Chinese documentaries took in nothing at the box office in the first quarter of 2013, according to an industry report.

The report was released on Thursday by the China Documentary Research Center of the Communication University of China.

Liu Ke, a researcher with the center, attributed the underwhelming performance of Chinese documentaries in cinemas to low returns, saying producers of documentaries prefer TV stations as distribution outlets.

During the same period last year, "The Somalia Truth," a domestically-produced documentary, earned 1.27 million yuan (205,867 US dollars) at the box office.

The documentary follows the production crew's 33-day adventure in Somalia, focusing on their encounters with local residents, pirates, terrorists and warlords.