Film producer Wang Zhongjun seems to have the right idea. Since films in China are doomed to be pirated anyways, and people don’t go to the theater very much, why not plaster sponsor ads all throughout your movie? Yes, make your movie one giant commercial.

Laugh if you dare, but this is proving to be the business model of choice for the Chinese movie industry these days, and it has paid off big. Wang has made millions of yuan by partnering with China Mobile, Motorola, and BMW. He has made similar deals for many of his movies such as “Love message” which was blatantly a commercial centric film, and as such did not do so well.

So it seems with the right balance of sponsors and quality, movies could actually start gaining ground as a lucrative money making opportunity. Though, this applies mostly to movies made for a Chinese audience. Like many movies, the trend seems to be toward dealing with wireless (cell phone) service providers. For movies made available for export, the product/service placements make little sense.

For now it seems, there is hope for Chinese films, perhaps even in the long run.