China's box office ticket sales up by a third

Cinema box office ticket sales surged 36 per cent last year, state-run media reported, as the world's second-largest film market after the United States added thousands of screens.

Cinemas took in 29.6 billion yuan (HK$37.3 billon) in ticket sales in 2014, with domestic films accounting for a little more than half of the revenue, Xinhua said.

Domestic productions made 16.15 billion yuan, or about 55 per cent of the total, as the mainland produced more than 600 movies, the news agency cited Zhang Hongsen, head of the country's film censor, as saying.

The government only allows 34 foreign films to be released each year on the mainland and imposes censorship carried out by cultural authorities who cut content deemed politically sensitive or obscene.

Beijing is trying to increase its cultural "soft power" and tries to distribute films overseas, but Chinese movies only grossed 1.9 billion yuan abroad last year, according to Xinhua.

More than 1,000 cinemas and nearly 5,400 screens were built in 2014 on the mainland, bringing the total to more than 23,000 screens across the country.