Previous assessment by foreign cinema experts predicted that China would become the largest film market in the world by 2017.
On Tuesday, the Asian giant overtook the U.S. as the biggest film market in terms of cinema screen when the number rose to 40,917, 12 days ahead of 2017, Xinhua News Agency reported. China increased the number of screens from 30,000 to 40,000 in 12 months with the addition of 26 screens daily.
2nd Half Slowdown
However, in terms of box-office results, the tremendous growth in the first half of 2016 of more than 50 percent slowed down in the second half of the year. As a result, experts predict the growth rate would average 4.5 percent for 2016 because of failure of quality to meet moviegoers’ expectations, Zhang Hongsen, head of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, said.
For tickets sold, from January through October, 1.17 billion tickets were sold, 11.17 percent compared to the same period in 2015. Nevertheless, there is still unrealized potential for box-office sales, Ren Zhonglun, president of Shanghai Film Group, said. He said from relying on China’s large population as moviegoers, the growth would rely more on release schedules of movies, quality of films and box-office subsidies.
Higher Global Share
As a result of the growth in ticket sales, the share of China in global movie ticket sales rose in 2015 to 18.8 percent from 7.5 percent in 2012, according to data from comScore, a research company, Fortune reported. An updated report from EntGroup, an industry tracker, said for the 11-month period January through November 2016, 41.4 billion yuan ($5.97 billion) worth of movie tickets were sold, up 4.4 percent compared to 2015.
A report released by the China Film Art Research Center also showed higher satisfaction in terms of quality as audience satisfaction overall rating for Chinese movies grew to 81.2 percent from 80.7 percent in 2015.