Chinese film distributors inflated ticket sales, say officials
Government officials alleges that all top-grossers fabricated box-office collections to create hype
Film distributors on the Chinese mainland inflated ticket sales of blockbusters to create an artificial hype about collections, a government official said.
“Distributors of all the top-grossers showing at Chinese cinemas have fabricated their box office receipts, almost without exception,” Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday quoting Li Dong, deputy director of the National Film Development Funds Management Committee.
Li’s remarks came close on the heels of reports that veteran Chinese film director Feng Xiaogang’s social satire I Am Not Madame Bovary, which ridicules Chinese bureaucracy, had topped the country’s box office since its release on November 18.
The film starring China’s best-paid actress Fan Bingbing on Sunday helped Feng snatch the best director award at the 2016 Golden Horse Awards, considered the equivalent of the Oscars for Mandarin-language cinema.
Eleven days after hitting the screens, I Am Not Madame Bovary netted 336.3 million yuan (HK$377.5 million) in movie ticket sales on the mainland, according to data from industry researcher Entgroup.
After being ranked in the top position for nearly a week, it has slipped to the third position and was surpassed by Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Disney animation film Moana over the weekend.