Is the domestic box office boom a lipstick effect?

As frequent data underline the fact that China's manufacturing is slowing, it is convenient and common for almost all the world's economic woes to be laid at its door.

Some observers have even gone so far as to shrug off the Chinese economy's few bright spots like its soaring movie box office as merely another case of the "lipstick effect", which describes the trend for women to buy more affordable luxury goods such as lipstick during times of economic uncertainty.

But is China's box office really inversely correlated to the country's economic health?