DRAMATIC EFFECT

China’s box-office earnings have surpassed 50 billion yuan for the first time, with domestic movies doing better than imported titles. reports.

Propelled by the success of Wolf Warrior 2 — this year’s fifthhighest-grossing movie worldwide — China’s box-office takings have exceeded 50 billion yuan ($7.58 billion) for the first time, a historic annual high.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the country’s top regulator of the sectors, released the record figures for the year on Nov 20 — around 40 days before year-end.

On top of this, Chinese cinemas registered 1.45 billion admissions for the same period, an increase of 19 percent year-on-year, according to the administration.

Domestic movies edged out imported titles to rake in 26.2 billion yuan, accounting for 52.4 percent of the total boxoffice revenue. Foreign movies released in China took in 23.8 billion yuan, or 47.6 percent of box-office takings.

The rise in blockbusters saw 13 movies respectively gross more than 1 billion yuan, four more than last year. At the Die Kung Fu Yoga

Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back, which took in 1.65 billion yuan.

The remaining five of the top 10 movies on the box-office charts were all import. They are, respectively: Transformers: The Last Knight; Dangal; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales; Kong: Skull Island; xXx: The Return of Xander Cage.