A Beijing audience became the first to see "The Da Vinci Code" when it premiered yesterday in the Chinese capital, beating the official Cannes debut by hours in a move that underscores Hollywood's efforts to woo Chinese viewers.

As indicated on invitations to the China debut, at the upscale Oriental Plaza Mall in downtown Beijing, the film started at 9 pm (1300 GMT), about four hours before the premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

The guests at the showing included Hong Kong movie star Chow Yun Fat and people who had won tickets in a contest sponsored by the film studio. Security guards at the entrance to the cinema barred audience members from carrying large bags into the theatre and ushers used metal detectors to ensure no one was bringing in video cameras to prevent illegal copies of the movie from leaking out.

Cannes is still considered the "official worldwide premier," said Li Chow, general manager in Beijing for its distributor, Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

But the one-hour head start electrified Chinese media. The Beijing News newspaper declared: "China to be the First with Beijing Premiere of 'Da Vinci Code."'

"I wouldn't be surprised if more films aren't going to be released in China as the 'global first' in the future," said Wang Ran, chief executive of China eCapital Corp, a Beijing media consulting firm.

While China accounts for a small fraction of Hollywood's global earnings, American filmmakers have a huge and growing interest in courting the Chinese market. Box office sales hit a record in China last year, reaching 2 billion yuan (US$247 million).

Four of the top-ten biggest money-makers were foreign, with Warner Brothers' "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" the No 2 earner, bringing in 93 million yuan (US$11.5 million).

While "The Da Vinci Code" marks a new high in Hollywood's marketing effort, it has increasingly been giving China special attention. Last year US studios included Chinese cities in the simultaneous worldwide releases of the latest "Harry Potter" film and "Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith."

Hollywood hopes such special treatment will attract viewers and discourage the rampant illegal copying of movies in China by giving audiences a chance to see the real thing before pirated DVD copies reach the market.

Foreign studios also hope that the attention will encourage the government to allow more co-productions and ease limits on the imports of foreign titles, said Wang, the media consultant. Under current regulations, only 20 foreign movies per year are allowed to share in Chinese box office revenues.

Little controversy in China

Unlike many places around the world, China has seen little of the controversy that "The Da Vinci Code" with its suggestion that Jesus married and fathered children has elicited elsewhere. Debates have been limited and Catholics are a small minority, though some are upset about the movie.

A Catholic newspaper in the northern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang will run an editorial this week calling on Catholics to boycott the film.

"We reject this film because it is not in accordance with the truth," said Rev. Jean-Baptiste Zhang Shijiang, the director of the Hebei Faith Press Newspaper, a weekly with a circulation of 50,000.

"I believe most faithful people will voluntarily reject it throughout the country, although some may go to see it out of curiosity," Zhang said.

Government officials who monitor religious affairs have not spoken out against the film, and Li of Columbia Tristar said it was approved without cuts by China's government departments on March 27.

"I think it's going to be less controversial in China because obviously religions don't have much influence in China as they do elsewhere," said Wang.

Source: China Daily