Film producer says 'Made in America' movies can help revive Hollywood's struggling industry
A Hollywood executive who spent nearly two decades helping American studios break into China's film market now says the industry has become too dependent on Beijing — and says his latest movie shows how things can turn around.
Chris Fenton, a veteran producer who worked to bring major releases such as "Iron Man 3" to Chinese audiences, later became an outspoken critic of Hollywood's reliance on China, writing about his concerns in his 2020 book, "Feeding the Dragon."
"We were really at the trailblazing, pivotal spot in terms of collaborating with that superpower and bringing in a product and service which had never been in that market before in any sort of serious monetizable way," Fenton told Fox News Digital. "And we did that for well over a decade during really the glory days between the U.S. and China in terms of the entertainment business."
Fenton began to realize this relationship came at a cost. He said U.S. studios were making creative and business decisions in order to satisfy Chinese authorities that ended up boosting their film industry and spreading their messaging around the world.
"We placated them both by allowing their domestic industry to learn and progress as quickly as possible to become best in class like Hollywood," he explained. "We censored our content, and we reprogrammed our content to fit the narrative that Beijing directed in order to have access to that market."
One example, he said, involved the 2012 science-fiction film "Looper," starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Fenton said scenes of the story originally set in France were moved to China as filmmakers sought to appeal to Chinese authorities and audiences.
He argued these compromises ultimately failed to preserve Hollywood's standing there.
"That market was about anywhere from 50% to 80% Hollywood titles. Now it's under 5%," he said. "So, not only have we spread Beijing's messaging around the world... but we also lost the market in the process."
Around 2019, Fenton began to speak publicly about the long-term consequences of Hollywood's dependence on China. But it wasn't enough to just sound the alarm about the problem for Fenton; he also wanted to show a way forward.
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That effort led to his new movie, "Bad Counselors," a comedy produced entirely in the United States, with an all-American cast and crew.
"It's a nostalgic story about summer camp," Fenton said.
The film, which arrives in theaters July 23–27 through Fathom Entertainment, follows two fraternity brothers who pose as counselors at a Christian summer camp while completing court-ordered community service.
Fenton said the production employed roughly 1,200 Americans, from actors and writers to crew members and vendors.
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"We went out of our way to make sure that we employed and hired only Americans," he said. "It was really harmonious and a fantastic process... we ended up getting a really good movie out of it."
The producer believes Hollywood should place greater emphasis on domestic production at a time when the industry is facing economic pressures, layoffs, and foreign incentives to bring film projects over.
He's advocating for federal incentives to keep film and television jobs here in America, arguing that America's existing infrastructure and workforce are already the best in the world.
"All it's doing is allowing us to play on a level field with the rest of the nations around the world and once we get there, we're going to be able to bring essentially a fully 2.7 million jobs back. Which, by the way, is about a quarter of a trillion dollars in wages, which is pretty unbelievable," he said.