This Day, That Year: Nov 12

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On Nov 12, 1994, The Fugitive, a film by Warner Bros, hit theaters in six cities in China. It was the first Hollywood film imported to the country on a revenue-sharing basis in more than four decades.

Starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, it was "a great success in major cities", Xinhua News Agency reported. Within the first screening week, it attracted 1.4 million filmgoers.

After that success, the country began importing more foreign films to revive its movie sector. In 1994, the Chinese movie authority decided to import 10 blockbusters every year, mainly from Hollywood. The imports were based on a box-office sharing system whereby the local distributor secured a percentage of the film's takings. The quota was expanded to 20 imported movies in 2001.

In 2012, this was increased to 34 revenue-sharing slots with the proviso that at least 14 of the films be in either 3D or Imax format.

In 2004, Warner China Film, a joint venture between China and the United States, was established in Beijing, as seen in this item from China Daily. It marked the further opening-up of the country's film industry.

Thanks to these measures, China now boasts the highest number of movie lovers in the world. Last year, more than 10,000 cinemas nationwide were visited by more than 1.7 billion moviegoers. Its total box office exceeded 60 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) in 2018, the second-largest after North America. That established the Chinese movie industry as a new engine for world cinema.

Facing fierce competition, homegrown filmmakers are catching up. Last year, domestic feature films grossed nearly 38 billion yuan, accounting for some 62 percent of the nation's box-office revenue, which marked the highest since the Chinese film industry started to take off in the early 2000s.

The central government backs the domestic film industry as part of efforts to promote China's culture across the world.