An interesting fact though: Their Shanghai office currently employs 46 people, only 12 of which handle cinema construction and design. The other 34 must be ayis, secretaries and personal assistants. Hey, labor is cheap in China.

Image credit: Mystery Science Theater 3000