At the Tokyo International Film Festival ’s TIFFCOM market, the launch of the Blue Book of China Film 2025 – jointly edited by Peking University’s Chen Xuguang and Zhejiang University’s Fan Zhizhong – framed Chinese cinema at a crossroads between crisis and renewal.

According to the report, annual box office revenue in 2024 fell 22.6% year-on-year to RMB42.5 billion ($5.75 billion), with admissions down 28.6% despite 91,000 active screens. Audiences have fragmented across short-form video, gaming and streaming, while the average viewer age continues to rise. Yet mid- to low-budget realist dramas, family-themed films and comedies have helped sustain theatrical momentum.

The 2025 edition identifies several dominant trends. Female-directed and family-ethics dramas have reshaped mainst

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