During the May Day Holiday, over a hundred Internet cafes in Chengdu turned themselves into theatres and presented patrons the ability to view legal copies of movies.

The netcafes worked with the the Beijing-based Wang Shang Culture Company to bring the project to the Sichuan area.

The top management of Wang Shang come from private film distribution companies and the company is supported by venture capital firm IDG, who has invested $4 million in the first schedule and is planning an investment of $12 million for the second schedule.

Wang Shang and IDG aim to transform netcafes into legal film broadcasting platforms, serving the large consumer group already present in the cafes and challenging the traditional cinemas' position in the market. They are expecting to develop 20000 netcafes nationwide by the end of 2006, and plan to be listed overseas within three years.

Netcafes will get 30% of the movie ticket revenue and earn the commissions from film cards offered by Wang Shang.