Since the Spring Festival, the Chinese mainland’s cultural industries, including film and cultural tourism, have been thriving, sparking growth and upgrades in the service consumer market.
Even after the holiday season, the popularity of Spring Festival movies remains strong, with box office revenues hitting new highs. To attract more viewers, a cinema in Guiyang, southwest China, has upgraded to one of Asia’s widest IMAX-GT screens, offering ultra-clear and immersive visuals.
This upgrade has drawn repeat viewers, helping the cinema’s single-day box office outperform others nationwide for several consecutive days. “The all-encompassing surround sound and enormous screen deliver a visually stunning experience,” said Dai Ao, a frequent moviegoer.
The box office boom is not only benefiting cinemas but also igniting activities like movie-inspired travel and cuisine exploration, creating new growth opportunities for dining and cultural tourism. Destinations such as Xi’an in Shaanxi Province and the Yin Ruins in Henan Province have seen rising popularity, along with increased searches for nearby hotels, restaurants, and cinemas.
The success is also boosting related industries like cultural and creative design, trendy toys, and collectibles. For instance, “Ne Zha 2” has established a full industrial chain, from creative IP to design, production, and retail. An officially authorized enterprise in Hunan Province has launched a dedicated “Ne Zha Line,” producing and shipping around 250,000 collectibles daily to meet nationwide demand.
Currently, the annual operating income of cultural enterprises beyond the designated scale in China has exceeded 14 trillion yuan (roughly $2 trillion). Zou Yunhan, deputy director of the Macroeconomic Research Office at the National Development and Reform Commission, highlighted the trend of “film plus,” showcasing new development characteristics and achieving compound growth.
“The integration and innovation of business formats and scenes have significantly supported and driven the growth of service consumption,” Zou noted.
