Chinese movies star in summer

Chinese movies created two box-office records on the weekend, as Monkey King: Hero is Back made 617 million yuan ($99.3 million) nationwide by Saturday and Monster Hunt 1.32 billion yuan by Sunday, just days after their release.

China's box-office revenue is expected to exceed 30 billion yuan this year, compared with less than 1 billion yuan in 2003. Full cinemas at midnight and long queues in front of the snack stalls suggest one reason why these summer films have been so successful.

The huge audience in China is fertile soil for the growth of the Chinese film industry. With different types of films catering to different tastes, people are willing to open their purses to go and watch a movie. The growing box-office sales in turn have attracted more investment and thus bigger-budget movies with higher production values. Such a healthy cycle has caused the Chinese film market to become the world's second-largest, behind that of the United States.