Acting on a whim and a prayer

A student prepares to take the entrance exam at the Central Academy of Drama. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

Sudden success

"They (the applicants) see hope," said Zhou Tongbin, a casting director, who has worked in the entertainment sector for more than 10 years.

He said the stories of sudden success－such as Wang Baoqiang, an untrained extra who rose from obscurity to become one of China's most popular movie stars, and young new idols such as Wu Yifan, who act in a few movies and become instant billionaires－have fanned the flames.

"The kids see hope. So do their parents. So, it does no harm to allow them to try," Zhou said. "However, what they don't realize is that most people will never become stars, even if they enter the industry after graduating from a prestigious school. Many will fail to land acting jobs and will have to do something else after school."

The high probability of failure may seem anomalous, given the rapid development of China's film and TV industry in the past five years and the large amount of money that has been attracted, resulting in performers being paid small fortunes for every movie or TV role, Zhou said.

The real picture is far more complex, though. Since 2010, box office takings have maintained annual growth of more than 40 percent, according to data from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

In 2015, the figure hit a 10-year high, with total box office revenue of 44 billion yuan ($ 6.40 billion), a rise of 49 percent from the year before.

However, a bubble exists in the industry, ably illustrated by last year's box office income of about 46 billion yuan, a year-on-year rise of just 3.7 percent.

Now, the bubble has burst, and the picture presented by China's movie industry last year was the real one, according to Wang Jianlin, China's richest man and president of Wanda Group, which owns the world's biggest movie theater chain, including AMC Entertainment Holdings in the United States and the Nordic Cinema Group in Europe.

Speaking at a recent forum, Wang said it is not possible for the cultural sector to maintain annual growth of 40 percent when the nation's economic growth is 6 percent.

Zhou, the director, said the authorities are aware of the industry's problems, including immature film scripts, hot money investment and box office fraud, and are dealing with them. In this way, the industry will gradually rationalize itself.

"The picture in the movie industry, and in the TV sector, is not as rosy as people think," he said. "Sometimes the industry can be cold and cruel, complicated and dark. In light of that, my advice to students who hold this dream is that once you find it isn't working out, switch to another career right away."