The current situation of Chinese film market

The total box office of China mainland film market in 2012 reached 170 billion RMB (2.8 billion Dollars), increased 30.18% comparing to last year, which has make China become the second big film market in the world, just rank only second to north America. Chinese movies contribute 48.46% of the total number. That is the first time that Chinese movies box office is lower than the foreign movies in China mainland market. The major reason beyond this is that China increased the quota of importing foreign movies, which allows China imports 34 foreign movies from USA per year, instead of 20 in the past.
         In 2012, there were 21 Chinese movies whose box offices exceeded 100 million RMB (12.4 million dollars) in China film market.  Among them, there were 6 movies whose box offices exceeded 200 million RMB (24.8 million dollars). There were 3 movies whose box offices exceeded 700 million (116.7 million dollars).  Those numbers beat the ones in last year.
        In 2012, there were 745 features, 33 cartoons, 15 documentaries, and 74scientific films, 26 special movies made by China in China movie market, which is a new record.
There were 3832 more movie screens in Chinese movie theaters in 2012, 10.5 movie screens were created per day, and all of them were for digital movie theaters.
           In 2012, there were 25 theater lines whose yearly income exceeds 100 million RMB (16.7 million dollars). Among them, Wanda, Shanghai Union, Central Media Xingmei, Southern Central Media, Guanzhou Jinyi, Guandong Earth, their income has exceeded 1billion RMB (167 million dollars). Among them, Wanda theater line earned 2.4 billion RMB (400 million dollars), became the first theater line who earned more than 2 billion RMB(334 million dollars). And Wanda increase rate has been beyond the regular level in Chinese market.
            There were 75 Chinese movies which were exported to more than 80 countries, Chinese movies overseas box office was 1.6 billion RMB(233.4 million dollars) in 2012. This number is lower than the one in 2011 and 2010.
           All in all, China movie market is increasing rapidly, but still, Chinese movies cannot beat western movies in terms of quality. Chinese audiences also do not have the right attitude towards movies. Chinese audiences seem movies more like a relaxing tool, instead of an art, which, in turn, direct film directors to make lightweight comedies. That caused investment in the market just go to the genre of comedy, which narrowed down the movie genres in China film market. Take TaiJiong as an example, it created 1billion RMB (166.6 million dollars) and became the biggest hit in late 2012. Though, it was viewed as a sign of the degeneration of morality in filmmaking by critics, it earned popularity in no time in China film market and created huge profitability. Maybe it is time for Chinese filmmakers to shift their focus from market and profit extension to the quality of movie itself.

Reference: http://wenhui.news365.com.cn
Picture reference: http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSKH4G5wDgwbbLgKGW5Wus5SNiGq1od-bmRpFaze28UJIa4FUfl