“Fan films” and “baokuan films”

This chapter underscores the inner motivations that precipitated the transformation in Chinese commercial filmmaking. Situating baokuan films in the local industrial context, this chapter investigates major trends in Chinese commercial filmmaking in the early 2010s and the emergence of baokuan films. I undertook interviews with ten practitioners in the Chinese film industry to discuss these trends. This chapter first addresses the “fan film” phenomenon in the early 2010s as a result of China&s;s marketization. It then reveals that baokuan films benefited from the production practice of fan films, while being consequences of the Chinese film industry&s;s transformation under the government&s;s changing economic and cultural policies since 2016. This chapter, together with the former chapter, contributes to the multi-faceted meanings of baokuan films: a label for successful commercial films and a new cultural phenomenon under the dual influences of Hollywood and local industrial development.