Abstract:

The development of the film industry is among the main ways for countries to promote cultural communication, economic and social transformation, as well as upgrading. In China's film industry, the production, economic, and infrastructure construction scales are rapidly expanding, thus forming rapid growth in economic contributions. The scientific evaluation of the film industry is the basis for the objective study and judgment of its development trends and spatial layout. This paper constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system in three dimensions: the industrial environment, industrial scale, and industrial benefit, using the entropy method to comprehensively evaluate China's 2012-2018 provincial-scale film industry. Through a Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial analysis technology and geographic detector model, this paper discusses its evolution process and regional differentiation law from a spatial perspective. Further, it reveals the impact of geographic space on the film industry, which can provide a reference basis for the formulation of policies related to the spatial layout of the film industry. The results show that although the overall level of China's film industry development was poor in 2012-2018, the development pace has increased significantly. It has formed a high-level area in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei with Beijing as the core, a medium-level area in the Yangtze River Delta with Shanghai as the core and Jiangsu and Zhejiang as important components, and a rapid development area in the Pearl River Delta with Guangdong as the core. The "T" shaped space structure is gradually forming, it is obvious for the convergence feature of the development of the spatial and economic development patterns of the film industry. The development environment of the film industry is further optimized, and the overall spatial pattern presents a "concave" character that is high in the eastern and western regions and low in the central region. The scale of the film industry has risen rapidly, forming a pattern of industrial scale in the eastern developed regions higher than that in the central and western regions. The benefit of the industry has increased significantly, and it is increasingly clear that the pattern of spatial distribution is high in the southeast and low in the northwest. The discrepancy of the level of development of the film industry is large among provinces, and the trend of equilibrium evolution is becoming increasingly significant. Further, the film production release and box office revenue are the main reasons for the large difference in the provincial film industry index. The development of the film industry and spatio-temporal evolution are mainly driven by the economic aspect and degree of opening to the outside world. The factors of population, policy, culture, and so on work together. The market-oriented characteristics of the film industry are becoming increasingly prominent, and the market-oriented process is being further promoted. China's film industry needs to conduct a comprehensive construction from the industrial environment, scale, and effect subsystem to form a complete industrial system. By cultivating film and television enterprises, building film and television bases, and creating classic film and television products, we can promote the overall development of the film industry and achieve its industrial functions such as improving residents' artistic literacy and expanding employment. To this end, the support of special cash or funds such as film production and distribution and talent cultivation must be increased. For some underdeveloped areas where it is difficult to achieve the sound development of the film industry through the area's own endogenous power, it is necessary to introduce targeted special policies and financial support. The main academic contribution of this paper lies in providing a description path to explore the evolution process of the film industry from a geospatial perspective, and reveal the regional differentiation law of China's film industry. Finally, it serves to quantitatively characterize the driving factors of the evolution of the spatial pattern of China's film industry.

Key words: film industry, Entropy method, geodetector, China