This article is authorized for reprint from “KaoPu ErCiYuan”
The development of domestic animated films is unstoppable.
From Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child in 2019, to 30,000 Miles from Chang'an in 2023, to Langlang Shan Xiao Yao Guai in 2025, and this year's Ba Xian!, domestic animated films have repeatedly served as the box office主力 for the summer period over consecutive years, achieving both critical and commercial success and becoming a universally recognized cultural hotspot in the market.
The Spring Festival period is no exception. Ne Zha: The Sea of Devils shattered people's perception of the ceiling for Chinese film box office with its phenomenal domestic box office of 15.446 billion yuan, while the Boonie Bears franchise has firmly established itself as the gatekeeper for Spring Festival box office, becoming the top choice for family viewing. No one underestimates the cultural significance and immense commercial value that domestic animated films can unlock.
The overall market is growing, and the industry is thriving, but that doesn't necessarily mean every individual film will succeed.
The box office boom of top-tier works can easily create the illusion that “making animated films equals getting rich.” In reality, achieving a high box office for an animated film is still extremely difficult and requires the right timing, location, and people. Aside from a few animated films with special purposes, mid-range commercial animated films continue to face challenges in quality assessment, breaking out of their niche, and simply surviving.
Recently, Niu Lai unexpectedly went viral due to its internet novelty appeal, successfully boosting its box office. This stands in stark contrast to the numerous films that withdrew, delayed, or underperformed during the summer season, sparking polarized evaluations within and outside the industry. Although Niu Lai is just an isolated case and its luck is not replicable, the market's fervent reaction demonstrates the audience's aesthetic fatigue with mediocre mid-range works and their extremely high expectations and consumption potential for different, “dopamine-driven” films—a new way of thinking about viewing that differs from past consumption habits.
The survival rules for veteran players are changing, and the influx of new players is accelerating. Traditional film and television companies, video platforms, copyright holders, animation series production companies, and AI film and television companies are all trying to enter the scene. The story of domestic animated films on the big screen is being rewritten.
But where will the tide of domestic animated films ultimately flow? There are many variables at play, with both opportunities and risks. At this important juncture in 2026, we have decided to write this 2026 “Domestic Animated Film” Trend Report, hoping to use past data and unique insights to discuss the direction of domestic animated films in the next phase with industry professionals and those looking to enter the field.
The primary focus of this report is commercial animated films. Box office is a core criterion for evaluating the strength of a commercial film and serves as a comprehensive assessment of the capabilities of the production company, distributor, producer, marketing team, and fan base.
The data coverage for this report spans from January 2009 to August 16, 2026, encompassing domestic animated films that had a wide theatrical release in the mainland market and achieved a box office greater than 10 million yuan. Data sources combine Maoyan Pro and Beacon. Due to limited public information for some older works, data discrepancies between different ticketing platforms, and rounding calculations in this report, slight fluctuations in individual film box office figures are within normal error range.
Note: The 2026 “Domestic Animated Film” Trend Report has no commercial sponsorships and no PDF version, All content is free and open to the public, This does not provide investment advice and is not authorized for sale by any individual or organization. Please do not be misled.
Below is the full report —
“Domestic Animated Film” Industry Overview
From 2009 to 2026, domestic animated films can be broadly divided into four different stages, marked by several milestone high-box-office films. Each stage corresponds to different market viewing perceptions and participant mindsets.
Phase 1: 2009-2014, Children's IP Dominance, Pleasant Goat Breaks 100 Million
After the hiatus of traditional art films, the return of domestic animation to the big screen began with theatrical films based on TV series. Pleasant Goat, Boonie Bears, Mole's World, Seer, LocoRoco Kingdom… Children's IPs dominated. Before 2014, most films were traditionally 2D; afterward, 3D increased significantly. These films typically grossed tens of millions, with relatively low investment, providing the impetus for continued production. Among them, the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf series repeatedly broke 100 million, strengthening the industry's confidence in children's animated films.
Phase 2: 2015-2018, Monkey King Breaks Out, Word-of-Mouth Drives the Rise of Chinese Animation
Monkey King: Hero Is Back shattered the stereotype that “domestic animated films are for kids.” Its 955 million yuan box office fired the first shot for all-age animated films. Generation Z used internet word-of-mouth to help set new box office records, and also added new labels and selling points for domestic animated films, such as “non-childish,” “original,” “traditional culture,” “word-of-mouth,” and “rise of Chinese animation.”
Monkey King: Hero Is Back became a peak that domestic animated films could not surpass for the next three-plus years. Breaking 100 million remained an unattainable goal for most animated films. Many adults who entered theaters to support domestic animation were disappointed by poor stories or shoddy production, sparking concerns that the rise of Chinese animation might be a flash in the pan.
