China's film ambitions

Last year when I was preparing for a new edition of my book Hollywood Politics and Economics, I not only updated the data, but made a major change in tone on Chinese cinema. The book was first published in 2005, when I did not have high hopes for China's film industry. Four years on, I am forecasting the day when China will catch up with the US in box-office takings.

It may happen in my lifetime, faster than we expect, in view of the rapid appreciation of the yuan against the US dollar.

In 2004, US box-office receipts totaled $9.5 billion, and China's takings were 1.5 billion yuan, which, at the conversion rate of that time, translated to 228 times more consumption on the part of the average American compared to the average Chinese person.