China’s total box office in 2024 saw a sharp decline of 23% year-on-year, dropping to $5.81bn (RMB42.5bn) – the lowest takings since 2015 and 34% down on the pre-Covid peak in 2019 – indicating ongoing struggles to recover from the pandemic.
Last year’s annual gross was down from $7.5bn (RMB54.9bn) in 2023, which was seen as a more encouraging figure despite still being 14.5% behind pre-pandemic 2019.
A total of 501 films were released (425 local and 76 foreign titles), comparable to 512 titles in 2023.
A trio of local films topped the chart, with each exceeding the RMB3bn ($410m) mark: Jia Ling’s Yolo ($472m/RMB3.46bn); Han Han’s Pegasus 2 ($464m/RMB3.38bn); and Successor ($454m/RMB3.32bn), co-directed by Yan Fei and Peng Damo.
They were followed by a brace of RMB2bn ($273m) hits: Zhang Yimou’s Article 20 ($335m/RMB2.45bn); and animation Boonie Bears: Time Twist ($273m/RMB2bn).
A further two titles topped RMB1bn ($137m): Sam Quah’s A Place Called Silence ($184m/RMB1.35bn); and Chen Kaige’s The Volunteers: The Battle Of Life And Death ($164m/RMB1.2bn).
The top five all contained comedic elements, four of which were Chinese New Year hits. The comedy genre proved to be the most popular among local audiences, taking 36% of the total market share, while Chinese New Year was the most significant release window.
Despite the blockbuster successes, it was hard for most films to top even $68.3m (RMB500m). Only 16 features (including the above seven biggest local hits and four foreign titles) were able to achieve that, down from 31 in 2023.
No foreign film hit the RMB1bn mark for the second consecutive year. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was the biggest foreign import with takings of $130m (RMB956m), followed by Hayao Miyazaki’s Japanese animation The Boy And The Heron ($ 108m/RMB791m) and Alien: Romulus ($107m/RMB786m). They rounded out the top 10 chart, ranking eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.
The market share for foreign films increased from 16.2% in 2023 to 21.3% in 2024, but still lagged behind 2019’s 35.9%.
Admissions down
While ticket prices have remained over $5.50 (RMB40) for the last four years (2021-2024), cinema admissions dropped to 1 billion from 1.3 billion in 2023. The segment for audiences aged below 25 shrank to 21% while female audiences rose, now accounting for 58% of the total.
With Yolo as the overall box office champion, actress-director Jia Ling became the first female director to top the annual chart. Her motivational drama, which also generated buzz about her real-life dramatic weight loss of 50kg to play the role of a boxer, paved the way for further female-focussed films.
Her Story, directed by female director Shao Yihui and about a single mother and her friendship with a new female neighbour, became the biggest film in December, following its opening on November 22. It went on to gross $98.5m (RMB712m) at the box office.
Several crime films also stood out. Wong Ching Po’s The Pig, The Snake, And The Pigeon became the second biggest Taiwanese film of all time, taking $90.9m (RMB665m), while A Place Called Silence, about school bullying, earned $184m (RMB1.35bn).
Dong Runnian’s Johnny Keep Walking, which opened on December 29, 2023, took $176m (RMB1.29bn) and would be in the top 10 if it had been released in 2024.
China remained the second largest market at the global box office after North America. But its volatile box office performance – following an 83% year-on-year increase in 2023 – suggested further challenges ahead amid the current economic downturn and weaker consumer spending.
The statistics are compiled from various reports by Chinese ticketing platforms Maoyan and Beacon.
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