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In late January 2010, the Chinese government’s State Council website posted a warning reminding its cinema operators that they should support the ‘expansion and development of the domestic film industry’ by ensuring that at least two-thirds of the films they exhibit were domestically produced.

The announcement came after James Cameron’s Sci-fi extravaganza Avatar's box office gross in China passed the $100 million in the middle of January 2010, smashing the previous box-office record of $67.3 million set by the US disaster movie 2012 just one month earlier in December 2009.   Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen had broken the 11-year record previously held by Cameron’s Titanic earlier in 2009.

Despite the success of Hollywood blockbusters in China, the government exercised a strict quota control over the number of foreign films that were allowed to be screened in the country.   Only 20 revenue-sharing imports were permitted each year.  This policy was under the scrutiny of the World Trade Organisation at the time that Avatar broke the domestic box-office record, despite cinema owners claiming that they had been ordered to withdraw the 2D version of the film in an apparent attempt by the authorities to limit the film’s success and boost attendances at home-grown movies.   Confucius, a biopic that was backed by the state, earned only $5.6 million in its opening weekend, although the big budget propaganda film The Founding of a Republic did manage a respectable $61 million.

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