Box office drops for first time in 5 years

A woman takes photos of the poster of Captain America: Civil War at a cinema in Yichang, Central China's Hubei province, May 11, 2016. [Photo provided for China Daily]

China's box office saw a quarterly decline for the first time in more than five years, though industry watchers said it was indicative of a changing market and that growth will likely resume for the rest of the year.

Second-quarter revenue fell by 4.6 percent, with ticket sales totaling $1.51 billion, down from $1.58 billion in the same period last year, according to figures from EntGroup Inc. Official figures from the government will be released next week.

The decline follows one of the biggest first quarters at the box office in China, with movies released during the Lunar New Year that raked in nearly $1 billion - Stephen Chow's The Mermaid, the animated Monkey King 2 and From Vegas to Macao 3.

In the second quarter of last year, Hollywood flicks like Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Jurassic Park performed exceptionally well at the Chinese box office, boosting totals for the April-June period.

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