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It is thought that the economic downturn will lead to more spending on small luxuries such as watching movies. But the world’s second-largest economy, currently in recession, is calling that long-held theory into question.
Last year’s box office revenue in China plummeted by 23% compared to 2023, the China Film News, a newspaper affiliated with the China Film Administration, reported on Wednesday, citing official figures released by the organization. The total amount was 42.5 billion yuan ($5.8 billion). . Box office revenue was down 34% compared to 2019, which was a record year for the film industry before a number of pandemic and economic challenges surfaced.
Last year’s box office topper was the feminist film “Yolo,” starring and directed by Jia Lin, who plays a woman in her 30s who loses weight and gains self-confidence by taking up boxing. The feel-good comedy, in which Jia lost 100 pounds during filming, has sold tickets worth 3.5 billion yuan ($474 million), Maoyan said.
“Comedies remain the most preferred movie type by audiences, accounting for 36% of annual box office receipts,” said Liu Zhenfei, a data analyst at market research firm Lighthouse Research Institute, on Thursday. Quoted in the state-run Economic Information Daily. As you say.

But, of course, the overall box office was poor. The annual decline was due in part to fewer films being produced. According to official data, only 612 films were produced in 2024, compared to 792 the previous year.
China is not the only country where the number of movies being produced is decreasing. The number of projects filming between July and September 2024 will increase as the industry continues to reel from the effects of the devastating 2023 Hollywood strike, according to production data tracker ProdPro. , down 17% globally compared to the same period in 2022.
This trend is likely to have caused U.S. box office revenue to drop 3% last year compared to 2023, to $8.72 billion, according to Deadline calculations.
China’s industry slump came as a surprise to experts, given the strong performance of movie theaters in 2023. Movie theaters were a rare bright spot for China’s economy, which had lost momentum after an initial recovery as consumers emerged from three years of harsh coronavirus restrictions.
Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing data from Mao Yan, that box office sales in China on Christmas Eve, which is not a public holiday, fell to the lowest level in at least 13 years. The total amount won was 38 million yuan ($5.2 million), less than a quarter of last year’s amount and the lowest since Maoyan started keeping records in 2011.
Experts say history shows movie theaters tend to thrive during tough economic times because they offer relatively affordable escapism. In fact, it’s even part of a phenomenon called the “lipstick effect,” where consumers spend more on small purchases during uncertain times.
And although business confidence has improved in the months since leader Xi Jinping decided to implement a much-needed economic stimulus package in September, consumption remains sluggish.

“Weighted by a prolonged real estate recession and weak consumer confidence, China’s household consumption will slow in 2024, with first-tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen) experiencing greater wealth losses due to falling real estate prices. smaller cities,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a research note published Tuesday.
In addition to sluggish spending, China is struggling with a real estate crisis, debt problems and high youth unemployment. So far, authorities have not introduced large-scale economic stimulus programs that provide money directly to consumers, but they have launched so-called “cash-in” programs to boost sales of cars and home appliances.
Last month, the China Film Administration introduced a subsidy system to support sluggish box office revenues. A number of banks and online booking platforms will jointly invest 600 million yuan ($82 million) to offer discounted tickets and hold raffles to increase the number of moviegoers in the new year, state news agency Xinhua said.