Film Industry Eyes More Success after Record Holiday Box Office
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Box office records in China have fallen over the first week of the Year of the Monkey.

Analysts say the rise in revenue is thanks to the increase in the number of movie theaters across the country, making it more convenient than ever for Chinese film fans to catch a show.

Chinese cinemas earned 3 billion yuan, more than 460 million U.S. dollars, during the first six days of the Lunar New Year holiday.

Revenue is up by 67 percent over the same period last year.

Yin Hong is the deputy director of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University.

He says the rapid growth of the market is mostly because of the increasing number of cinemas, especially in some under-developed cities.

"In recent years, the box office during the Spring Festival period has seen a year-to-year increase. A major reason for that is because more and more cinemas have been built in the so-called third, fourth or even the fifth-tiered cities. So when people are back home for family reunions from big cities, they can go to cinemas with their families and friends, which has been attributed to the increased tickets sale."

Echoing this point, Liu Jun, a professor with Beijing Film Academy, says more people are choosing to go to the movies as traditional holiday activities, such as watching new year galas or sampling festival fairs, are losing their appeal.

All debuting on Feb. 8, the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, and made in China, the week's top three films, comedy "The Mermaid," action-comedy "From Vegas to Macau III," and fantasy film "The Monkey King 2" generated a collective 660 million yuan in ticket sales on that first day of release.

However not every one was satisfied with the quality of these films. Some of them were given low-ratings by film critics despite the record box office.

Yin Hong from Tsinghua University explains.

"Actually the Spring Festival holiday is quite a special period of time of year. Any films, given that they are suitable for family members watching together, with acceptable public review, could generate exploding tickets sales. Because during the Spring Festival, people are not actually focused on the films, they just take the chance to do something together with their families."

With China aiming to increase the value of its creative industry to 100 billion yuan by 2020, insiders agree it is only a matter of time before the country overtakes the United States to become the world's largest film market.

"The exploding box office numbers during Spring Festival can not represent the ticket sales of a whole year. However I believe that this year the film industry will see continuous growth for sure, but it still needs one or two years to catch up with the United States."

As well as growing the market at home, authorities are hoping Chinese films can win more commercial success abroad.

Chinese films currently seem to have little appeal abroad.

Overseas sales figures were up 48 percent in 2015, but the films' takings of 2.8 billion yuan equals just one tenth of the box office sales in China.

Things may start to look up, especially after Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group announced its acquisition of leading Hollywood film producer Legendary Entertainment for 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in January.

Author： 　　　Source：CRI　　　 Editor：Yang Fan