China's movie box office surges in first half

China's box office sales totaled 8.07 billion yuan (1.28 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2012, up 41.7 percent year on year, due to the large takes of imported movies, including the 3D version of "Titanic."

Ticket sales for imported movies increased 90.4 percent to 5.27 billion yuan, compared with the weak performance of Chinese films, which posted 2.8 billion yuan in sales, down 4.3 percent, according to data published Thursday by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

With box office sales of 215.99 million yuan by the end of June, the fantasy epic "Painted Skin: The Resurrection" was the biggest domestic film in the first half, followed by "The Great Magician" at 173.79 million yuan and "Mission Incredible: Adventures on the Dragon's Trail" at 165.4 million yuan.

"Painted Skin: The Resurrection," released on June 28, grossed 516.6 million yuan as of July 8. However, it is still far from the 934.03 million yuan grossed by "Titanic 3D," the most popular foreign movie in China in the first half.

"Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" raked in 679.18 million yuan and "The Avengers" 564.75 million yuan, ranking second and third most popular among foreign movies.

Film ticket sales totaled 10.17 billion yuan in 2010 and over 12 billion yuan last year.