China’s box office numbers drop by a quarter as viewers switch to streaming

China’s box office figures fell by almost a quarter last year as a lack of blockbusters and a tough economic climate saw consumers turn to entertainment services for entertainment.

While China’s film industry surpassed North America’s revenue for the first time in 2020, its recovery after the pandemic has slowed. The world’s second-largest cinema market reported box office revenue of Rmb42.5bn ($5.8bn) in 2024, down nearly 23 percent from Rmb54.9bn a year earlier , said the Film Administration of China.

That compares to a 3% annual decline in the North American box office to $8.7bn in 2024, according to Comscore and Deadline.

“The shortage of supply to the domestic industry is really painful, but the damage was exacerbated by the poor economy,” said Chris Fenton, a US-China analyst and adjunct professor at the University of Southern California.

On a busy Christmas Eve, there is a tax at the box office China fell to Rmb38mn from Rmb170mn in 2023 and was the lowest in at least 13 years, according to Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan.

“(We are affected) by the decline in consumption,” said Wang, the director of cinemas in Beijing. Simply put, it’s an economic crisis. Attendance is projected to drop as much as 35 percent by 2024 in many major Chinese cities, and many movie theaters are operating at a loss, he said.

Instead of visiting cinemas, many viewers were opting for online streaming platforms and short video content available on their mobile devices, according to industry analysts at entertainment news provider China Beacon Professional.

Another factor was “high-quality home movies on the market to generate excitement and enthusiasm for people to go out,” said Ying Zhu, the book’s author. Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World’s Largest Film Market.

But while streaming services were “eating up a lot of cinema money”, Zhu said China’s box office decline was linked to “the overall economic slowdown, with high youth unemployment.” leading to a decline in entertainment revenue”.

Kenny Ng, a film expert at Hong Kong Baptist University, said the epidemic is still “having a lasting impact on consumer behavior in China, especially in the entertainment industry”.

He said: “The revolution in home entertainment has been intense, and many consumers are still reluctant to return to crowded places like cinemas.

Sun, a 27-year-old tech worker from Shanghai, said he only went to the cinema twice last year, compared to more than 10 times in previous years, and home platforms such as Tencent Video are still they increase.

“Many movie releases don’t give me a strong desire to watch them in theaters . . . (and) not many interesting films have been released,” he said.

China’s highest-grossing film of 2024 was a domestically produced comedy YOLOwhich is a Japanese film about a woman who lacks confidence and takes up boxing to change her life. YOLO took in Rmb3.4bn, according to Maoyan, lower than the Rmb4.5bn raised by 2023’s top film, the Chinese mystery comedy. Full Red River.

China still has weak consumer confidence, where youth unemployment is as high as 17 percent and wage growth is slowing, while growing social tension it is also concerned about the leaders of China.

“The comeback of comedy, while helping to ease social tensions, also proves that audiences are getting tired of big-budget propaganda films,” said Zhu, who is also a professor at the Hong Kong Film School. Baptist University.

The Chinese market contributed up to 30 percent of global revenue for Hollywood blockbusters before 2020, according to USC’s Fenton, but their appeal has waned in recent years, with many films growth sees 10 percent or less of their total come from the Chinese box office. receipts. The only Hollywood production – sci-fi action franchise Godzilla x Kong: The New Kingdom – made the 10 highest-grossing films in China last year, according to Maoyan.

Hollywood films are increasingly “failing to connect with local audiences”, Zhu said. China’s state news agency Xinhua in an opinion piece last year noted “the lack of innovation and creativity in Hollywood films with their structured narratives that satisfy Chinese audiences”.

“Hollywood films are losing their appeal to China’s Gen Z audience,” said Shi Chuan, vice chairman of the Shanghai Film Association, referring to the declining influence of Western culture on the country’s younger generation. .

Shi cited lukewarm reception for the latter Project: Impossible as an example. “This is a high-quality film but it was disappointing at the box office, as (many) Gen Z Chinese filmmakers don’t know who Tom Cruise is,” Shi said.

Meanwhile, budget cuts, censorship and changing tastes have occurred accused by the film producers and industry analysts for pushing back the domestic industry.

The box office is likely to continue to grow in the next few years “due to (China’s) large population”, said Fenton. Its film industry hopes for domestic blockbusters, including fantasy epics Creation of the Gods II: Clash of the Demons and a martial arts fee The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero, both of which will be released during the Lunar New Year in late January, may boost box office sales.

“As always, the quality of the films is important,” said Stanley Rosen, a professor at the University of Southern California who deals with the Chinese community, and added: “China’s economic development can help a lot.”