For the first time in four years, China’s domestic film industry has lost to Hollywood in the bid for consumer presence in China. In February last year, the Chinese government allowed a further 14 premium format films, such as 3D and IMAX, to be shown on top of the yearly quota of 20 international films, enough to swing the box office balance in favour of American movies.
China’s box office receipts for 2012 are expected to reach 16.8 billion yuan ($AUD 2.5 billion) for 2012 but just under half of that was spent on domestic films. The agreement allowing the extra foreign films into the country is clearly having a significant impact on the Chinese film market although there are many more Chinese films available to the film-going public.
