China Curtails Run of 'Avatar' as It Fills Theaters

"Avatar," the Hollywood blockbuster that has proved wildly popular with Chinese moviegoers, will be pulled in the next few days from the majority of Chinese theaters where it is showing, Chinese media outlets reported Tuesday.

The film will be removed from theaters without 3-D technology to make way for a domestically produced biography of Confucius, according to reports in state-controlled media that mainly quoted theater operators. China limits the number of foreign films permitted to be shown in the country to 20 a year, and it also regulates the amount of time each of those films can be shown. Officials ban any foreign films deemed unfriendly to the Communist Party but also want to ensure that any foreign imports deemed acceptable do not dominate the market and smother local film producers. While many films have a shorter run in Chinese theaters than their foreign producers would like, it is rare for the authorities to cut short the showing of a runaway success like "Avatar." According to 20th Century Fox, the movie's distributor, the film has earned $76 million in ticket sales in China, making it the most successful movie so far in China.