Among the six films it released last year, The Expendables 2, a co-production between Le Vision Pictures and Millennium Films in the US, one of the longest-surviving independent film companies in Hollywood, grossed 350 million yuan in China, making up 18.5 percent of its global box office receipts as well as setting the record for non-revenue-sharing imported films in China.

It attributed the success to the on-site distribution system it has spent the past two years establishing, an important part of its brand new business model.

"Why we decided to develop this system is that the situations of local theaters across the nation vary a lot depending on a spectrum of elements, including levels of economic growth and urbanization," he said.

At the company's summit in April, it said it now has a team of 150 staff, covering 900 theaters across 60 cities. In the next half of the year it plans to expand the number of employees to 250.

In the company's big picture, excluding the on-site distribution system, the company's structure comprises a product's market positioning, offering guidance on target audiences and making it possible for customers to pre-order movie tickets and other value-added services online.

"China's theaters' vacancy rate remains more than 75 percent. The online pre-order platform will not only have a decisive effect on improving attendance rates, but also has the potential of transforming movie derivatives to mobile electronic sales platforms," Zhang said, referring to such items as toys and clothing.

This year, the company plans to release 10 films, hoping to earn 1.2 billion yuan in box office receipts. The genres include novel adaptations and films that depict the real lives of contemporary people.

Because he studied filmmaking at New York University in the 1990s, Zhang believes his idea of cooperating with Hollywood counterparts is different from that of other Chinese rivals.

In April, the company announced the establishment of a joint venture with Hollywood's Radical Studios called Radical Vision China, which aims at producing movies with Chinese elements that would appeal to a global audience. Without disclosing the size of its investment, Zhang said his company is the dominant stakeholder in the joint venture.

"The business model of the joint venture is almost unprecedented both in the US and China," said Zhang, adding that the company is focused on developing and exploiting visual intellectual properties. Unlike Marvel Comics, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Co, which makes films based on its library of comic books, the new joint venture aims to be more original while also drawing from more sources.

The joint venture's first production, Clans of the Sacred Stones, is the first installment of a science fiction trilogy inspired by ancient Chinese literature — Heroes of the Marshes. It required an investment of more than $100 million and is expected to begin production at the end of this year. It will feature both Chinese and international stars. The other two productions that have been confirmed are Snow Beast and Sun Chaser.

"We chose to team up with Radical Studios because they have rich experience in this area and have a visually creative crew of 150 across the globe," Zhang said.

"Whether a film has commercial value or not is the result of several factors. There are certain scenes that attract different moviegoers," he added.