China's 2025 box office reached RMB51.832 billion, up 21.95% from 2024, with 1.238 billion urban cinema admissions, the China Film Administration said. Domestic films took RMB41.293 billion, or 79.67% of the total. That is a strong home-market share, and it is the first fact to hold on to. The second is that imports have not disappeared: Zootopia 2 was the second-highest-grossing film of the year.
A domestic year
The top five were Ne Zha 2, Zootopia 2, Detective Chinatown 1900, Nanjing Photo Studio and 731. The slate mixed animation, a franchise sequel, historical drama and a technology showcase. Ne Zha 2 became the highest-grossing animated film in global box-office history, according to the administration. An 8K space-themed film, Outside the Window Is a Blue Star, was part of the year's technical ambition. The point is not that one genre won. It is that domestic production supplied the year's biggest events.
Supply was broad. China produced 764 films in 2025, including 511 feature films. Fifty-one films crossed RMB100 million, 33 of them domestic. That is a hit-driven market: only a small share of features reach the RMB100 million mark. The screen base kept growing, with a net increase of 2,219 to 93,187. Screen growth was modest relative to the box-office gain, so average revenue per screen improved. That is a better test of recovery than the total alone.
The economics
A 21.95% rise in ticket revenue is welcome, but the market still depends on a few titles. The top five include an animation phenomenon, a Hollywood sequel and three domestic live-action films. The long tail is wide but thin. A production system that releases more than 700 films and gets 51 past RMB100 million is not yet a machine for stable returns. It is a portfolio business with occasional huge winners.
The policy side is trying to widen the value chain. The China Film Administration and China Media Group ran a China Film Consumption Year, with campaigns such as Follow the Film to Travel and Follow the Film to Taste Food. The idea is to turn a ticket into spending on travel, food and retail. Shanghai's film-themed walks and Shanxi's linked tourism push are examples. That does not change the box office, but it can improve the economics for locations and brands around a release.
Beyond the ticket
Overseas, the administration says Chinese films increased both volume and quality of releases. Ne Zha 2 set the global animation record; Nanjing Photo Studio and Detective Chinatown 1900 also opened in multiple markets. That is progress, but the international share of revenue is still small compared with the domestic market. A global animation crown is a breakthrough, not yet a durable export business.
The risk for 2026 is simple: can the market repeat without another once-in-a-decade animation hit? The 79.67% domestic share is a position of strength, but it also means the industry cannot rely on imports to fill weak slots. More screens will not solve a thin slate. The next year needs breadth: mid-budget films that can earn RMB300 million to RMB800 million, not just one giant and a long tail.