BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's box office in 2016 reached 45.71 billion yuan (6.58 billion U.S. dollars), up 3.73 percent year-on-year, and 1.37 billion people went to cinemas, official figures showed Saturday.

Cinema-goers rose 8.89 percent from 2015, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) said.

The box office of domestic films topped 26.66 billion yuan, accounting for 58.33 percent of the total, while the box office and sales revenue of domestic films in overseas market reached 3.83 billion yuan, up 38.09 percent year-on-year.

The SAPPRFT said China produced 944 films in 2016.

A total of 1,612 new cinemas were built in the year in China. The country now has 41,179 film screens, more than any other country in the world, according to the SAPPRFT.