China moviegoers show Hollywood the money

Box office receipts jumped 30 per cent last year to 17 billion yuan (USD 2.7 billion), lifting China up to become the world's number two cinema market behind the United States, figures last week showed.

Yet foreign titles took the bulk of the money, scooping up just over half the revenue in 2012 despite facing an annual cap of only 34 releases -- while Chinese filmmakers produced 893 films last year.

"The successful movies are nearly all Hollywood blockbusters," said Pen Kang, a researcher for the Hong Kong Baptist University Academy of Film.

"Chinese domestic films have no advantages compared to these Hollywood films. The production standards and technology are less advanced."

China only increased its foreign movie quota from 20 in 2012 after long pressure from Hollywood and the World Trade Organisation. As a result foreign films edged out domestic ones in ticket sales for the first time in a decade, taking 51.5 per cent of the total.

Naxin Ping, who manages an antique shop in Beijing, said she went to the cinema several times last year, watching both foreign and domestic titles including "The Amazing Spider- Man", "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol", martial arts film"The Grandmaster" by Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai and "Renzaijiongtu", a Chinese comedy."That's my taste," she said.

She is typical of China's growing middle-class population willing and able to pay the

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