Despite an economic slowdown in China, its emerging middle class are still flocking to the cinema for action, adventure and popcorn.

China set a new one-day box office record on Monday, Feb. 8 with U.S. $100.5 million (660 million yuan) worth of tickets sold on the day commemorating the Year of the Monkey – up 78 percent from 2015’s Lunar New Year’s Day, according to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) in February 2016. An estimated U.S. $3.56 billion tickets were sold over the seven-day Lunar New Year period in 2016 – not only the highest-grossing week in China, but in the world.

Many Chinese families spend time together at the cinema during the Lunar New Year holiday, and it is a peak time for the movie industry in China – similar to North America’s summer blockbuster season. February 2016 is likely to become only the second month ever that China has beaten Hollywood in movie ticket sales, forecasted China Film Insider.

“Records will continue to break and new milestones will continue in China,” Stanley Rosen, a political science professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles told Caifu magazine Tuesday, Feb. 9.

Box office revenue in China in 2015 hit a record U.S. $6.8 billion (44 billion yuan), up a staggering 49 percent from 2014, China’s film regulator SARFT reported in December 2015.

Rosen reflected back on 2015’s most successful North American films in China – several among the 34 imported movies released in its theatres each year. “Fast and Furious 7,” which taps into China’s middle class obsession with owning a car, earned more than U.S. $391 million – becoming the country’s second highest grossing film to date, he explained. “Furious 7” made more money in China that it earned in the United States ($320 million).

Other North American action-adventure films like “Avengers: Age of Ultron” ($240 million), “Mission: Impossible – Rouge Nation” ($137 million), “Jurassic World” ($229 million) and “The Martian” ($95 million) were popular among Chinese audiences last year, according to IMDb.com.

“Big box office hits from North America tend to do well in China…like sequels, superhero films and movies that have special effects, as well as movies that portray the Chinese in a positive light, like 'The Martian,’” Rosen said. “North American actors like Tom Cruise, Paul Walker, Chris Pratt and Leonardo DiCaprio are also popular among the Chinese.”

Hollywood’s success in the China market, where it has taken between 43.5 percent and 51.5 percent of the box office every year since 2009, is even more impressive since quotas restricted foreign revenue-sharing films, Rosen wrote in The Diplomat in March 2015.

China is on the cusp of accepting more foreign films. Lu Hongshi, a senior producer and industry adviser in China, said the country’s quota system with the World Trade Organization would open up further in 2017-2018. “Chinese filmmakers should be ready for that,” Hongshi told a panel at the Beijing International Film Festival in April 2014.

Right now, 14 of the 34 non-Chinese films have to be in Imax or 3-D, Rosen explained. “The increased quota will include 10 more movies to include art-house movies and Oscar winners.”

 

China: World’s Biggest Box Office Market by 2017

The Hollywood Reporter, along with film industry watchers like Rosen, have projected that China will surpass North America (including the United States and Canada) by the end of 2017 as the largest movie market in the world. Currently, China’s movie ticket sales are second only to the United States worldwide.

China’s 1.3 billion population is four times the size of the United States, so its movie-going potential is immense – as more people spend their leisure time at the cinema, there is a demand for additional infrastructure to accommodate them.

Around 15 new screens open daily in China, reported Artisan Gateway, a Shanghai-based film and cinema industry consulting firm in January 2015. As of 2016, China has around 32,000 screens, while North American screens total approximately 40,000, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The building frenzy in China started about a decade ago, Jonathan Landreth, managing editor of Chinafile.com, an online magazine from the Centre of U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society in New York, told Bloomberg BusinessWeek in July 2015. Construction of movie theatres first started in cities like Beijing and Shanghai with populations of three million and higher, but now cinema development has expanded into China’s suburban and rural areas. A movie theatre is the centerpiece for a new Chinese shopping centre, along with McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks.

Artisan Gateway analysts project China will have around 9,500 theatres with 53,000 movie screens by 2017. The screen count is likely to double again in the next 10 years because owning and operating theaters in China is profitable. Wanda Group, a property developer run by China’s richest man Wang Jianlin, plans to build 900 Wanda Plazas across the mainland in the coming decade.

As the motto states, if the Chinese build it, the crowds will come – especially if they, or their parents, have a disposable income. According to an October 2015 study by China entertainment consultants EntGroup, 87 percent of China’s movie-going audience is aged between 19 and 40, while more than 70 percent of the audience is aged below 30. The generation labelled the Young China generation by financial services company Credit Suisse is shaping the country’s future consumption – and going to the cinema is a huge trend.

“Their father and mother were probably unwilling to pay the price of a movie ticket,” said Vincent Chan, managing director and head of China research at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong and Shanghai. “These [young] Chinese are willing to spend their money on movies.”

China’s movie business is still far from reaching the maturity stage of its life cycle, Rob Cain, a Los Angeles-based China entertainment consultant and producer wrote in Forbes.com in July 2015. “Movie-going has swiftly become a favored pastime, and it will only become increasingly accessible and affordable for hundreds of millions of people,” he continued. “Whether it happens now or in the future, a slowdown in China’s economy is inevitable, but cinema has years of solid growth ahead.”

China’s Coming Attractions

As popcorn flicks gain in popularity in China, film industry experts hope that will translate into multiple visits to the cinema throughout the year.

The country’s 1.35 billion citizens went to the movies a little less than once a year in 2015, according to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

Here is a preview of films moviegoers in China can look forward to in the coming months:

1. The Bombing – This 3-D Chinese action war drama chronicles the Japanese bombings on Chinese city Chongqing during World War II. The film stars Bruce Willis, Song Seung-heon, Nicholas Tse and Liu Ye.

2. The Angry Birds Movie – Based on the popular video game, audiences will finally find out why the birds are so angry in this 3-D animated comedy.
   Release date: May 2016 by Rovio Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment


3. Warcraft: The epic video game comes to the big screen, portraying the initial encounters between humans and the orcs leading to the First War.
   Release date: June 2016 by Blizzard Entertainment, Legendary Entertainment, Atlas Entertainment


4. Skiptrace – Action movie star Jackie Chan teams up with American “Jackass” actor and stuntman Johnny Knoxville to take down a notorious crime boss in an adventure that spans from the mountains of Mongolia to the dunes of the Gobi desert. “Skiptrace” also stars Bingbing Fan.
   Release date: 3^rd Quarter 2016 by Exclusive Media

5. The Great Wall – Starring Matt Damon and Andy Lau, the 3-D science fiction fantasy blockbuster about one of the Seven Wonders of the World is the largest film shot entirely in China for global distribution. “The Great Wall should be a big box-office draw,” Stanley Rosen, a political science professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles told Caifu magazine Tuesday, Feb. 9.
   Release date: November 2016 (China) and February 2017 (North America) by Universal Pictures