BEIJING — It has been something of cruel summer for Chinese movie audiences. The latest installments of Hollywood blockbusters like “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” have been delayed, and it is doubtful that American-made crowd pleasers like “Horrible Bosses” and “The Hangover Part II” will ever arrive in theaters. In the meantime countless moviegoers have been driven into cinemas as part of a government campaign to promote a sprawling epic about the Chinese Communist Party.

“I was confused throughout the entire movie,” Liu Yang, sophomore at Tsinghua University Medical School, said after watching “Beginning of the Great Revival,” which was released last month to coincide with the party’s 90th anniversary. “It featured way too much romance with Mao Zedong.”

Even as box-office revenue soars and the nation accelerates construction of new theaters — 313 were built last year for a total of 6,200 screens — audiences in increasingly sophisticated cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou criticize the selection and quality of films.

Government regulations effectively limit wholly foreign-made films to 20 titles a year, roughly equal to the number of monthly domestic releases. Despite a World Trade Organization ruling that seeks to remove the quota, the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television continues to shield the domestic film industry from foreign competition.