The national film market grossed more than 10.7 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) in revenue by the end of May, surpassing the 10.2 billion yuan generated in all of 2010, according to a report by EntGroup Consulting, the Beijing-based entertainment industry consultant.

Domestic productions took up the biggest share, with ticket sales of 5.7 billion yuan, leaving the rest to their imported counterparts.

The highest-grossing film so far this year was the domestic movie The Monkey King, which entered theaters on Jan 31, during the Spring Festival. It raked in 1.04 billion yuan in box office receipts, followed by the Hollywood blockbuster Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which took in 720 million yuan.

A total of 131 movies were released during the January-May period, with 25 of them earning more than 100 million yuan in ticket sales. Of those, 13 were foreign films, according to EntGroup.

The top 25 movies contributed about 82 percent of the period's total box office, data showed.

Box office revenue in the first five months of this year witnessed a year-on-year increase of 17.6 percent.

"I think that the market stands a good chance of taking about 28 billion yuan in box office receipts throughout the whole year, based on the previous annual average growth of around 30 percent," said Huang Qunfei, executive vice-president of Huaxia Film Distribution Co Ltd, one of the two film companies in China that are authorized to distribute imported movies.

The rapid expansion of theaters and screens also played a major role in the strong growth in ticket sales.

By the end of March, the total number of screens in China had crossed the 20,000 mark, while by the end of 2010, the figure was only about 6,200.

In 2013, 14 screens were added on average per day, and a total of 5,077 screens were added last year.

In the first five months, as many as 420 movie theaters were added, in comparison with the 358 achieved during the same period in 2013, EntGroup said.

Among the newly added theaters, 51 percent were in fifth-tier or even lower-tier cities, while 22 percent of them were in the country's largest cities.

Dadi Digital Cinema, one of China's biggest theater chains by box office revenue, accounted for the lion's share of the 420 theaters with 57 cinemas, Hou Tao, vice-president of EntGroup Consulting, told China Business News.

The expansion of theaters has gradually shifted its focus to lower-tier cities as the larger urban market became more saturated. But the smaller cities show quite a lot of potential, experts said.

"There is room for the number of theaters nationwide to grow to between 40,000 and 50,000, because of the total population as well as people's growing appetite for films," Huang said.

huangying@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 06/04/2014 page14)