Huayi to buy stake in theater management company

Huayi Brothers Media Group, one of China's leading film production and distribution companies, said that it will acquire a 20 percent stake in a movie theater management company for 210 million yuan ($34.3 million).

This move is a bid to enhance Huayi's theater business as well as improve box office revenue.

Huayi Brothers owns 15 movie theaters, in various cities including Beijing, Chongqing and Hefei. In the first half of the year, cinemas contributed revenue of more than 100 million yuan, according to its first-half financial report.

The theater management company operates 12 theaters across the country, and one of its cinemas, in Beijing, attracted the biggest audience and box office revenues for theaters in 2011 and 2012.

China's cinema market has enjoyed a boom in recent years.

In 2012, 880 theaters were built, bringing the national total to 3,680.