"This is equivalent to the box office income of last year's blockbuster King Kong in two weeks," said Weng, adding, "Chinese audiences have undergone a transformation from watching 007 movies on video cassette, to compact disks, and now to the cinema, and the market performance is just as we expected."

Following the success of Casino Royale, a second movie about the British Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI6)-Stormbreaker-will hit Chinese cinema screens on April 13. The X-rated movie, which contains graphic violence and covers the sensitive topic of terrorism, again passed through China's censors unscathed. Actually out of 20 imported movies in China last year, 14 made it past the censor without any cuts.

The cutter

On March 15, after a screening of Babel, The Beijing News surveyed members of the cinema audience on the issue of trimming foreign movies to make them more fitting for Chinese cinemas. The Babel shown in China is three or four minutes shorter than the overseas version with several scenes cut.

Most of the people asked by The Beijing News said they did not mind watching the clipped version as it did not make much difference to the movie. Eighty percent said they thought making some cuts was reasonable given that China does not have a movie rating system to exclude younger people from seeing certain films.

"Babel won an Oscar for best music but the cuttings made the music a little rough and I feel something beautiful about the movie was ruined," said movie fan Tang Xianjing, whose complaint was shared by many other members of the cinema audience.

"We distributors don't have the right to trim imported movies as it touches the issue of intellectual property rights (IPR)," said Weng.

When China imports foreign movies, it follows certain steps. Overseas film companies recommend movies to the China Film Group Corp., which carries out the first round of censorship. Approved movies are passed on to the Film Bureau under the SARFT for further examination. A censor report is then sent to the producers so the film can be modified where necessary in order to be shown in China.

"The censors have to state clearly where a movie should be modified and why," said one film industry insider. No matter the foreign producers, or the Chinese distributors, or the censors, they will communicate with each other in a friendly manner in order to pass films for screening as soon as possible.

"It's an outdated view that the censors are at daggers drawn with distributors," said Zhang Miao from Columbia Pictures marketing department in China.

Movie Rating System

Chinese movie star Gong Li called for the creation of a movie rating system for China at the government's annual legislative meetings in March, and immediately gained widespread support from filmmakers.

As early as in 1989, the state administration in control of radio, film and television began to implement a rating system for some movies. However, the regulations were too general and failed to catch on.

According to Wu Zhi, a sociologist at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, the current censorship regulations are ambiguous and unspecific, "so that rated movies in foreign countries can be shown on screens to all viewers in China."

At the same time, he noted that cutting out content that is inappropriate for minors meanwhile fails to meet the demands of adults.

"To adopt the international rating system or have a unique Chinese-style rating system is not that important. The real problem is whether film censorship should resign to the will of the authority in charge or should be complying with reality and be exercisable," said Wu.

It is still difficult for China to have a movie rating system, "because in this transitional period, things go rigid with strict control but chaotic without it. Besides, we lack the legal supervision to go with such a system. But these shouldn't be used as excuses for not endeavoring to work on it, " said Chinese scholar Yang Liya.

China legislators have in fact completed a draft of the Law on Film Promotion. It is expected to enter the legislative process; this should introduce a movie rating system.

More foreign movies

After China's reform and opening up in 1978, the country bought in an increasing number of foreign movies. But as the budget for these movies was only $20,000 for each, audiences were limited to a few old foreign movies or small budget ones.

In 1994, the Film Bureau said China could introduce 10 movies every year that would "reflect the world's good cultural achievements." Conforming to common international practices the producer was given 35 percent, distributor 17 percent and cinema 48 percent of box office takings. Although to some this profit distribution seems unfair to movie producers, foreign producers have made generous profits in the Chinese film market.

The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford, was the first imported film under the box office revenue-sharing system introduced in 1994. It was shown in six cities-Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Zhengzhou and Guangzhou-and made 25 million yuan in revenue. Since then the time lag between movies being shown abroad and reaching China has been shortened.

China made a promise when entering the World Trade Organization in 2001 that it "will increase imported films to 20 from the present 10, and the number will be brought to 50 in three years, of which 20 will be under the box office revenue sharing option."

With the potential size of Chinese cinema audiences, it's a list many films will want to be on.