The low-budget comedy "Lost in Thailand," which debuted on Dec. 12, took in an unprecedented 1.2 billion yuan in less than a month, out-earning "Avatar" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" to become the highest-grossing movie ever shown in Chinese theaters.
The strong performance of "Lost in Thailand" is also believed to have helped boost domestic films' share of total ticket sales in 2012.
Apart from the fact that more imported blockbusters joined the box office race last year, Tong said another important reason for domestic movies losing share is a lack of core creativity.
"China's film industrialization is still far from other film powers, and there is plenty of room for improvement in Chinese movies' variety and diversity," said the top film official.
He also noted Chinese producers' digital production technologies are quite weak and lag behind high-tech trends in film.
With wealthier Chinese swarming into theaters to catch movies, great commercial opportunities have emerged for film producers both at home and abroad.
But for Zhang Huijun, president of the Beijing Film Academy, domestic films can hardly rival those from Hollywood in visual experience due to immature 3D shooting technologies.
Zhang said China's openness to the competitive overseas blockbusters will promote Chinese filmmakers' pursuit of better story-telling and film quality.
While the world's number-two economy keeps expanding its theater coverage by adding an average of 10.5 screens each day, it saw a 48-percent drop in Chinese movies' overseas sales in 2012, according to the SARFT statistics.
Regarding this decline, Tong urged filmmakers to better express Chinese images and stories in line with the international film mainstream as well as enhance their publicity methods.
Tong added that his bureau will focus on supporting film-related projects between China and Africa this year.
He said, within three to five years, China will strive to make Chinese movies available on major TV media in all African countries that have established diplomatic ties with China.
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