Before the year is half over, we have already seen a number of domestic movie box-office records broken and broken again. Even more encouraging to most domestic moviemakers is that domestic movies are now able to beat Hollywood blockbusters.

According to a statistics released by Chinese movie database EBOT, So Young, Zhao Wei's directorial debut, ranked second in the mainland top 10 with 332.33 million yuan ($54.08 million) in the 18th week of 2013 (April 29 to May 5), closely following Iron Man 3 with its 397.75 million yuan and far ahead of two other Hollywood entries, The Croods (122.20 million yuan) and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (41.61 million yuan).

Further boosting the mood is recent data from The State Administration of Radio Film and Television, which shows that in the first quarter of 2013, box-office revenue made by domestic movies (3.61 billion yuan) accounted for 69 percent of all the revenue achieved in mainland theaters (5.25 billion yuan), an obvious rise compared to the percentage of the same period last year - 44 percent.

As many domestic moviegoers are cheering for home-made movies' finally "defeating" the Hollywood blockbusters, a more sober analysis is needed to see how this could happen and will it last long.

A turn in the end

Most of 2012 was disappointing for movie industry insiders as well as movie fans in China.

The April and May movie season of 2012 saw Chinese directors born in the 1960s and 1970s coming as a group to counter the dominance of Hollywood blockbusters: but whether it was Ning Hao's Guns'n'Roses, Guan Hu's Design of Death, or Yang Shupeng's An Inaccurate Memoir, none of them could compete with Titanic 3D or The Avengers at the box office or in audience reaction.

Great results were expected from two home-made heavyweights, Wang Quan'an's White Deer Plain and Feng Xiaogang's Back to 1942, but the results were quite disappointing.

Though both received a relatively high box office (White Deer Plain over 130 million yuan and Back to 1942 over 370 million yuan), considering their previous high investments in capital and time, both struggled to gain a profit. 

An unexpected turn was seen by the end of last year when the mid-budget comedy Lost in Thailand took in surprisingly high revenue with over 36 million yuan on its first day in general release and a final achievement of 1.27 billion yuan, breaking a number of records for a Chinese domestic production.

Soon after, that revenue record was challenged as Stephen Chow's Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons grossed 1.25 billion yuan.

Right away, Finding Mr Right, staring Tang Wei and Wu Xiubo, got hot. Though a 500 million yuan box office is nothing compared with the previous two, the massive positive feedback from domestic audiences gave the Chinese movie industry new hope regarding movies with romantic themes since Love Is Not Blind in 2011.

In just a month, people were once again caught by surprise as actress Zhao Wei's directorial debut, So Young, hit screens.

It not only won revenue of nearly 500 million yuan in two weeks, but also created a "recalling one's youth" trend among people born between the 1970s and 1990s.

As Guangzhou Daily concluded in a recent report, "The achievement of these movies raised up the box-office standard line, making 100 million yuan nothing to be proud of."

The rising of audience

Regarding the box-office achievements of domestic movies, a cinema circuit insider in Shanghai surnamed Li told the Global Times that recent developments not only show domestic audiences have grown in their ability to appreciate movies, but also show that certain moviemakers [begin to care for] the audience and market regulation.

"Now mainland audiences have various channels to learn about good domestic works and their choice in movies is more rational, no longer blindly going after Hollywood," Li said, adding that though Hollywood blockbusters won over with visual effects in the beginning, but after watching too many of them, Chinese audiences gradually get tired and grow eager to see different types.

According to Li, "a combination of Hollywood [story mode] with local culture… like Lost in Thailand and Finding Mr Right… is the future direction of domestic movies."

In a report by the Beijing News, an industry insider with the name Bu Er noted that the rising screen numbers in second- and third-tier cities over recent years has largely contributed to the domestic movie box office as well.

"Many audiences in second or third-tier cities know little about The Hobbit or Harry Porter. When they go to a cinema, they will first look for faces they are familiar with and stories about common Chinese people," he told the reporter.

For that reason, he thinks that TV soap opera stars will achieve success in the movie industry. "Stars like Xu Zheng, Zhao Wei, Huang Bo and Wang Baoqiang all won their popularity due to TV shows," he said.

Hollywood still strong

Despite the achievements domestic movies have made in theaters, insiders seem to be conservative when asked if Hollywood is already at a disadvantage. A cinema staff member and movie critic in Dalian, Liaoning Province said that it is only a slight rise in the development of Chinese movies, but that now is "the time that produces its heroes."

What movies are chosen to screen and how to arrange the screen time often has a powerful influences on the box office. The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises offer good examples from last year: both hit Chinese theaters on the same day causing a virtual face-to-face combat between the superhero franchises.

Li noted that politics often comes into play, and "unwritten" regulations can determine whether a foreign film are allowed to meet mainland audiences or how long they are delayed.

"If the type of imported works is not so simple (mostly sci-fi and action flicks) and their screening dates can keep in step [with the producing country's wishes], domestic movies will once again face a challenge," Li said.

Multiple media sources reported that in Taipei last Friday, in an answer to a mainland student, Oscar Winning Chinese American director Ang Lee said the biggest advantage of the mainland is a good market that can compete with Hollywood.

But he also criticized mainland directors for thinking too much about themselves.

As a movie director, it is not the most important to express ourselves… if you place yourself in such an important position, it will be ego rather than art, Lee said.