Central China: The overall importance of animated films in box office receipts is becoming increasingly clear, with the influence of domestic animated films on the rise.

Central China released a research report stating that the progress of the domestic animation film industry has promoted animated films from being a marginal category in the early film market to becoming a mainstream pillar. On the content side, domestic animated films have successfully upgraded from a single low-age audience to a diversified audience including low-age, all-age, and adult audiences. Through innovative adaptations of Chinese traditional myths and literary works IP, the quality and audience reach of the films have been improved, continuously breaking the glass ceiling of animated film box office. AI technology is continuously penetrating the entire process of animation film production, showing great potential in improving efficiency, reducing costs, and stimulating creativity, accelerating the production of animated films and enhancing the quality of animated films. In addition, the improvement in the ability of domestic animated films to go international can provide effective assistance to the global influence of Chinese culture and the overseas revenue-generating ability of Chinese animated films. The main points of Central China are as follows: - By 2025, animated films will account for nearly 50% of the box office. - As of December 24, 2025, the total box office of animated films released in 2025 in China has exceeded 25 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 50% of the annual box office. The box office share of animated films in the top 10 and top 15 films released in 2025 reached 64.97% and 62.77% respectively. - Animated films such as "Ne Zha 2," "Zootopia 2," and "The Wandering Mountain Little Monsters" have become important forces driving the growth of the 2025 movie box office market. Among them, "Ne Zha 2" has a box office of 15.446 billion yuan, ranking first in the 2025 domestic movie box office list. - Over the past decade, the total box office of animated films released in China from 2016 to 2025 has reached 78.2 billion yuan, accounting for over 16.5% of the total box office during the same period, highlighting the increasing importance of animated films in the overall movie market. - The influence of domestic animated films has been on the rise, with a clear upward trend in box office share. From 2019 to 2025, the box office of domestic animated films accounted for 67.59% of the total box office of animated films released during the period, far exceeding the 32.28% from 2013 to 2019. Particularly in 2025, driven by "Ne Zha 2," the box office share of domestic animated films surpassed 77%. - In addition to the improvement in box office performance, the quality of domestic animated films has also significantly improved. According to user ratings on Douban, the scores for the three animated films "Ne Zha: The Devil Child's Ocean Odyssey," "Legend of Hei 2," and "The Wandering Mountain Little Monsters" are 8.4, 8.7, and 8.5 respectively, ranking 2nd to 4th among the top-rated Chinese films in 2025, reflecting the high quality of domestic animated films. Risk Warning: Overall decline in movie market demand; Uncertainty in the quality of animated film content.