Chinese cinemas show bumper profits, but growth slows

Growth in China’s box office takings dropped to nine per cent in 2018, a reduction from the year before, state media has reported.

The world’s second largest market for movies increased to 60.98bn yuan (£7bn) last year, but the pace of growth slowed from 13.45 per cent.

Despite some big-budget flops, domestic films made up 37.9bn in ticket sales, or 62 per cent of the total box office, an increase from 54 per cent in 2017.

The government has been looking to promote homegrown movie talent to rival successful imports from Hollywood.

However, international producers battling quotas and censorship are also increasingly focused on attracting Chinese viewers as the country looks set to overtake North America as the most important film market in the world.

There are now just over 60,000 movie screens in China, up by 9,300 in 2017, compared to 40,000 screens in the US.