Box office revenues in China fell by nearly a quarter last year, as a shortage of blockbuster films and tough economic conditions led consumers to turn to streaming services for entertainment.
While China's film industry surpassed North American box office receipts for the first time in 2020, its post-pandemic recovery has been weaker. The world's second-largest film market recorded total box office receipts of RMB42.5 billion ($5.8 billion) in 2024, down about 23 percent from RMB54.9 billion the previous year, the China Film Administration said.
That compares to a 3 percent year-over-year decline at the North American box office to $8.7 billion in 2024, according to ComScore and Deadline.
“Short supply certainly hurts domestic industry, but that damage is magnified by the weak economy,” said Chris Fenton, a US-China analyst and assistant professor at the University of Southern California.
On what is usually a busy Christmas Eve, the box office hits China It fell to RMB38 million from RMB170 million in 2023 and was the lowest in at least 13 years, according to Chinese ticket platform Maoyan.
“(We) have been affected by the reduction in consumption,” said Wang, director of cinemas in Beijing. “Simply put, it is an economic crisis.” He added that estimates show attendance will fall by up to 35 percent in 2024 in many major Chinese cities, with many theaters operating at a loss.
Instead of visiting the cinema, many viewers have opted for online streaming platforms and short video content available on their mobile devices, according to industry analysts at Chinese entertainment data provider Beacon Professional.
Another factor is “there aren't enough high-quality local films on the market to get people buzzing and excited to go out,” said Ying Zhou, the book's author. Hollywood in China: Behind the scenes of the world's largest film market.
But while streaming services have “certainly hurt cinema revenues,” Zhu said China's box office decline “is more related to the overall economic stagnation, as rising youth unemployment squeezes pocket money for entertainment.”
The epidemic still has a “lasting impact on consumer behavior in China, especially in the entertainment industry,” said Kenny Ng, a film researcher at Hong Kong Baptist University.
“The shift towards home entertainment has gained momentum, with many consumers remaining reluctant to return to crowded spaces such as cinemas,” he said.
Sun, a 27-year-old technology worker in Shanghai, said he went to the cinema only twice last year, compared to more than 10 times in previous years, with the growing appeal of local streaming platforms such as Tencent Video.
“Many theatrical releases do not give me a strong desire to watch them in cinemas… (and) not many attractive films are released,” he said.
The highest-grossing Chinese film of 2024 was a locally produced comedy-drama YoloIt is based on a Japanese movie about a woman who lacks confidence and takes up boxing to change her life. Yolo The film earned RMB3.4 billion, according to Maoyan, which is less than the more than RMB4.5 billion earned by the top film of 2023, the Chinese mystery comedy. The full red river.
China is seeing weak consumer confidence, with youth unemployment rising to 17 percent and wage growth slowing Increased social tensions It also raised concerns among Chinese leaders.
“The return of comedies, while helping to defuse social tension, also attests to viewers' fatigue with big-budget propaganda films,” said Chu, who is also a professor at the Film Academy of Hong Kong Baptist University.
The Chinese market contributed up to 30 percent of global revenues for Hollywood films before 2020, according to the University of Southern California's Fenton, but its appeal has faded in recent years, with many big films seeing 10 percent or less of their gross receipts coming from the box office. Chinese. Receipts. Only one Hollywood production is a science fiction series Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – The 10 highest-grossing films in China last year, according to Maoyan.
Hollywood films “increasingly fail to connect with local audiences,” Cho said. China's state news agency Xinhua noted in an opinion last year the “lack of novelty and creativity in Hollywood films, whose conventional stories have saturated Chinese audiences.”
“Hollywood films are losing their luster with Generation Z audiences in China,” said Shi Quan, vice president of the Shanghai Film Association, referring to the diminishing influence of Western culture on the country's younger generation.
Xi noted the lukewarm reception to the latest developments Mission: impossible For example. “This is a high-quality film but disappointing at the box office, as (many) Chinese Gen Z moviegoers don't know who Tom Cruise is,” Shi said.
At the same time, funding has declined, censorship and tastes have changed Movie producers blame him And industry analysts to disrupt the local industry.
The box office will likely continue to grow over the next few years “due to the sheer size of (China's) population,” Fenton said. The country's film industry hopes to achieve major successes domestically, including the fantasy epic Creation of the Gods II: Demonic Confrontation And martial arts fare The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero, Both are scheduled to be released during the peak Lunar New Year season at the end of January, and may revive box office sales.
“As always, the quality of films is important,” said Stanley Rosen, a professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in Chinese society. “An improving economy in China would help a lot.”
