China will have the world's biggest film market by 2020, catching up with America, currently the world's largest, as early as 2017, according to Entgroup Consulting, a research center of China's entertainment industry.
"The Chinese film market is growing 30 percent on average each year," Amy Liu, senior vice-president of Entgroup, said on May 29 during StoryDrive Asia, the Frankfurt Book Fair's all-media platform event in Beijing.
"It's projected to be a 35 billion yuan ($5.6 billion) market by next year," Liu said.
"The Chinese market has been exploding for feature films — I've never seen so many talents in one market," said Jeffrey Sharp, president of Story Mining & Supply Co, a production company.
While welcoming more imported films and multinational collaborations than ever, the country's market is also projected to favor local creations more.
"Statistics from the last few years show that domestic films enjoy a larger share of the market, more than imported ones," Liu said. "It shows that creative works that reflect the country's own culture and lifestyle are more popular."
StoryDrive Asia was held in association with the Third China (Beijing) International Fair for Trade in Services between May 28 and June 1 in Beijing.