China has now overtaken the US as the home to more movie cinemas in the world, counting at least 40,917 screens as of Dec. 20, according to the film bureau of China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio Film, and Television (SARFT) on Tuesday as cited by the Global Times.

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China's film industry has seen a rapid growth with an average 26 film screens being added daily during 2016, the film bureau said. Of the new screens added, at least 85 percent of those can play 3D movies, the English Cri noted.

Meanwhile, box office tracker Ent Group is expecting a sluggish growth rate for 2016 at 4.5 percent, down from last year's whopping 48 percent box office expansion, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The number of US movie screens has remained stagnant over the years at 40,759, based on the end of May report by the US' National Association of Theater Owners.

Meanwhile, China box office has also reported an average 35 percent year-on-year growth since 2003. This year's box office sales are anticipated to surpass last year's total of 44 billion yuan ($6.4 billion), SARFT noted.

The shift indicated that China's growing middle class now has more disposable income to spend on the film industry. Professional service firms IHS Markit and PwC both forecasted that China's film industry would bag in a massive $10.4 billion in 2017, slightly higher compared with the US' market estimate at $10.2 billion, Deadline noted.

Bloomberg's report also noted that last year, China's movie market grew about 48 percent, bagging in $6.8 billion. Of the offerings, more than 61 percent were Chinese-made films. 

TagsChina movie screens, china film industry, China Film Market, movie screens