On September 22, the China Alliance of Radio, Film, and Television (CARFT) issued a statement regarding the pay of actors in Chinese television dramas, Xinhua News reports.
The CARFT, a non-profit organization that works under the government, orders China’s production agencies to limit the expenses for cast salaries to no more than 40% of the total production costs for online/TV drama series. Within this percentage, the salary of the show’s leading actors cannot exceed 70% of the total salary paid to all actors.
The measurement is meant to improve the “healthy and orderly development of the [entertainment] industry.” China produces the largest amount of television dramas in the world.
According to DW News, around 50% to 70% of current total TV drama production investments goes to actors’ salaries; in countries such as the US, Korea, or Japan, this is only 10% to 20%.
In 2016, the lead actors for the 90-episode Chinese TV drama Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, actress Zhou Xun and actor Wallace Huo, each made $22.5 million. The series production costs were $1.35 million per episode.
Chinese actress Angelababy is one of China’s top-earning actresses. She makes around $200,000 for every episode.
It is not the first time the high fees of Chinese actors make headlines. In 2016, The Beijing Review reported that Chinese stars’ salaries were under fire for being excessively high. A member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Sun Baoshu, stated that since casting takes up such a large part of production funds, producers have to cut budgets for things such as scriptwriting, stage setting, and sound recording. This leads to poorer productions, Sun said, harming the development of China’s entertainment market.
On Weibo, many netizens expressed their support for the latest measure, although others said it would be better if authorities would not meddle so much with the entertainment industry. “The higher ups have policies, while the lower downs have their own ways of getting around them” (“上有政策，下有对策”), one user said, meaning that production companies and actors will always find other ways to channel money in the industry.
By Manya Koetse
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