China’s box office revenues grew 51 percent in the first quarter, Chinese state radio said yesterday, although a ticketing scandal has cast doubt on the real size of the country’s booming movie market.
Total sales of tickets in China were 14.5 billion yuan (US$2.24 billion) in the first three months of this year, boosted by a 6.9 billion yuan haul in February as millions of Chinese flocked to cinemas over the Lunar New Year holiday, China National Radio said.
Despite government censorship and a limit of 34 foreign films per year, Hollywood has become increasingly reliant on China’s rapidly growing box office as US market growth has stalled. In February, Chinese sales topped the US for the first time, according to the Xinhua news agency.
CASHING IN
Eager to cash in on the boom, and create a rival to Hollywood that could promote Chinese values, domestic companies like e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) are working with US studios in an effort to produce local blockbusters.
However, a ticketing fraud has called into question the validity of sales data. More than 100 Chinese investors descended on the offices of one financier of martial arts movie Ip man 3 (葉問 3) on Thursday, demanding their money back after the film’s distributor admitted to buying 56 million yuan in tickets to bump up sales.
Among the bright spots for China’s film industry was local hit The Mermaid, (美人魚) an oddball romantic comedy which broke box office records by bringing in around 3.4 billion yuan.
Chinese films accounted for almost three-quarters of the country’s box office in the first quarter, China National Radio reported.
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