Shift in movie-watching culture also driving China to the top

Sirena Liu, managing director of 20th Century Fox China, expresses the studio's confidence in attracting more moviegoers in China's second- and third-tier cities. [Photo provided to China Daily]

It's only a matter of time before China overtakes the United States to top the world's movie market, in terms of box-office returns, says 20th Century Fox's China office head.

Data released by the country's movie regulator show that China had around 32,000 screens by the end of 2015, an increase of approximately 8,000 from the previous year.

Predicting that the number will cross 40,000 in a short time, Sirena Liu, managing director of 20th Century Fox China, says that China's market potential will come not only from the cinema building spree but also the shifting of the movie-watching culture.

"In the US, watching movies is normal entertainment for Americans. It's quite common to see people of different ages all going to cinemas on weekends," she says.

"But in China, going to the cinema is still an activity preferred by young people mostly."

While it may be conventional wisdom that China will surpass the US in the movie business soon, Fox, one of Hollywood's "Big Six", is making moves to cater to the changes.

"Fox takes the Chinese mainland market very seriously. We have started promoting our titles in second- and third-tier cities, where the biggest potential growth is," says Liu.

Reports show that moviegoers in first-tier cities－Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen－have fallen from 25 to 18 percent of the viewing population between 2012 to 2015.

However, the situation is the opposite in second-tier or smaller cities, where the percentage has risen from 75 to 82 percent.

The average age of ticket buyers is 21, which means most of them are college students.

With the release of Fox's latest blockbuster Independence Day: Resurgence around the corner－it will hit the Chinese mainland on June 24－Liu says the studio is "confident" of attracting moviegoers in China's second- and third-tier cities.