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How China box office losing $1.64 billion in revenue due to historic industry downturn can dash Bollywood's 2025 hopes
China 2024 box office revenue plunged by $1.64 billion in 2024 as industry downturn deepened drastically.
2024 may have been a year of revival for most language film industries in India, but across the border in China, the box office returns did not paint that pretty a picture. Reuters reported that as per official data, China's 2024 box office revenue slumped by almost a quarter from the previous year, dealing a blow to a limping domestic industry yet to fully recover from the pandemic. (Also read: Maharaja China box office: Vijay Sethupathi, Anurag Kashyap film clocks ₹19.30 crore in just 2 days)
Chinese box office's billion-dollar loss in 2024
Per the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television figures, box office revenue in China totalled 42.502 billion yuan ($5.82 billion) in 2024. That's down 22.6% from 54.915 billion yuan in 2023, meaning a loss of over 12 billion yuan or $1.64 billion.
Hopes for a post-pandemic uptick in box office revenue for the second year were dashed despite successes including YOLO, a comedy on how a reclusive woman reconnected with society through boxing, and Successor, another comedy, on how a couple hid their wealth from their son to promote character building. YOLO was one of the top 10 highest-grossing films in the world in 2024, but it was an aberration for an industry that saw more misses than hits throughout the year.
What caused the slump
The slump was caused by a mix of factors - a decline in the number of feature films, competition from online offerings, including micro dramas, and a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.
On Christmas Eve, box office revenues plummeted to the lowest in at least 13 years. For the whole of 2024, the number of moviegoers in urban theatres totalled 1.01 billion, down from 1.299 billion a year earlier. A total of 612 feature films were produced last year, down from 792 in 2023.
What it may mean for Indian films
Over the last decade, China has come to be an important market for Indian films. Given its size and scale, many Indian films have increased their collections manifold courtesy of good runs in the country. Andhadhun, Secret Superstar, and Hindi Medium are prime examples. But while Indian films had been routinely earning in excess of $30 million in China once upon a time, the number has fallen now. Maharaja, the last Indian film to release in the country, grossed $10.80 million there. Many attributed this relatively low collection to the slump. This is a far cry from Andhadhun's $46 million or Hindi Medium's $32 million hauls.
This may mean that a blockbuster run in China - the kind that Dangal ($197 million), Secret Superstar ($118 million) or PK ($117 million) had - may be a bridge too far to cross for Indian films. Many family-audience-oriented Bollywood films are releasing in 2025, and trade insiders say that most of them had hoped for a China release to boost their box office. But the returns may not be quite what they would expect now. That is until the Chinese box office bounces back.
(With Reuters inputs)
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