China punishes film distributor for faking Ip Man 3 box office receipts
Beijing Max Screen admits fabricating 7,600 screenings of Donnie Yen film and buying 56 million yuan of tickets itself, in case that lifts lid on fraud a regulator says is so widespread it’s harming Chinese cinema
China’s film regulator has suspended the distribution licence of a company accused of fraudulently boosting box office figures for the martial arts movie Ip Man 3 by millions of dollars, Xinhua reported.
Claims that the film made more than 500 million yuan at the box office in its first four days raised questions that prompted distributor Beijing Max Screen to admit it bought 56 million yuan of tickets itself, Xinhua quoted the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television as saying.
The company also fabricated more than 7,600 screenings that it claimed generated 32 million yuan in ticket sales, Xinhua reported.
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The case casts doubt over the stellar growth figures of China’s box office receipts in recent years.
While the North American market, still the world’s largest, has seen box office growth slow, ticket sales in China rose to around 44 billion yuan last year, up nearly 50 per cent from 2014, Xinhua said in an earlier report.