Beijing, Oct 25 (IANS): China's film watchdog has announced that it is set to take further action against box office fraud, a media report said on Sunday.
The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said more technical measures along with more strict regulation would improve management of cinema ticket sales, with blacklists of fraudsters made public, the People's Daily reported.
"Statistics from the nation digital ticketing platform show that a few cinemas and distributors have manipulated viewing figures and sales. For example, 300 tickets may be sold in a hall of 200 seats and all tickets sold are counted at full price," said Li Dong, deputy head of SARFT movie fund commission.
Li explained that some distributors inflate ticket sales to make a splash in the movie market.
China's film market, now the world's second largest, has been a huge success this year.
According to SARFT, cinemas has done business of 30 billion yuan (about $4.7 billion) already this year, exceeding the 2014 total of 29.6 billion yuan.