Cable platform, StarTimes, has perfected plans to export Nigerian movies to China where the audience is growing at an impressive rate.

Speaking on the development, Chief Executive Officer, StarTimes Nigeria, Justin Zhang, said: “The opportunities are enormous for Nollywood in China. Everyday, more and more Chinese nationals become interested in Nollywood movies. We hear good things about Nollywood movies and this is a significant improvement for the industry.”

He added that the company is working with one of the major movie distributors in China and is already holding talks with the Minister of Information, stakeholders in Nigeria’s movie distribution sector and a bank to see to a successful exportation of Nigerian movies to China.

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As the world’s most populous country with 1.4 billion people, China’s cinema market currently has a staggering 45,000 screens as compared to Nigeria’s 200. This, according to Zhang, is an opportunity for the Nigerian movie industry to step up in terms of production quality in a bid to reap the benefits of a larger audience.

“Apart from the fact that many jobs will be created when this kicks off, it is also an opportunity for producers in Nigeria to increase their earnings. Imagine if a Nollywood production is exported to the Chinese box office where over 45,000 screens exist, the opportunities are unending. It will be a dream come true for us at StarTimes to see Nollywood movies grossing up to $50 million in the box office someday,” Zhang stressed.

In the first eight months of this year, China added a little over 7,500 new cinema screens, continuing a trend seen over the past few years. China has been building cinema screens at a rate of over 12 a day for the past five years, rising to 27 a day this year.