China Could Beat Hollywood by 2017

The country’s box-office sales are growing an average of 34 percent a year.

Zhu Bajie, a half-man, half-pig character from the hit Chinese film The Monkey King 2. — Zhu Bajie, a half-man, half-pig character from the hit Chinese film *The Monkey King 2.*
Source: China Lion Film Distribution

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By Anousha Sakoui

February 25, 2016 at 1:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the February 29, 2016 issue of businessweek.

To celebrate the Lunar New Year, Fei Li did what tens of millions of other Chinese did: She went to the movies. The 29-year-old finance professional and six family members, from her 91-year-old grandmother to her 6-year-old niece, went to see The Mermaid at the Capital Cinema in Beijing’s Xicheng district. “We all love it,” says Li, who paid about 35 yuan ($5) to see the movie a second time.

Buoyed by holiday audiences, The Mermaid, a quirky comedy from director Stephen Chow about a mermaid who falls in love with a real estate tycoon she’s sent to assassinate, is the highest-grossing film of all time in China. It’s rung up more than $440 million in ticket sales since opening on Feb. 8, according to box-office researcher EntGroup, overtaking local hit Monster Hunt and Hollywood’s Furious 7.