The Autobots and Decepticons have taken over the box office. Their popularity has made Transformers II the biggest blockbuster on the Chinese mainland, technically.

The film, released on June 24, had grossed 400 million yuan (US$58 million) at the box office by July 12, beating Titanic's record of 360 million yuan in 1998.

The earnings could go up by another 50 million yuan, Huang Qunfei, general manager of Beijing-based theater chain New Film Association Company, said on Friday.

But even if that were to happen, Transformers II may not be the biggest box office draw. The average price of a ticket in 1998 was 25 yuan, which means Titanic drew about 14 million people. But the average ticket price today is 50 yuan, giving Transformers II a total audience of about 8 million.

Besides, Titanic was screened for 70 days, a record hard to beat today, when most films last less than one month in a theater because the number of cinemas has gone up drastically and a film is screened in more cinemas today.

Many theater managers have already prepared to screen Harry Potter: The Half-blood Prince that premiered on Wednesday, Huang said. Though it may be hard to say which one would be the ultimate winner, one thing is for sure: the mainland film market is growing at a rapid pace.

Apart from the US, China is now the biggest market for Transformers II, Huang said. South Korea was the biggest market after the US for Transformers I.

"The grand success of Transformers II is exciting news for the country's filmmakers and distributors," senior distributor Gao Jun said. "It means China's film market is growing fast."

Last year's box office returns reached a record 4.34 billion yuan (US$635 million), a whopping 30.5 percent rise over 2007. In fact, the industry has seen more than a 25 percent annual growth since 2002.

Domestic productions, which accounted for 61 percent of the box office returns last year, have earned more than foreign films for the past six years, according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV.

Huang, however, said it would be too early to conclude that homemade productions are strong enough to compete with Hollywood blockbusters. The mainland imports only 20 foreign films, mostly Hollywood productions, a year.

This year's June-August imports alone have seen six Hollywood blockbusters including Transformers II, Ice Age III, Harry Potter: The Half-blood Prince and Up.

Many industry insiders said so many foreign mega-hits were being screened in the spate of three months because the authorities wanted the theaters to be free for movies celebrating the achievements of the People's Republic of China in the run-up to the National Day celebrations on Oct 1.

Without denying this, Huang said it was an accepted industry practice to screen the most popular films during the most profitable season: summer.

He said he was worried that only about 100 of the 406 films made last year were released in cinemas, and most of the box office returns came from a few movies such as Red Cliff.

People in small cities and rural areas rarely go to the cinema, maybe because the screen to audience ratio is 1:300,000 in the country compared with 1:7,000 in the US.

(China Daily July 18, 2009)