In the first three months of this year, Chinese box office took $1.53 billion (9.48 billion yuan), a rise of around 40 percent from the first quarter of 2014.
Box office takings in February, which includes the key box office bonanza at Chinese New Year, were up 23 percent at $660 million.
In March receipts were $447 million this year, versus 261 million yuan last year.
Last year’s box office take was just shy of $4.8 billion, and was boosted by a strong domestic performance and a monster showing by Transfers: Age of Extinction.Driving the rise in Chinese box office is a sharp rise in the number of screens on offer, with the figure currently standing at over 24,900.
The biggest Hit in the first quarter was Wong Jing’s The Man from Macau 2, which took $157 million, while Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies took $123 million. This was followed by the historical action movie Dragon Blade, starring Jackie Chan, John Cusack andAdrien Brody, with $120 million, the Sino-French epic from Jean-Jacques Annaud, Wolf Totem, with $112 million and Big Hero 6 with $85 million.
let it be known that barring Wolf totem all the other films are Action entertainers once again proving the reach and power of the genre…..