After emerging as the world's second largest movie market after Hollywood, China today said it plans to formulate its first-ever law to promote the Communist country's film industry which has largely remained closed to the outside world.
A draft version has already been submitted to lawmakers, said Zhang Dejiang, who heads China's legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC).
Earlier, reports said the draft had set out to revoke unnecessary film making permits, simplify the process of regulatory reviews to which prospective scripts are subjected, and make it easier to hold film festivals.
It also offered film makers incentives in financing, taxation and land use and encouraged Chinese companies to invest overseas in collaboration with other film production companies.
Box office fraud and piracy were also among top concerns addressed by the draft, which explicitly forbade stealth video recording of movies in theatres, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
A late comer in modern film making, China has quickly caught up with other countries in terms of market share.
The largely closed door Chinese film industry is undergoing transformation in the recent years with government permitting more foreign collaborations to expand its operations both at home and abroad.
China has the second largest movie market after the US, whereas India has the largest number of film productions followed by Nigeria and the US.
After netting record USD 6.7 billion box office revenues last year, China's cinema industry made USD 1.5 billion in ticket sales in last month, surpassing USD 810 million collections of North America for the first time ever, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television said.
However, there were allegations that some of the theatre owners held empty shows projecting them as full houses to boost box office revenues.
Chinese film industry in the last two years started relaxing its rules, forging collaborations with Hollywood and Bollywood film makers.
China only permits about 30 foreign films annually to be screened in the country.
Some of the Indian films like PK have done well at Chinese box office, raking up highest collection of USD 14 million.
China and India signed an MOU to improve cooperation in the cinema industry and joint collaborations.
Currently Kangfu Yoga starring Hollywood star Jackie Chan and another film on the life and times of Xuanzang, the Chinese religious scholar who brought Buddhism from India to China.
