China box office to rule by 2018, Imax CEO says

China will overtake the United States to become the world's largest box office by 2018, says Imax CEO Richard Gelfond in an exclusive interview to China Daily.

The country is expected to have the largest number of cinema screens by then, says the top official of the Canadian company that provides high-tech movie viewing across the world. Imax announced on Tuesday that it will work with CJ CGV, a South Korean entertainment company, to open 25 more Imax theaters in China, taking the number of such cinemas to more than 500.

"There are around 40,000 screens in the US. By 2017, the number of screens (in China) will surpass the US," Gelfond says. "The box office (in China) will surpass that of the US by 2018."