China has been looking to its booming film industry in recent years to upgrade its so-called soft power campaign, in an effort to attract more Western audiences.
The mainland is the world's fastest-growing cinema market, with box-office takings at 6,200 theatres up 64 per cent this year to 10.2 billion yuan (HK$12.4 billion), compared with last year.
Ticket sales for the first six months of the year reached nearly 5.7 billion yuan, up nearly 18 per cent year-on-year. Jiang Wen's Let the Bullets Fly, starring Ge You , Chow Yun-fat and Jiang, smashed mainland box-office records, taking in 700 million yuan.
Last year, 17 domestic films fetched more than 100 million yuan each in ticket sales. With 526 movies last year, the mainland was the third-largest film producer in the world, after India and the US. In 2003, it made fewer than 100 films.
Even during 2009's global economic downturn, the film industry delivered robust economic performance, surprising observers. It had recently gone through a transformation in which 16 state-owned studios were restructured as businesses.
As growing audiences sustain a booming industry, authorities are recognising the potential of film. Beijing sees it playing a role in its soft power campaign - influencing the world through shared cultural interests, rather than by military or economic force.