Dalian Wanda founder Wang Jianlin is known for his bullish outlook on China’s entertainment industry.
In his Hong Kong Economic Journal column, he gave a couple of reasons why the outlook is more than rosy.
In the United States, there are 130 movie screens for every one million people.
Even if China can only reach 80 percent of that ratio in 10 years’ time, its much larger population means the number of cinema screens in the country will be 3.5 times more than in America, Wang wrote.
Also, most screens installed over the past 10 years are located in shopping malls, which typically generate higher per screen revenue and thefore more lucrative, he added.
American people on average go to the movies four times a year, while the frequency in China is just once a year. This implies a huge room for growth in the next 10 years, Wang said.
Other macro trends, including the urbanization process, increase in the number of shopping malls across China and rising incomes, are also favoring the movie sector.
Wang predicts the industry will see an annual growth clip of around 15 percent for the next 10 years.
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