China's theaters pull 'The Da Vinci Code' Source: UPI BEIJING (UPI) -- Hollywood's film of Dan Brown's bestseller, "The Da Vince Code," was withdrawn from cinemas across China Thursday. The China Film Group asked the nation's theatrical exhibitors to pull the film "in order to protect (the) market for locally made films, and give them more screen time," Daily Variety reported Thursday. "Poseidon" was allowed to stay in Chinese theaters and Twentieth Century Fox's "Ice Age 2: The Meltdown" was scheduled Friday to become the last Hollywood film to open before China's annual summer blackout on U.S releases, Variety said. There was speculation the film board gave into pressure from the Chinese-Catholic church to end "The Da Vinci Code's" run in theaters, Variety said. Another possibility was that the film was simply doing too well. "It is within a day of becoming the number two all-time foreign box office grosser for China," a distribution industry source told Variety. The final gross in China for "The Da Vinci Code" is expected to be around $13 million.