Promotional material for Successor Photo: Courtesy of Douban
China's 2024 summer box office,
MK sports spanning from June 1 to August 31, generated a total of 11.64 billion yuan ($1.64 billion) in revenue, according to the data released by the China Film Administration on Sunday.
Leading the summer box office was the comedy Successor, which grossed 3.25 billion yuan as of Saturday, setting a new record for the highest-grossing comedy in summer box office history. Featuring comedy stars Shen Teng and Ma Li and directed by Yan Fei and Peng Damo, the film tells the story of a wealthy couple who deliberately fakes a challenging environment for their son in order to foster his personal growth.
The crime thriller A Place Called Silence, which explores the topic of campus bullying, followed with 1.35 billion yuan, making it the top-grossing suspense and crime film in China in 2024.
The third spot was claimed by the Hollywood import Alien: Romulus with a box office of 640 million yuan. It is also the box-office champion for thriller films this year. Moments We Shared and Deadpool and Wolverine rounded out the top four and five with box-office totals of 490 million yuan and 420 million yuan respectively.
By Friday, 139 films had been released during the summer, equal to 2023's total. The films covered a wide range of genres, including dramas, animations, documentaries, comedies, action films, thrillers and romances, catering to diverse audience tastes.
According to box-office tracker Dengta Data, by August 12, the total box-office revenue for cinema broadcasts of the 2024 Paris Olympics had reached 2.442 million yuan, contributing a small amount to the summer box office.
This event included 22 live broadcasts, covering competitions such as the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as finals and semifinals of popular events in which the Chinese team was favored to win.
"We can see that domestic films still dominated the market, with titles like Successor and A Place Called Silence achieving significant box-office revenue, proving that quality content can still attract viewers and achieve strong box-office results," Zhang Peng, an associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, told the Global Times.
Two Hollywood films made it into the box-office top five this summer, which "demonstrates the continued influence of imported films in the Chinese market as well as the openness of the Chinese film market," Zhang said.
According to Zhang, Hollywood movies, with their high production standards, special effects, star-studded casts, and high-profile super IPs, have successfully attracted a large number of Chinese audiences.
The summer period saw 285 million tickets sold, with 38.26 million screenings, a 10 percent increase compared to 2023 and breaking the historical record for the total number of screenings in a summer season.
Despite the record number of screenings, both box-office revenue and ticket sales saw a significant drop compared to the same period in 2023, when the summer box office raked in 20.619 billion yuan and sold 505 million tickets. Only one film crossed the 20 billion yuan mark in the summer of 2024, compared to four such blockbusters in 2023. "The decrease in blockbuster hits has made the market less attractive, leading to lower audience engagement and failing to replicate the nationwide movie-watching frenzy seen last year," Zhang explained.
The year 2024's subdued summer performance also reflects the long-term impact of the pandemic, according to Sun Jiashan, a researcher at the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Management.
"Usually, even low- to mid-budget films generally take one to two years to complete productions, while larger productions can take three to four years. During the pandemic, this slowdown is only becoming evident now," said Sun Jiashan, an associate researcher at the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Administration.
