"Foreign capital to build new cinemas will help modernize China's aging cinema infrastructure, attract Chinese consumers back into cinemas, and increase demand for U.S. films"
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Valenti is selling globalization as a feel-good renovation project: let outsiders pay for shinier seats, better projectors, and suddenly a nation of lapsed moviegoers returns, wallets open. The phrasing is pure trade evangelism. “Modernize” and “attract” sound like public service; “increase demand for U.S. films” reveals the real endgame. Infrastructure is the horse, market access is the cart.
The intent is pragmatic and political. As the longtime face of Hollywood’s lobbying apparatus, Valenti understood that China wasn’t just a new audience; it was the audience. But China’s exhibition system - older theaters, uneven distribution, limited screens - functioned as a bottleneck that also happened to be a gatekeeping tool. Foreign capital, in his framing, isn’t intrusion; it’s efficiency. He’s arguing that economic participation should purchase cultural circulation.
The subtext is a bet on habit formation. Build multiplexes, normalize Friday-night moviegoing, and Hollywood gets a durable consumer routine rather than sporadic curiosity. It also reframes cultural influence as consumer choice: if people buy tickets, it’s not “Americanization,” it’s demand. That rhetorical move matters in a country wary of foreign soft power.
Context sharpens the cynicism. This is the post-Cold War moment when the U.S. was exporting not just films but the idea that markets equal modernity. Valenti’s line reads like an early blueprint for how entertainment companies would pursue China for decades: partner, invest, embed - then argue that what follows is merely the audience speaking.
The intent is pragmatic and political. As the longtime face of Hollywood’s lobbying apparatus, Valenti understood that China wasn’t just a new audience; it was the audience. But China’s exhibition system - older theaters, uneven distribution, limited screens - functioned as a bottleneck that also happened to be a gatekeeping tool. Foreign capital, in his framing, isn’t intrusion; it’s efficiency. He’s arguing that economic participation should purchase cultural circulation.
The subtext is a bet on habit formation. Build multiplexes, normalize Friday-night moviegoing, and Hollywood gets a durable consumer routine rather than sporadic curiosity. It also reframes cultural influence as consumer choice: if people buy tickets, it’s not “Americanization,” it’s demand. That rhetorical move matters in a country wary of foreign soft power.
Context sharpens the cynicism. This is the post-Cold War moment when the U.S. was exporting not just films but the idea that markets equal modernity. Valenti’s line reads like an early blueprint for how entertainment companies would pursue China for decades: partner, invest, embed - then argue that what follows is merely the audience speaking.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
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