As the Chinese film industry celebrated its centennial anniversary, both film production and box office records were set in 2005, the People's Daily said in Beijing Wednesday.

This year 260 indigenous films made it into China's cinema's, 48 more than last year. Box office revenue was up 30 percent bringing in 2 billion yuan (US$125 million), according to statistics from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).

SARFT says the film industry, including spin-offs from T-shirtsto soundtrack CD's, generated the total revenue of 4.8 billion yuan (US$600 million), up 1.2 billion yuan over the previous year.

A number of hits were traditional movies such as For the Victory, On the Taihang Mountain and Ren Changxia which commemorated the 60th anniversary of war against Japan.

Almost 50 films used advanced digital effects in post production including the blockbusters The Myth, The Promise and Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, the paper said.

For the second consecutive year, revenue from the home-made movies exceeded those of imported blockbusters.

Some 50 new modern cinemas equipped with advanced projection systems helped bring more people to movie theatres.

China has more than 3,000 cinemas and both SARFT and the Ministry of Culture are encouraging the development of more theatres in rural areas, the paper said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2005)