China's box office sets new record in 2012

BEIJING -- China's film industry earned about 16.8 billion yuan ($2.69 billion) in the box office in 2012, with domestic movies contributing less than half of the revenue, the Chongqing Economic Times reported on Thursday.

A total of 303 movies were shown in Chinese theaters in 2012. The number of domestic movies accounted for three quarters of the total. They earned 8 billion, or 47.6 percent of the box office, according to the report.

Only three Chinese movies, "Lost in Thailand", "Painted Skin: The Resurrection" and Jackie Chan's "Chinese Zodiac 12", made into the list of the top ten highest-grossing movies in the year, the newspaper reported.

"Lost in Thailand", a low-budget comedy premiered on December 12 and will remain in theaters until mid-January, raked in 989 million yuan as of December 31 and became the highest-grossing Chinese domestic movie to date.

James Cameron's "Titanic" in 3D took in 935 million yuan in Chinese theaters in 2012 and was the year's highest-grossing imported movie. The director's blockbuster "Avatar," which took in nearly 1.4 billion yuan in 2010, still holds China's box office record.

The box office of China's movie industry is growing rapidly in the past few years.

In 2008, box office sales in China was 4.8 billion yuan. The number jumped to more than 10 billion in 2010 after witnessing a moderate increase to 6 billion in 2009. In 2011, domestic and foreign movies took in over 13.1 billion yuan.