China’s box office hit $7.42bn (RMB51.83bn), up by 22% compared to 2024, with animations Ne Zha 2 and Zootopia 2 smashing records and leading the pack. Hollywood regained its audience base but Japanese releases were put on hold.
A total of 474 films were released, comprising 368 local titles for a 79.7% market share of the total box office. Cinema attendance reached 1.24 billion admissions.
Chinese animation Ne Zha 2 was a major success, collecting $2.21bn (RMB15.45bn) to become the biggest film of all time in China by a large margin and the biggest film of the year globally.
Disney animation Zootopia 2 nabbed the second place with $575m (RMB4.02bn) as of December 31. Showing strong momentum, it crossed $608m (RMB4.25bn) on January 6, beating 2019’s Avengers: Endgame to become China’s biggest imported film ever.
Four animations were in the top 10, capturing a 42.5% market share between them. The other two were local summer hit Nobody ($244m/RMB1.71bn, sixth place) and Chinese New Year title Boonie Bears: Future Reborn, the 11th instalment of the popular franchise ($117m/RMB820m, ninth place).
Chinese New Year has always been a lucrative season and contributed four titles to the top 10, including Ne Zha 2, Detective Chinatown 1900 ($516m/RMB3.61bn, third place), fantasy epic The Creation Of The Gods II: Demon Force ($176m/RMB1.23bn, eighth place), and Boonie Bears: Future Reborn.
As it was the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, historical war films fared well. It was led by Dead To Rights, which was the biggest summer hit that took $430m (RMB3.01bn) in fourth place, and 731 ($277m/RMB1.94bn, fifth place).
Action heist film The Shadow’s Edge, a remake of Johnnie To’s 2007 thriller Eye In The Sky, placed seventh with $180m (RMB1.26bn).
Zootopia 2 defied the decline of Hollywood in China in recent years and Avatar: Fire And Ash, which opened on December 19, further boosted Hollywood performance, with takings of $110m (RMB774m) by December 31, enough for tenth place in the chart. Prior to Zootopia 2, no US film has reached the RMB1bn milestone since 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion ($151m/RMB1.06bn).
Despite the year-on-year growth, some underlying issues stood out. The box office was mainly driven by the success of a handful of huge hits, with the top 10 grossing films accounting for 65.3% of the total box office, leaving little room for other films to find their audience.
Outside the top 10, Japanese animation Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, also a global hit, ranked 13th with takings of $96m (RMB670m). It was the first title from the hugely popular franchise to hit mainland Chinese cinemas, but it may also be the last for some time given the current political tension between China and Japan over Taiwan.
The release of several Japanese titles has recently been postponed, including the live-action version of anime Cells at Work!, Neo Sora’s Happyend, animation Crayon Shin-chan the Movie: Super Hot! The Spicy, Sony Pictures’ animation Scarlet by Mamoru Hosoda, and psychological thriller Exit 8.
All box office data from Maoyan Research Institute.
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