China’s 2025 Film Industry: Shifting Away From Holiday Dependence

It was a good year for Chinese cinema. Total box office revenue already surpassed last year’s figure by October. However, a closer look at teh numbers shows changes happening in the industry.

Big movies and releases during national holidays still bring in a lot of money. “Ne zha 2” and “Detective Chinatown 1900,” both released during the Spring Festival, were the year’s top performers. “Zootopia 2,” released in late November, quickly became the second highest-grossing film of the year.

But the idea that release dates guarantee success isn’t always true anymore. Only the Spring Festival and summer holidays consistently produced top-10 movies. Films released during other holidays didn’t do as well,likely because too many films competed for attention during those times.

Interestingly, some films that didn’t release during peak periods still did well. Both “Zootopia 2” and “Evil Unbound” premiered outside of major holidays. This suggests people are becoming less focused on watching movies only during holidays and are going to the cinema more throughout the year.

Also, people are increasingly choosing movies based on their quality and what others say about them. The National Day holiday is usually the second-biggest release window, but this year, no films from that period made it into the top 10, because audiences didn’t think they were very good.

In contrast, summer releases did very well because the movies were high-quality and covered different genres. “Dead to Rights,” “Nobody,” “The Legend of Hei II,” “The Lychee Road,” “The Stage,” and “the Shadow’s Edge” all received positive reviews, showing the strength of Chinese film production.

individual films are making less money. While holiday blockbusters used to easily earn over 1 billion yuan ($142 million),reaching that milestone is becoming harder.