Hong Kong cinema loses ground, grosses.

While phenoms such as John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat have upped their international profiles by moving to Hollywood, 1997 box office figures indicate that the Hong Kong film industry is in serious trouble. After a four-year slide in which foreign films began to outnumber local ones in movie theaters, the box office grosses for imports have finally surpassed local figures: home-grown films took in U.S.$70.7 million (547.6 Hong Kong dollars), compared with the U.S.$78.5 (608.2 million Hong Kong dollars) earned by foreign product. Also noteworthy: four of the year's top 10 films came from Hollywood. By contrast, four years ago grosses from Hong Kong films were more than double those of foreign films, and in 1992 not a single Western film made it into the year's box office top 10. Meanwhile, the number of total cinemas dipped from 124 in 1993 to 85 in 1997.

Hong Kong officials attribute the slide to a number of factors. Rampant video piracy (officials seized 2.5 million pirated tapes in the first quarter of 1998) has enabled viewers to pay half price for most local films, often before they are released in theaters. The principal overseas markets for Hong Kong films (Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia) have been crippled by the Asian financial crisis. And China did not help matters by designating Hong Kong films as foreign, thus severely limiting the number of films that make it to the mainland.

In an October speech, Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Cheehwa recognized the ailing state of the industry and declared it to be one of 14 key sectors to support and promote.