Foreign movies a big hit at box office

Unexpectedly, foreign movies got the upper hand at the box office over domestic films last year, according to a 2008 report on the development of China's cultural industry, released yesterday in Beijing.

Four foreign movies released in the summer had record box office takings, according to the report by the Chinese Academic Institution of Social Science, the Ministry of Culture and Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Transformers, for example, amassed more than 270 million yuan ($38 million) in China last year, which outperformed the previous highest box office record created by Titanic around 10 years ago.