Rainmaker Entertainment Inc. still has no difficulty finding bootlegged versions of its animation titles in China, but the Vancouver-based production house’s CEO said a few days before he was to arrive in China as part of a major City of Vancouver-led business junket that China is quickly emerging as one of Rainmaker’s major growth markets.
Warren Franklin told Business in Vancouver on Friday that piracy remains an issue for content creators in China, but that the growth of the Chinese movie theatre industry and the success of non-Chinese titles like Avatar in the Chinese market is drawing international interest.
“A lot of the major North American studios are doing work in China, so the issues around security of information and copyrights are being worked out,” said Franklin. “Before it wasn’t really a market that people dealt with in terms of theatrical distribution because there wasn’t enough theatres and there was a lot of piracy.”
He said Rainmaker is developing scripts and other projects with potential co-production partners in China.
Rainmaker isn’t necessarily going to sign any deals during Franklin’s visit to China.
“That’s going to be a long process, but it’s an opportunity to meet face-to-face, see the studios and see what their capabilities are,” said Franklin, who is also chairman of DigiBC, which represents digital content creators in B.C.
Rainmaker is one of 22 companies that will have representatives joining Mayor Gregor Robertson and other members of the Vancouver government in China this week.
The cost to taxpayers is $120,000, while private sector members are spending an estimated $350,000 on the junket.
The aim of the 11-day trip is largely to promote the green technologies being developed in Vancouver as China increasingly looks to make its buildings and communities more sustainable.