(Yicai Global) July 1 -- Box office revenues on the Chinese mainland may struggle to top last year's CNY60.6 billion (USD8.86 billion), according to experts, as first-half takings fell 2.7 percent from a year earlier due to a lack of popular movies and competition from online streaming platforms, the Beijing News reported.

Growth has been slowing since last year, with the nation's movie theaters taking in CNY31.2 billion in the first six months of this year. Both box office receipts and audience numbers fell for the first time since 2011 in the period. Revenue slowed to 8.6 percent for the whole of last year, down from a heady 22.8 percent in 2017.

In the absence of blockbusters, other than The Wondering Earth and Avengers: End Game, consumers had no need to head to cinemas in the first half, the Beijing Daily cited cinema aficionado Zhang Miao as saying.

Zhang pointed out that many movies are now available to watch on computers and mobile phones just a month after their release thanks to the steady development of streaming media. For many people this has become the mainstream way to watch movies, he added.

A total of 252 films were released in China in the six months ended June, according to statistics from the Beijing News, with 185 domestic movies and 67 imported flicks, accounting respectively for 51.45 percent and 48.55 percent of the total box office. Forty-four earned more than CNY100 million (USD14.6 million) each.