The Cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of
Chinese-language cinema together with the Cinema of Hong Kong and the
Cinema of Taiwan. Some of these films are distributed abroad
commercially or at film festivals. China also restricts the showing of
foreign-made films in Chinese cinemas to 20 each year. Currently, the
vast majority of the Mainland-produced movies use Mandarin. As of 2010
Chinese cinema is the third largest film industry by number of feature
films produced annually. In 2011 Chinese films earned 54% of a total box
office of US$2.06 billion. China's box-office receipts grew 33.3
percent in 2011 and by the first quarter of 2012, it has surpassed Japan
in box-office receipts by becoming the second-largest in the world.
Since the late 1980s and progressively in the 2000s, Chinese films have
enjoyed considerable box office success abroad. Formerly viewed only by
cinetastes in the 1980s, its international appeal mounted after the
immense international success of Ang Lee's period wuxia film Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000, which earned Ang and Chinese cinema
massive commercial and critical acclaim abroad. The multi-national
production Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon achieved success at the
Western box office, particularly in the United States, providing an
introduction to Chinese cinema (and especially the Wuxia genre) for many
and increased the popularity of many earlier Chinese films which may
have otherwise been relatively unknown to Westerners. To date Crouching
Tiger remains the most commercially successfully foreign-language film
in U.S. history. Similarly, in 2002, Zhang Yimou's Hero was another
international box office success. Its cast featured many of the most
famous Chinese actors who were also known to some extent in the West,
including Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai.
Despite criticisms by some that these two films pander somewhat to
Western tastes, Hero was a phenomenal success in most of Asia and topped
the U.S. box office for two weeks, making enough in the U.S. alone to
cover the production costs.
Other films such as Farewell My Concubine, 2046, Suzhou River, The Road
Home and House of Flying Daggers have also been critically acclaimed
around the world. The Hengdian World Studios can be seen as the "Chinese
Hollywood", with a total area of up to 330 ha. and 13 shooting bases,
including a 1:1 copy of the Forbidden City.