Release-date calendars show that box office in China lets in more foreign films this year, counting to at least 38 titles, a bit more than the quota of 34.
A deal negotiated in 2012 permitted the increase of foreign films to be shown in Chinese theaters from 20 to 34, but the rise this year came in quietly with officials from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television refusing to comment about the change in number.
"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" from Twentieth Century Fox is one of the movies which were given a release date in December.
An official from the film bureau, in a conversation with news portal Sina Entertainment, had denied that the quota was exceeded and the additional movies were under some "cultural exchange projects."
But some local distributors, theater operators and studio executives were saying differently. They think that this little loosening up in the strict foreign movie quota was an attempt to improve the slowing growth rate of China's domestic box office. According to a Wall Street Journal report, among the 100 films that were screened in China last summer, 18 foreign movies accounted for almost half of box office receipts.
Others still, like an executive from a Western studio based in China, think that the Chinese government wants to stimulate a competition, see its effect on the market and then prepare for a new deal.
The existing foreign policy for films, which was signed in agreement between China and the World Trade Organization in 2012, is valid until this year. Renegotiations will possibly take place in February next year.