Cinema of China

The Cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the Cinema of Hong Kong and the Cinema of Taiwan. Since 1949 the cinema of mainland China has operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and the Publicity Department. Many films with political overtones made in China are still censored or banned in China itself; however, some of these films are distributed abroad commercially or at film festivals. China also restricts the showing of foreign-made films in Chinese cinemas to 34 each year.

Currently, the vast majority of the Mainland-produced movies use Mandarin. Mainland films are often dubbed into Cantonese when exported to Hong Kong for theatrical runs.

As of 2010 Chinese cinema is the third largest film industry by number of feature films produced annually. In 2011, 791 films were produced in China and Chinese films earned 54% of a total box office of US$2.06 billion. China's box-office receipts grew 33.3 percent in 2011 and by the first quarter of 2012, it has surpassed Japan in box-office receipts by becoming the second-largest in the world.