The Secret behind Movie Censorship
Data Visualization
The proof of censorship is always tricky because you can only know its existence after everything is wiped out. Therefore, no one can really paint a picture of what happened. This project is an attempt of using the data we can see to unfold what happened inside the black box.
The proof of censorship is always tricky because you can only know its existence after everything is wiped out. Therefore, no one can really paint a picture of what happened. This project is an attempt of using the data we can see to unfold what happened inside the black box.
Background
There’s an unspeakable truth about the
Chinese movie market: To protect the local
films, China has been using censorship to
block foreign movies f rom releasing too
soon in movie seasons like summer vacation.
Though it’s well-acknowledged, there’s no
proof of it.
Experiment #1
Visualize Invisible
Though it's hard to prove that there's censorship, we can still use the release date delay in China to interpret what happened. I visualize the release delays of international movies in China in 2014 and 2015.
(The smoother is the slope, the longer is the delay.)
Though it's hard to prove that there's censorship, we can still use the release date delay in China to interpret what happened. I visualize the release delays of international movies in China in 2014 and 2015.
(The smoother is the slope, the longer is the delay.)
Looking at the map closer, I find that: There're obvious delays happening in
movie seasons like Summer vacation. And the average delays of movies made by
major movies companies are shorter.
Censorship and capital both played a major role on the release dates of imported movies.
Censorship and capital both played a major role on the release dates of imported movies.
Experiment #2
Visualize Domestic Movie Market in China
If Chinese government is using stricter censorship during movies seasons, do domestic movies benifit from that?
To measure its impact, I gathered twocategories of data - the box office of domestic movies and the quality of the movies(data collected from Chinese IMDB, douban) of domestic movies released in 2016.
If Chinese government is using stricter censorship during movies seasons, do domestic movies benifit from that?
To measure its impact, I gathered twocategories of data - the box office of domestic movies and the quality of the movies(data collected from Chinese IMDB, douban) of domestic movies released in 2016.
(Darker stars indicates lowerbox office. Smaller stars indicates lower ratings.)
You might notice:
1. In movie seasons like summer vacation or Chirstmas, more domestic movies are released.
2. Compared with movies with same quality but released in rest of the year, summer vacation movies made more money.
1. In movie seasons like summer vacation or Chirstmas, more domestic movies are released.
2. Compared with movies with same quality but released in rest of the year, summer vacation movies made more money.
Experiment #3
To get a better understanding of how the
domestic movie market and international
movies market impact each other in China, I
use different visuals to create one map.
(Red and blue stars are domestic and foreign movies. Upper and lower linne indicates release dates in the U.S. and China. The brighter is the color, the higher is the box office, the bigger is the star the higher is the rating.)
(Red and blue stars are domestic and foreign movies. Upper and lower linne indicates release dates in the U.S. and China. The brighter is the color, the higher is the box office, the bigger is the star the higher is the rating.)
Conclusion
Censorship won’t protect domestic movie market.
Since people are forced to watch no f ilm or only domestic films in movie seasons, domestic movies aiming to show in those seasons is in less need of quality. The socalled “protection” might be spoiling these movie producers by providing them a less competative environment.
Censorship only function as a system to keep movie market in control.
Despite using the censorship on international movies in Chinese market, domestic movies are trying to avoid bumping to a on demand movie. Censorship is keeping both of the movies release in control.
Since people are forced to watch no f ilm or only domestic films in movie seasons, domestic movies aiming to show in those seasons is in less need of quality. The socalled “protection” might be spoiling these movie producers by providing them a less competative environment.
Censorship only function as a system to keep movie market in control.
Despite using the censorship on international movies in Chinese market, domestic movies are trying to avoid bumping to a on demand movie. Censorship is keeping both of the movies release in control.