Cinema of Hong Kong |
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No. of screens | 271 (2018)[1] |
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• Per capita | 3.1 per 100,000 (2011)[2] |
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|
Total | 56 (average) |
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|
Total | 22,500,000 |
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• Per capita | 3.2 (2010)[4] |
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|
Total | HK$1.65 billion |
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The cinema of Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港電影) is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese-language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former Crown colony, Hong Kong had a greater degree of political and economic freedom than mainland China and Taiwan, and developed into a filmmaking hub for the Chinese-speaking world (including its worldwide diaspora).
For decades,[when?] Hong Kong was the third largest motion picture industry in the world following US cinema and Indian cinema, and the second largest exporter.[specify] Despite an industry crisis starting in the mid-1990s and Hong Kong's transfer to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997, Hong Kong film has retained much of its distinctive identity and continues to play a prominent part on the world cinema stage. In the West, Hong Kong's vigorous pop cinema (especially Hong Kong action cinema) has long had a strong cult following, which is now a part of the cultural mainstream, widely available and imitated.
Economically, the film industry together with the value added of cultural and creative industries represents 5 per cent of Hong Kong's economy.[7]