Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was the top grossing movie in China last year, a recent report released by Artisan Gateway showed.
Artisan Gateway, Asia's leading film and cinema industry consulting film, said the Stephen Chow movie raked in about U.S. $207 million in box office tickets in 2013, making it the highest-grossing film in China. The top 10 highest grossing films in China were from seven Chinese and three Hollywood film companies, the consulting firm added.
The three Hollywood films that made it to the top 10 in 2013 were "Iron Man 3," "Pacific Rim" and "Gravity," which raked in U.S. $124 million, U.S. $114 million, and U.S. $73 million, respectively.
According to movie experts, the three Hollywood films that made it to China's top 10 last year had prominent Chinese or Asian element in their plots. Overall, China's box office remains the world's second biggest after it garnered at least U.S. $3.6 billion in 2013. Last year's box office figure was 27 percent higher than what the country earned in 2012, Artisan Gateway revealed.
China is now second to the U.S. but movie experts said it will take a while before the country can overtake the United States and become the world's movie market because the U.S. last year earned U.S. $10.9 billion in the box office.
China's box office has grown in the last decade, with revenue now 10 times what it was 7 years ago, experts said.
Chinese moviegoers' good patronage of local films also became evident in 2013. According to Artisan Gateway, 59 percent of box office last year was from domestic films. That means locally produced films registered U.S. $2.11 billion in ticket sales. Just a year ago, 53 percent of China's ticket sales were for foreign films.