China's BO peaks with USD 6.3 billion amid complaints of ghost

China's 2015 box office sales hit the record high of USD 6.3 billion, growing more than 48 per cent from the same period last year, official data showed amid allegations that theatres held empty "phantom shows" to inflate box office revenues to get better TV rights.
It is the first time box office sales in China stated to be the world's second largest film market reached such a high milestone, China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said today.
The USD 6.3 billion puts Chinese film industry next to Hollywood stated to be around US 10.35 billion and far above the estimated USD 2.20 billion of revenue of Bollywood and Indian film industry in general.

The SARFT said China's domestic films pulled in USD 3.95 billion accounting for more than 59 per cent of the total box office earnings.
Among the top 10 earners during the recording period, domestic films, including the live action animation "Monster Hunt" and the animation "Monkey King: Hero is Back," took six spots.
Foreign productions that made the top 10 list include "Furious 7," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Jurassic World" and "Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation."

While officials claimed miraculous growth, official media reports earlier saidtheatres claimed houseful shows in the wee hours in the computer systems to claim higher gross revenues.

"The purpose of these screenings is to inflate box-office receipts of the film," state run China Daily said in a report in October this year, casting doubts on the claims of record box office earnings.
A state run Xinhua news agency report said today that China's film market has posted an average growth of 30 per cent year on year since 2003, when the industry began to embrace more market-oriented reform measures.
China's box office sales increased from one billion yuan to 40 billion yuan in the same period, with 1.14 billion tickets sold in 2015. In 2003, only 70 million tickets were sold.

Growing customer demand and investments have served as the "twin engines" accelerating development, Shi Chuan, vice chairman of the Shanghai Film Association said. At present China has about 31,000 screens in more than 6,200 cinemas nationwide, compared with 2000 and 1000 respectively 12 years ago.
Both domestic and foreign films benefit from the growing market. In recent years, Chinese blockbusters have developed to become sizable competitors for their Hollywood counterparts.
There were an estimated 100 million tickets sold every month in 2015, with most of the sales going to young moviegoers, with an increasing amount from smaller cities.