China box office grows by nearly 14 percent to reach $8.6 billion in 2017

China’s movie box office revenue rose 13.45 percent last year to 55.91 billion yuan ($8.59 billion), more than tripling the 2016 growth rate as foreign films won a larger share of ticket sales compared to the previous year, said the Xinhua News Agency. According to a report on Variety, the ticket sales increased by 18% from 1.37 billion in 2016 to 1.62 billion in 2017. Domestic films recorded ticket sales of 30.1 billion yuan in 2017, accounting for 54 percent of total box office, Xinhua reported, citing data from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television. Domestic films in 2016 accounted for 58 percent of total box office. [caption id=“attachment_4287001” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] The top-grossing title was the action picture Wolf Warrior 2, which took in 5.7 billion yuan ($875 million). AP[/caption] China is the second-largest movie market globally after the United States, though it already has more total movie screens after years of rapid expansion in theater networks. China added 9,597 screens last year to reach 50,776 in total, the media regulator said. That compares to just over 40,000 screens in the United States, according to data from US-based National Association of Theatre Owners. The movie Wolf Warrior 2 was China’s highest-grossing film last year, raking in 5.68 billion yuan in ticket sales. After disappointing box office growth in 2016, regulators announced that all sales grosses would include service fees for each ticket purchased online. This boosted last year’s growth, although moviemakers see little of the additional revenue. Meanwhile, the overseas box office of Chinese films and co-productions increased by 11% to 4.25 billion yuan ($653 million). With inputs from Reuters