CGTN published an article on China’s 2025 total box office surpassing 10 billion yuan (nearly $1.4 billion), ranking first globally. The article summarizes key data on the Spring Festival box office, reflecting the vitality and potential of China’s cinema industry. Focusing on films which are rooted in traditional Chinese culture and deliver cutting-edge technology, the piece underscores how this year’s Chinese New Year movies exemplify China’s cultural confidence and the industry’s innovative growth.

China’s 2025 total box office, including real-time presales, has surpassed 10 billion yuan (nearly $1.4 billion), ranking first globally – a landmark achievement for the film industry.

Meanwhile, the country’s box office revenue for the 2025 Spring Festival holiday has reached 9 billion yuan as of noon on Tuesday, setting a new record for the same period in the country’s film industry history, according to data from the China Film Administration.

The daily box office has exceeded 1 billion yuan for six consecutive days since January 29, when six films targeting the holiday season were released.

Spanning genres including mythology, comedy and action, the films on the top of the box office chart were all domestic productions, and the number of moviegoers also hit a new record.

Chinese cultural IP under spotlight

Leading the pack this year was the animated fantasy “Ne Zha 2,” the sequel to the 2019 hit “Ne Zha.” “Ne Zha 2” has earned over 4.1 billion yuan since its screening, cracking the top 10 in the Chinese box office of all time.

According to the box office forecast of movie data platform Maoyan, the total box office of “Ne Zha 2” is expected to exceed 6.7 billion yuan, hitting the top of the box office list in Chinese cinema history.

Directed by Yang Yu, widely known as Jiaozi, the film features Ne Zha, a popular young hero in Chinese legends and literature such as the literary classic Journey to the West. Born with unique powers, Ne Zha finds himself as an outcast who is hated and feared. Destined by prophecy to bring destruction to the world, the boy must choose between good and evil.

“The film is wonderful and touching, and the story is told really well. Chinese movies are really great,” said a moviegoer in Baoding City, north China’s Hebei Province.

Half of this year’s Chinese New Year movies are rooted in traditional Chinese culture, aiming to build a narrative system to present Chinese cultural characteristics, national spirit and national image, and showcase China’s cultural confidence.

The second installment of China’s blockbuster mythological trilogy, “Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force,” is based on the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) novel “Fengshen Yanyi (The Investiture of the Gods).”

The trilogy depicts the fall of the Shang Dynasty and the rise of the Zhou Dynasty in the 11th century B.C., weaving together battles between mortals, deities, and demons.

In late January, the film opened in the Chinese mandarin with English subtitles in over 180 selected theaters in more than 30 cities across North America, and across Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium, becoming an eye-opener for those unfamiliar with Chinese mythology.

When Chinese culture goes global, it mainly depends on the work itself and the core contents such as scripts, stories and characters, said director Yang Yu.

“These are the things that cannot be outsourced,” he said.

High-standard special effects

During this year’s holiday season, the audience has enjoyed a new level of audio-visual experience on the big screen. Among the six key films debuted at the Spring Festival, five are blockbusters with good special effects.

IMAX China set a new benchmark with 88 million yuan in first-day earnings, breaking its previous record from 2021.

Among the six films, five of them feature four special effects in formats: IMAX, CINITY, China Giant Screen, and Dolby Cinema.

The film “Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force” uses IMAX special format. In the movie “Operation Leviathan,” more than 50 large-scale scenes across the deep sea and land are meticulously built, exploring underwater shooting technology, and presenting refreshing high-tech weapons and equipment.

Growing appetite for immerse experience like IMAX and the cutting-edge technology, like artificial intelligence, are one of the trends contributing to Chinese box office success, said Tom Ara, a global co-chair of the Media, Sport and Entertainment sector at DLA Piper.

China’s film industry is no longer just competing. It’s innovating, he said.

For more information, please click:

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-02-04/China-s-2025-box-office-tops-global-charts-sets-new-record-1AIcC9poCtO/p.html