Domestic Box Office Going Strong: First-quarter box office figures from China beat North America for the first time

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01:41

She does have quite a screen presence though! Here in China, for the first time, the total BOX OFFICE in China BEAT North American totals. Grosses for China in the first quarter totaled 3.17 billion USD, compared to 2.85 billion in North America. Those figures reflect a 39 percent INCREASE in China over the same period in 2017. Here's more.

The growth surge came almost entirely from the massive success of several domestic titles, led by "Operation Red Sea" at $579 million, "Detective Chinatown 2" at $541 million, and "Monster Hunt 2" at $356 million.

7 domestic productions made it to the top 10 in this quarter's box office. By contrast, the biggest American import title has been "Black Panther" at $105 million.

ZHOU XIN PROFESSOR, BEIJING NORMAL UNIVERSITY "We're seeing different types of domestic productions, from comedy to animation, to war films, moviegoers welcome this kind of diversity and it's good for the market as well."

Among American titles released in China so far this year, "Black Panther" was followed by "Pacific Rim: Uprising" at $90 million, "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" and "Tomb Raider" both $78 million.

However, the picture could change with Marvel's latest ambition "The Avengers: Infinity War" released on May 11th. After just 10 days here in China, Infinity War has earned approximately $302 million.

SL, CGTN.