Box office shows signs of recovery

Domestic films prove a popular attraction thanks to enhanced quality and diversification, Zhang Yunlong reports.

The third year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 saw China's box office striving to cope with the impact of sporadic outbreaks, and in the process managing to generate a total annual revenue of around 30 billion yuan ($4.31 billion).

Though much less than the previous year's 47 billion yuan, the amount still shows the advances made by domestic films in terms of improved quality and genre diversification in 2022 — all this despite the pandemic's influence, say industry observers.

Domestic titles lead the yearly box-office chart, according to box-office tracker Maoyan and other platforms.

Similar to the previous two years, the three top-grossing films screened in China in 2022 were all domestic movies. Moreover, Chinese films account for eight of the top 10 earners at China's 2022 box office.

Patriotic hit The Battle at Lake Changjin II is the year's top earner, raking in 4.07 billion yuan.

This achievement, in addition to a whopping 5.77 billion yuan revenue from the 2021 war blockbuster The Battle at Lake Changjin, saw the "Changjin" films become China's top-grossing film series ever, replacing the Detective Chinatown comedy movie franchise.

Set during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53), the Changjin films have been hailed as a milestone of what experts are labeling "new mainstream films".They not only convey the prevalent values of Chinese society, like many previous patriotic movies, but also achieve impressive box-office results.