2025 China film market's box office rises over 20pc

China's film market showed a clear recovery in 2025, mainly supported by top tier films and strong intellectual properties. 

China's film annual box office reached 51.83 billion yuan (HK$576.66 billion). The total viewership rose to 1.29 billion, both grew over 20 percent year-on-year, according to the report 2025 China Film Market Data Insights released by the Maoyan Research Institute under Maoyan Entertainment (1896).

This figure is second only to 2023's 54.95 billion yuan in the six years since 2020. 

According to data from Maoyan Pro, among the top ten new releases by box office in 2025, four films exceeded 3 billion yuan and eight films surpassed 1 billion yuan. Among them, Ne Zha: the demon child churns the sea ranked first with 15.44 billion yuan's box office and created 109 records. Zootopia 2 has grossed over 4 billion yuan and is still growing.

Cynthia Zhong