Domestic movies did not fare well in the first half of the year, but imported ones helped drive the entire market, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said. Box office sales in China in the first six months of the year reached CNY8.07 billion, a 41.7% year-on-year increase. Ticket sales for imported movies increased by 90.4% to CNY5.27 billion, while sales for domestic films dropped by 4.3% to CNY2.8 billion. Film ticket sales totaled CNY10.17 billion in 2010 and more than CNY12 billion last year. “Despite the expanding size of the film market in China, the market share of Chinese films is shrinking,” said Gao Jun, General Manager of Beijing Shengshi Huarui Film Investment & Management Co and a former Deputy General Manager of the theater operator New Film Association. With box office sales of CNY215.99 million by the end of June, the fantasy epic “Painted Skin: The Resurrection” was the biggest domestic film in the first half of the year. It is still far from the CNY934.03 million grossed by Titanic 3D, the most popular foreign movie in China in the first six months of the year. Analysts said the low quality of Chinese movies was responsible for the poor performance. 34 foreign films are allowed to be released in movie theaters in China every year, 14 of which must be in the 3D or IMAX format. According to Gao, most of the more than 80 domestic films released in the first half of the year did not make a profit, and the domestic movie-making industry is facing its biggest challenge since China’s reform and opening-up in the early 1980s.