Though the Chinese film industry has seen rapid development, the country still faces great pressure in building cinemas to meet large potential demand, said an official with the State Film Television and Radio Administration (SARFT) Wednesday.

"Many cities in the western regions still don't have modern cinemas with multiple screening rooms," Mao Yu, vice president of the SARFT told Xinhua.

Mao said, a total of 2,860 counties across the country have no cinema at all, which "severely" limited the development of the country's film market.

Statistics from the SARFT show that, the country's box office for the first quarter of 2009 totaled 1.25 billion yuan (about 183 million U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 50 percent.

Some 20.44 million people went to cinema in January, soaring from the figure of 9.35 million last year.

However, "there is still a large gap between this figure and the potential population of filmgoers in the country," said Mao.

According to Mao, this year's goal for the Chinese film industry, in addition to making more qualified films, would be to build more cinemas for potential film lovers.

(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2009)