More than a year after China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television began inspecting theaters in the country to catch movie operators who cheat box-office results, punishments are now being meted.
The government is using the new Film Promotion Law, which took effect on March 1, to close cinemas and collect hefty fines. Variety reported that 326 moviehouses were punished by the film regulators of the country using the new law as the legal basis in shutting down cinemas and imposing penalties.
Punishments for Violators
Sixty-three theaters caught engaged in box-office fraud were forcibly closed for three months and fined between $24,000 (200,000 yuan) and $145,000 (1 million yuan). These were the cinemas with big cases. For 90 moviehouses with lower offenses involving the amount of fraud of less than $12,000 (100,000 yuan), the cinemas were given warnings.
Padding box-office results is common in China, especially during the years 2014 and 2015. Theaters were in cahoots with distributors in ticket-purchasing operations to make it appear that a particular film was heavily patronized. In some moviehouses, stolen receipts were used.
How to Make Propaganda Movies Look Popular
Receipts from one movie were used to bloat the number of tickets sold for another film, especially to make it appear that propaganda films were popular. Financial Times cited the expose made in 2015 by Bona Films Group and Huayi Brothers, the two biggest private movie production houses in China, wherein the figures for box-office earnings of “Terminator Genisys” – a movie the two companies distributed – were used to boost the results of “Hundred Regiments Offensive,” a patriotic World War II movie.
Following stricter monitoring of box-office earnings by the country’s regulators, a 49 percent hike in box-office receipts was reported in 2015 partly due to more transparency. At the start of 2017, more steps were put in place to boost further transparency and accuracy. The measures include the reporting and inclusion of fees that online ticketing agencies charge. Mobile and online ticket sales comprise about 70 percent of box office results in China.