China box ofice sets new sixday record

BEIJING: China set a new sixday box office record over the Lunar New Year period with takings of three billion yuan (RM1.94 billion).

Box office revenue from Feb 8 to 13 increased by 67 per cent over the same period recorded last year.

Three Chinese films contributed to 93.5 per cent of the box office in the past six days. Mermaid led with 1.46 billion yuan, while From Vegas to Macau 3, starring Hong Kong actors Chow Yun Fatt and Andy Lau, scored 680 million yuan.

The Monkey King 2 took the third place with the box office of 650 million yuan.

Kung Fu Panda 3 also achieved a good box office of 200 million yuan during the holiday with its total box office reaching 812 million yuan since the screening of Jan 29.

China’s box office reached about 44 billion yuan in 2015, up 48.7 per cent over that of 2014, while the number of film-goers totalled 1.26 billion throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 51.08 per cent.

China has been one of the most fast-growing film markets across the world, said Prof Yin Hong, with Tsinghua University.

“As more cinemas open in smaller cities and towns and going to movies becomes a lifestyle in those places, China may overtake the United States to be the world’s largest film market in the next two to three years,” Yin said.