Landmarks of Chinese cinema

1980: Romance on Lushan Mountain becomes a phenomenal hit. Featuring a kissing scene, the first of its kind in People's Republic of China, the love story ushered in a new era, bringing a breath of diversity and openness to China's film industry.

1982: The Shaolin Temple, starring Jet Li, becomes a runaway hit, propelling Chinese martial arts films to popularity abroad.

1993: Reform of the industry changed the rules for purchasing and screening films, injecting vitality into the domestic market.

1994: Arnold Schwarzenegger's action film True Lies becomes the first Hollywood movie shown in Chinese mainland cinemas, and opens the eyes of Chinese audiences to foreign blockbusters.

2001: Director Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon wins four Oscars, the first Chinese-language film to claim the top honor at one of the world's premier film festivals.

2012: China surpasses Japan as the world's second-largest movie market and signs an agreement with the United States to raise the annual revenue-sharing quota of foreign films from 20 to 34.

2017: The Film Industry Promotion Law, the first of its kind in China, comes into effect. The number of silver screens grows to 45,000, exceeding North America.

2019: The Wandering Earth, a sci-fi epic adapted from the novel by Asia's first Hugo Award winner Liu Cixin, becomes a game-changing hit, introducing hard Chinese sci-fi abroad.

2020: China's annual box office revenues surpass North America for the first time, establishing the country as one of the fastest-recovering markets during the pandemic.

2023: All of the top 10 highest-grossing films in the domestic market are produced by Chinese companies, indicating a shift in the domestic audience's preferences, and the ascent of homegrown films.