China’s cinematic landscape experienced a significant resurgence in 2025, with the box office surging 20 percent year-over-year to $7.41 billion. This robust recovery, a stark contrast to the previous year’s downturn, was largely propelled by the immense success of animated blockbusters, particularly the domestic hit ‘Ne Zha 2’ and Disney’s ‘Zootopia 2’.
Animation Leads the Charge
Animation proved to be the driving force behind the box office boom, with 57 animated features generating an impressive $3.57 billion, nearly half of the total annual sales. ‘Ne Zha 2’ shattered records during the Lunar New Year, earning a staggering $2.13 billion. Following closely, Disney’s ‘Zootopia 2’ concluded the year in December with a remarkable $558.3 million, ultimately becoming the highest-grossing Hollywood film ever released in China, surpassing ‘Avengers: Endgame’ in local currency.
Other notable animated successes included the local hit ‘Nobody’ ($245 million) and the anime sensation ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ ($95.6 million), though the latter faced an early exit due to geopolitical tensions.
Domestic Dominance and Hollywood’s Mixed Bag
Local Chinese films continued their strong performance in the home market, capturing 79.67 percent of the total box office revenue. Hollywood titles and Japanese anime made up the remaining approximately 20 percent. While ‘Zootopia 2’ and ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ ($136 million) performed well, other Hollywood franchises, particularly superhero films like MCU releases and DC’s ‘Superman’, showed signs of waning appeal, earning significantly less than in previous years.
Universal’s ‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ ($79 million), Warner Bros.’ ‘F1: The Movie’ ($59.2 million), and Paramount’s ‘Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning’ ($64.5 million) were among the top performers for their respective studios.
Shifting Audience Demographics and Market Concentration
Overall moviegoing admissions rose to 1.24 billion, a year-over-year increase of over 20 percent. The expansion was particularly pronounced in China’s third- and fourth-tier cities, which have seen consistent box office growth for three consecutive years. The increase in first-time and infrequent moviegoers also contributed to widening the base of occasional theater patrons.
However, the market exhibited a growing concentration at the top, with four films exceeding the 3 billion yuan ($425 million) threshold and eight surpassing 1 billion yuan ($142 million). Conversely, the number of mid-tier films earning between 100 million and 500 million yuan continued to shrink, indicating a further hollowing out of the middle market.
Local Narratives Gain Traction
On the domestic front, filmmakers increasingly moved towards grounded stories reflecting everyday life, employing diverse visual styles. War films such as ‘Dead to Rights‘ ($431 million) and ‘Evil Unbound‘ ($270 million) resonated with audiences through their more intimate, human-scale narratives rather than grand heroic sagas.
China’s contribution to the 2025 global box office was nearly 22 percent, positioning it as the second-largest market globally, trailing only North America.