BEIJING—Hoping to revive a sagging box office, China is quietly allowing a few more foreign movies to be released here this year, raising hopes in Hollywood that the country’s strict quota on outside films may be easing up.

Foreign film studios can release 34 titles in theaters a year in China under a quota deal negotiated in 2012. But release-date schedules show there will be at least 38 foreign theatrical releases this year.

What’s more, several Hollywood features—including “Sully” from Warner Bros. and “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” from Twentieth Century Fox—have been given release dates in December, a peak moviegoing time typically reserved for Chinese films.

Officials with the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television didn’t respond to requests for comment on the change. In Chinese news media, agency officials have been quoted as saying that more films were added through “cultural exchange programs” and don’t reflect any easing of the quota.

Several people with knowledge of the situation, including local distributors, theater operators and studio executives, said the move is aimed at reversing a dramatic slowdown in China’s box-office growth.