China's box office draws near 30b

The diagram shows the box office revenues and year on year growth in the Chinese mainland from 2009 to 2015. [Photo/Mtime.com]

Chinese mainland box office in 2015 has surpassed 29.7 billion yuan, or around $4.6 billion.

The figure is not only a 48.5% increase compared to the same period last year, it also beats the mainland's total box office revenue from 2014.

Domestic films generated around 18 billion yuan ($2.83 billion), accounting for more than 60% of this year's total so far.

Business insiders are crediting the boom to improved quality of domestic films and promotions.

"Fast and Furious 7" is currently China's highest-grossing film of all time, followed by the domestically-made "Monster Hunt".

Chinese box office is expected to reach 40 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) by the end of 2015, as a number of big titles are scheduled to hit theatres later this year.

Among them are highly-anticipated home-grown films like "Lost in Hong Kong", "Mr. Six", "The Ghouls", as well as Hollywood titles "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation", "Pixels", and "Ant-Man".

Related:

China Film Forum promotes cooperation in Venice

Restored version of Hou Hsiao-hsien's early film debuts in Venice