China’s box office up 64% in 2010

By Stephen Cremin, Film Business Asia

Mon, 10 January 2011, 18:30 PM (HKT)

Box Office News

China’s box office grew 64% in 2010 to RMB10.2 billion ($1.53 billion) up from RMB6.21 billion ($936 million) in 2009. The official numbers were released by China’s State Administration of Radio, Film & Television (國家廣播電影電視總局, SARFT) this weekend.

SARFT announced that the highest grossing local film released in China in 2010 was Aftershock (唐山大地震) with a final calculated income of RMB673 million ($102 million). Including the year-end box office of still-on-release  If You are the One II (非誠勿擾Ⅱ), Feng Xiaogang’s (馮小剛) two films released in 2010 crossed RMB1 billion ($150 million), approximately 10% of the year’s total box office.

(Jiang Wen’s  Let the Bullets Fly, which opened on 18 Dec 2010, may yet overtake Aftershock in box office income. By 2 Jan 2011, after 18 days on release, it had taken RMB543 million ($82 million). In its first 18 days in cinemas,  Aftershock had secured a slighly lower income of RMB534 million ($80.5 million). Updated box office figures are expected by Wednesday afternoon.)

More than 17 Chinese films — including co-productions with Hong Kong — grossed more than RMB100 million ($15 million) at the Chinese box office last year. The successful titles were in a wide variety of genres including romance ( Under the Hawthorn Tree 山楂樹之戀), comedy ( Just Another Pandora’s Box 越光寶盒), action ( Triple Tap 鎗王之王) and melodrama ( Aftershock).

The total number of licensed feature films produced in China in 2010 was 526, a 15% increase on the 456 films produced in 2009. The figure was just 83 in 2000 representing a six-fold increase in production in a decade. The figures do not count films made outside SARFT’s system of scrīpt and final print approval, though many previously “underground” directors are now working “overground”.

While 313 theatres opened in 2010 with an additional 1,533 screens, it is still difficult for Chinese film producers to find and hold cinemas screens for their films. The country now boasts more than 6,200 screens, a high proportion of which are modern and capable of digital and 3-D projection. China may be one of the first countries in the world to go all-digital.

3-D films were a large contributor to the box office in 2010. Avatar made $204 million in China, accounting for 10% of its global gross. Another 3-D blockbuster, Tron: Legacy opened today (10 Jan 2011), one day earlier than advertised. In Beijing, tickets to the 3-D retail at a premium of RMB120 ($18) in peak periods at popular multiplexes. Conventional 2-D screenings are priced at RMB80 ($12).

Foreign film sales of Chinese films grew 27% from RMB2.77 billion ($418 million) in 2009 to RMB3.52 billion ($530 million) in 2010, according to the SARFT data, which describes foreign gross box office as ‘sales’. Sales of Chinese films to television grew 20% from RMB169 million ($25.5 million) to RMB203m ($30.6).

The total gross revenues earned by feature films in all media, including foreign box office, rose 47% from RMB10.7 billion ($1.6 billion) to RMB15.7 billion ($2.4 billion).