China's box office has grown by almost 50 percent so far this year to surpass $6 billion in ticket sales, the country's Film Bureau said Friday.
China's 2015 box office sales hit 40 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) as of Thursday night, an increase of 48 percent year on year.
China is the world's No. 2 movie going market after the United States. The country has about 6,200 cinemas with more than 30,000 screens.
Chinese films accounted for 59 percent of box office revenue, or 23.7 billion yuan. Domestic films are helped by authorities limiting the number of screens for foreign movies during prime movie-going holiday periods.
Among this year's top earners are Fast & Furious 7 and Monster Hunt. The Chinese live-action animation film about a baby monster whose life is under threat became the country's biggest grossing movie of all time, pulling in more than 2.4 billion yuan.
