Watching movies will never be complete without popcorns. You don't agree? Just ask the Chinese moviegoers who bought millions of dollars' worth of popcorn while watching their favorite movies in theatre last year.

According to Wanda Cinemas, the largest cinema chain in mainland China, revenue from popcorn sales in 2013 totaled 390 million yuan, or US$63 million. That, according to Wanda, amounts to almost 10 percent of its total revenue last year.

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Wanda Cinema operates 142 cinemas with a total of 1,248 screens, including 89 IMAX screens as of late 2013.

Popcorn sales are sometimes higher than sales from movie tickets because revenue from ticket sales have to be divided by film producers, distributors, and cinema firms, said Huang Qunfei, general manager of the Beijing New Film Association.

Income from selling popcorns go directly to the coffers of the movie theaters and not shared with other groups, he said.

Cinema operators are even optimistic that revenue from popcorn sales this year will further increase as China's movie industry continues booming and the country is now the second biggest movie market next only to the United States.

According to official figures, China's box office takings in 2013 reached over 21.7 billion yuan, or almost US$3.5 billion. In 2002, the country's box office revenue only reached 950 million yuan (US$157 million) because cinema chain system was not yet introduced back then. The United States recorded an estimated US$10.9 billion in box office takings last year.

Chinese films dominated the movie industry with Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" emerging as the top grossing film after raking in US$207 million.

From January to October of last year, a total of 505 million trips were made to movie theatres in China. Of course, majority of those moviegoers watched their favorite films with popcorns at hand.