This Day, That Year

Item from July 11, 1981, in China Daily: Xuanwu Cinema, Beijing's largest underground theater, will open next Friday. ... The cinema, under Xuanwu Park in western Beijing, covers 3,400 square meters with a 1,150-seat main hall.

China has been the world's second-largest film market since 2012. Its box office revenue rose nearly 50 percent last year to 44 billion yuan ($6.6 billion), according to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

Industry observers expect the country to overtake the United States as the world's largest film market - by revenue - by the end of 2017.