China’s box office champion for 2015 — a medieval fantasy about the child of a human man and monster queen that elbowed aside Furious 7 to become the country’s top-grossing film to date — has been accused of inflating ticket sales to claim the crown.
The claims, made by state media after netizens raised doubts about the reliability of Monster Hunt’s box office record, undermine the progress made by China’s domestic film industry in grabbing market share from Hollywood this year.
Monster Hunt collected Rmb2.43bn ($379m) in ticket sales during its theatre run in August and September, outstripping Furious 7 by only Rmb160,000, according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.