Big stars and bigger money fail to revive China's box office sales

Shanghai

SUPERSTARS Jackie Chan and Matt Damon, along with the most expensive movie ever made in China, were not enough to revive growth in the country's box office sales, which slowed last year to the weakest pace since at least 2008.

Growth for 2016 slowed to 3.7 per cent after ticket receipts in December fell 3.9 per cent to 4.06 billion yuan (S$846 million), according to data from the government and industry consultancy Ent Group. Revenue rose 35 per cent a year on average between 2011 and last year.