China's box office surges in first half

China's box office sales totaled 10.99billion yuan (1.79 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2013, up 36.2 percent year on year, amid a surge in ticket sales for domestic films.

Ticket sales for Chinese films increased 144 percent to 6.85 billion yuan, while imported films posted 4.14 billion yuan in sales, down 21.3 percent year on year, according to data published Wednesday by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

With box office sales of 1.25 billion yuan by the end of June, the period adventure comedy "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" topped China's box office in the first half, followed by "Iron Man 3" at 755 million yuan and "So Young" at 719 million yuan.

Of the top ten highest-grossing films, four were domestic, accounting for 54.4 percent of total revenues in the first half.

Domestic films' performance in the January-June period reversed a trend of homegrown movies losing ground to their foreign counterparts which started last year.

Sales at the country's box office surged 30.18 percent year on year to hit 17.07 billion yuan in 2012. However, sales for imported movies accounted for 51.54 percent of gross ticket revenue last year.

Zhang Huijun, president of the Beijing Film Academy, said domestic films have managed to attract wider audiences, especially young people, by taking on stories about real life.

"So Young," a romance about campus love, attracted both young and middle-aged people, generating discussions on microblogging services like Sina Weibo.

Zhang's view is echoed by Rao Shuguang, deputy director of the Beijing-based China Film Art Research Center. According to Rao, domestic films are interacting with their audiences, especially young people.

Rao said more diversified genres of domestic films have helped pull in wider audiences.

The first half of 2013 saw more categories of films, including action-adventure "Switch" and coming-of-age drama "Tiny Times."

In last a few years, theaters have been almost dominated by epics and comedies.

However, Rao is not optimistic about the performance of domestic films in terms of ticket sales for the rest of the year because of more competitive imported movies.

Domestic films are unable to match their Hollywood counterparts in variety and artistic quality, Rao said.

Last year, 893 Chinese domestic films were shown in theaters, compared to only about 50 imported movies, including 34 Hollywood blockbusters. Most of the domestic films were not rivals for their foreign counterparts.

Zhang said, "The quality of domestic films has not got better despite growing ticket sales."

In the first half of the year, "Switch," a box office hit, was rated as poor by critics on entertainment websites like mtime.com and douban.com.

Zhang said the momentum of the first six months may continue into the second half of the year.

"But it depends on the number of good films that will be able to appeal to audiences," Zhang said.