Three American films – Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Jurassic World – have sold almost US$750 million in tickets in Chinese cinemas since April. Yet mainland movie executives are unfazed: at last week’s Shanghai International Film Festival there was an air of self-assurance among entertainment chiefs and executives of internet firms, such as Alibaba, which are moving into the film, television and streaming business. Their upbeat mood is down to surging box-office receipts – for domestic films, too – and recent soaring stock valuations on China’s equity market despite the overall economic slowdown. China’s box-office takings in this year’s first quarter were up more than 40 per cent compared with last year. Two films released by China’s Bona Film Group – war drama The Taking of Tiger Mountain and casino caper From Vegas to Macao 2 – each grossed about US$150 million. One focus at the festival was using internet technology for crowdfunding, marketing, ticket sales and streaming. “It’s become the gold mine … that’s why [Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent] have all set their sights on the entertainment industry,” said Yu Dong, chief executive of Bona Film. Listed on the Nasdaq exchange since 2010, Bona Film has seen its stock double in value since October. It plans to make 26 films in the next 18 months. Shares of other Chinese entertainment companies, such as Alibaba Pictures, Enlight and DMG Entertainment have also soared. China’s entertainment executives aim to copy the success of Netflix and HBO; Alibaba Digital Entertainment is starting a paid streaming service, Tmall Box Office, charging customers through Alibaba’s set-top TV boxes and smart TVs; Baidu said its online streaming video arm, iQIYI, had five million paying customers. Yet some observers, like Rob Cain, a longtime observer of the Chinese film market, said there was a lack of fundamentals behind the valuations and a comeuppance was in the offing. “There have been no accelerations in growth or earnings to fuel the exponential increases in value,” he wrote in Forbes magazine last week. “In fact, the Chinese economy’s growth has been slowing over the past year ... media company earnings look vulnerable.”