China's Film Industry at Crossroads: Decline and Renewal Coexist

According to a recent report, China's film industry is at a crossroads between crisis and renewal. In 2024, the annual box office revenue fell 22.6% year-on-year to RMB42.5 billion ($5.75 billion), with admissions down 28.6% despite 91,000 active screens. Audiences have fragmented across short-form video, gaming, and streaming, while the average viewer age continues to rise.

However, the industry has seen some positive trends. Female-directed and family-ethics dramas have reshaped mainstream storytelling, with films like "YOLO," "Something Wonderful," and "Like a Rolling Stone" gaining popularity. Comedy also accounted for 36% of box-office revenue in 2024, driven by titles such as "Successor" and "Johnny Keep Walking." Documentaries have also seen a revival, with films like "Caught by the Tides," "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru," and "Ms. Hu's Garden" signaling a growing interest in cultural and social nonfiction.

The report also highlights the emergence of new growth engines, such as AI-driven production and film-game convergence, exemplified by "Black Myth: Wukong" and "Ne Zha 2," which blend cinematic storytelling with interactive structures. The industry must now focus on diversified financing, balanced scale, and greater integration of AI and animation into industrialized production to maintain its box-office peaks, globalize its myths, and build its own large-scale creative ecosystem.