Qingdao rises as new showbiz production base

QINGDAO, China, Feb. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- As China's sci-fi hit "The Wandering Earth" took box office by storm, its Qingdao-located production base Oriental Movie Metropolis has received another round of applause after its big launch, making the city an increasingly popular production hub.

While the film's box office intake has exceeded 3.4 billion yuan ($502 million) and is likely to become another epic hit following Wolf Warrior 2, many audience are no longer satisfied with watching the film in a cinema, but to visit the place where it was produced.

Located in west Qingdao, Oriental Movie Metropolis has rent out 8 sound stages to the production team of "The Wandering Earth". Sound Stage 20 was the shooting place of the storm scene.

"We also built a space capsule in an open shooting space of Sound Stage 2 in Oriental Movie Metropolis. There were no such attempt before," said Wang Hong, producer of "The Wandering Earth". Although it took nearly two months to finish, the space capsule's debut in the film proved worthy.

"The Wandering Earth" was only one of the films with big productions. With "Fengshen Trilogy" and many others already in pipeline, Oriental Movie Metropolis is expected to become a leading production hub.

Up to date, Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis has about 40 world's top-class sound stages, including the world's largest sound stage at around 10,000 square meters, and the world's only underwater sound stage.

With its production facilities and technologies, the 400-acre Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis has attracted over 200 production companies from domestic and abroad.

In addition to a sprawling studio complex, the site now also includes a theme park, a shopping mall, a film museum, hotels, and clubs. Construction of such a package was considered a move to not only attract producers, but also visitors with its immersive entertaining experience.

Located in an industry incubating park in west Qingdao, Oriental Movie Metropolis also received financial support and services from local government.

Qingdao government has also vowed to offer foreign film and TV studios big discount to film at the site. Together with Oriental Movie Metropolis, it offered "The Great Wall", a 2016 China-US co-production film with subsidy at roughly 16 million yuan. Subsidies to film shot in the site can reach up to 40 percent of its production cost spent in Qingdao from Oriental Movie Metropolis.

Going ahead, the city said to ramp up its efforts in bolstering art and culture related industries with a highlight in film and TV productions.

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