China to launch crackdown on box office cheats

China's film watchdog will launch a campaign against box office fraud over allegations of cheating involving producers and distributors to scale up revenues which touched a record USD 6.7 billion last year, next only to Hollywood, state-media reported today.
The action will be divided into three stages, requiring the distributors and cinemas to correct their behaviour before provincial and national inspections, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said in a statement.
According to data filed by cinemas, films screened in China raked in more than 44 billion yuan (USD 6.7 billion) last year, a 48.7-per cent yearly increase.

Authorities, however, believe box office forgeries have become common in China's film market.
Zhang Hongsen, film bureau head of the SARFT, said film producers suffer badly from box office cheating as their profits rely heavily on the box office sales, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.
Box office cheating twists the market and will be damaging for both producers and cinemas, Zhang said.
The administration encouraged viewers to report box office cheats and said it will develop an app to help them identify fake tickets.