China's 40 Years: Ups and downs of Chinese films

Gearing up for innovation

From 2003 to 2015, the Chinese box office maintained an average annual growth of over 30 percent, with last year's box office reaching 55.9 billion yuan. At the same time, by 2017, China had over 50,000 theaters screens, 27 times more than the 1,800 screens in 2003.

In 2004, China produced about 100 films every year, but now the domestic film production has increased to around 700 yearly.

At the same time, China has been positioning itself on the global film map.

Last year, overseas sales revenue of Chinese films stood at 4.25 billion yuan, four times that of 2012. The country has so far signed co-production agreements with at least 20 countries.

But amid the explosive growth, Chinese filmmakers have also been searching to better the quality of domestic productions.

"We've already got beautiful numbers since the reform in 2002, and now what we lack are high-quality productions to match that number," Rao Shuguang, secretary general of the China Film Association, was quoted by media as saying.

Rao also warned about the structural crisis in the expansion of the film industry. "The growth of the viewership could not match the growth of the cinema screens, and the attendance rate for some films is less than 15 percent. That is an alert for us."

It is still the golden era for the Chinese films, and now it is time to steer from high-speed to high-quality development, said Rao.