China's cinemas are expected to rake in three billion yuan (USD 400 million) in box office revenue this year as more domestic movies are competing with Hollywood blockbusters.

Chinese movie theatres have reaped 1.2 billion yuan in box office revenue in first half of 2007 while the best seasons not being counted yet, local media reported today.

China reported two billion yuan as box office revenue in 2005 and 2.6 billion yuan in 2006.

As more urban Chinese are willing to go to cinema, 100 new cinema with more than 700 screens have been opened so far this year, "Beijing News" reported.

Since the beginning of this year, many home-made movies did well at the box office. "Curse of the Golden Flower" by Zhang Yimou and two other home-made movies, "Confession of Pain", and "Protege" garnered approximately 400 million yuan in total.

At the same time, foreign blockbusters like "Spiderman 3", "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End", "Transformers", "Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows" also gained popularity among Chinese film fans, each earning more than 100 million yuan.

The competition will turn even bloodier later this year. Director An Lee's "Samasara", and Jiang Wen's "The Sun Also Rises," both competitors for the Golden Lion Award at this year's Venice Film Festival, will be screened late September on Chinese mainland.

Feng Xiaogang's blockbuster "Assembly" and Hong Kong director Peter Chan's "The Warlords" are expected to be screened in December, the report said.