As an important part of China's cultural industry and soft power, Chinese movies made great achievements during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) period. In fact, in the past five years the box office returns of Chinese movies have on average grown 35 percent a year and China has become the world's second-largest film market. More importantly, China's film industry is expected to maintain its rapid growth rate for at least two years.

The success of the Chinese film industry in recent years can be attributed to several factors. For example, the marketization of China's film industry has largely improved. The film industry's infrastructure construction has been rapid - recent years have seen a 28 percent annual growth in the number of cinemas and screens. This has expanded the movie market and led to booms during the summer holidays and Spring Festival.

Also, the rapid development of the Internet saw 70 percent of the movie tickets sold online during the National Day "golden week" in 2015.

Besides, Chinese filmgoers in recent years have been flocking to cinemas in larger numbers. And the authorities' support to and protection of the domestic film industry have vastly improved ticket sales.

On the other hand, Chinese film companies business models have matured over the years. Internet companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent and LeTV and many cultural organizations have entered the film industry with huge investments, which has helped expand the movie market further. As a result, the value of intellectual property has increased remarkably in the movie industry, and overseas investments have expanded.

But the Chinese movie industry still has plenty of room for improvement. First, although China makes a huge number of films every year, the quality of many leave much to be desired.

Second, Chinese films lag far behind Hollywood productions in terms of competitiveness. Almost half of China's box office returns come from Hollywood movies. And if the Chinese film market is opened completely, that percentage could be much higher.

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