Urban box office receipts this year are expected to exceed 27 billion yuan ($4.4 billion), posting a year-on-year growth of 30 percent, said Luan Guozhi, vice-director of the Film Bureau of China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and TV, on Aug 5.

By the end of Aug 3, the ticket sales generated by urban theaters nationwide reached 17.65 billion yuan, with domestic films contributing 52 percent of the box office revenue.

A total of 39 movies generated more than 100 million yuan in box office revenue, and 22 of them were home-made productions.

As the world's second-largest movie market just after the United States, China has 4,677 theaters, and as many as 2,785 screens were added in cities in the first half, making the total number of screens nationwide reach 20,980, according to Luan.

"With the rapid development of movie industry, marketing of movies has entered a golden age," said Yang Yi, vice-director of Advertising School of Communication University of China.?

China's box office sales surge in H1	Domestic films reel in record take at box office