But it was during this period that domestic animated films began to attract long-term “angel investors.” For example, Wang Wei of Light Chaser Animation, Yi Qiao (then at Enlight Media), and Ding Liang of Fangte. Their persistence ensured the output and development of top-tier domestic animated films over the following decade. At the same time, domestic animated films saw continuous improvement in art and visual quality, laying a solid technical foundation for later visual spectacles on the big screen.
Phase 3: 2019-2024, *Ne Zha 1* Arrives, Diversification and Serialization Coexist
Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child is a milestone in domestic commercial animated films. Its 5.035 billion yuan box office proved that besides the Spring Festival children's market, family-oriented films also have consumption potential in the summer period. Beyond making the film and its director famous, Ne Zha 1 inspired subsequent animated films in terms of CP character creation. Shipping CPs and fan content became another highly effective entry point for word-of-mouth promotion.
Also in 2019, White Snake: The Origin and The Legend of Hei sparked another wave of enthusiastic word-of-mouth for the “rise of Chinese animation” thanks to their high acclaim. Over the next five years, we saw more and more excellent animated films related to non-children's audiences, original screenplays, and traditional culture, such as 30,000 Miles from Chang'an, Jiang Ziya, Deep Sea, I Am What I Am, and Cha Er Zhong. Light Chaser Animation's White Snake and New Gods series also validated the audience development value of series animation.
During this phase, children's animation developed steadily. The most representative Boonie Bears series successfully experimented with shifting from fantasy to science fiction genres. Through increasingly mature production and word-of-mouth, it became one of the top choices for family viewers during the Spring Festival period in Chinese cinema.
Sustained market exposure and box office revenue accumulated a stable group of dedicated and improving creators for domestic animated films, creating opportunities beyond just creation. The era of zero-marketing films relying entirely on word-of-mouth has passed. Domestic animated films can now have online and offline promotional resources and can compete for higher screen share during distribution.
Phase 4: 2025 to Present, *Ne Zha 2* Breaks Through the Ceiling, IP Commerce Extends Beyond Theaters
Creation, technology, sentiment, market… Domestic animated films officially entered mature development in 2025, with the industry entering an acceleration phase.
Ne Zha: The Sea of Devils brought a nationwide carnival during the Spring Festival, raising the box office ceiling for the Chinese film market. It proved the replicability of mature commercial animated films, the feasibility of telling Chinese stories, and the globally leading level of Chinese animation technology.
Beyond the theaters, the commercialization of Ne Zha 2—advertising partnerships, merchandise development, etc.—was quickly implemented. During its hot run, many co-branded products were “impossible to find.” Leveraging the increasingly mature supply chain of the 2D/fandom consumption market, Ne Zha 2 also became a top-tier case study in IP derivative licensing.
Two summer blockbusters from 2025-2026, Langlang Shan Xiao Yao Guai and Ba Xian!, attracted audiences into theaters with high word-of-mouth, boosting the overall box office base for domestic animated films. They also represent that the general box office threshold for competitively strong domestic animated films has risen from 100 million a decade ago, to 400 million five years ago, and now exceeds the 1 billion mark. Together with the Ne Zha series, they form a competitive market landscape for non-children's domestic animated films characterized by “one superpower and multiple strong players.”
Children's animated films also have their own “superpower.” The Boonie Bears series, with a long-term accumulation of 12 films over 12 years, has a total box office exceeding 9.6 billion yuan and is about to break the 10 billion mark. Its core audience has also expanded from the original children and family groups to a wider all-age audience. After all, over the years, the Boonie Bears IP has accompanied and witnessed the growth of more than one generation of children, making it one of the longest-running and most consistently productive series among original Chinese animated films.
What is certain is that domestic animated films, which have already entered the mainstream, will face fiercer competition, more releases, and a larger potential box office pool in the coming years. Market expectations also place higher demands on all aspects: writing, marketing, distribution, word-of-mouth management, and commercial development.
The performance of annual box office over the years indirectly confirms the changes in each phase of domestic animated films. From January 2009 to August 16, 2026, the 197 domestic animated films with box office over 10 million yuan within our report's scope accumulated a total box office of over 51.1 billion yuan. Among them, 47 films broke 100 million, 8 broke 1 billion, and 1 broke 10 billion.
From 2009 to 2013, the cumulative box office over five years was only 1.247 billion yuan, with 21 films exceeding 10 million and 5 exceeding 100 million. From 2014 to 2018, the annual cumulative box office for animated films was consistently above 1 billion yuan. Although the number of films exceeding 100 million was not large, the average number of films exceeding 10 million per year was over 15. After Monkey King: Hero Is Back in 2015, the annual champion of domestic animated films saw its viewership rise from the millions to the tens of millions.
Between 2019 and 2024, although the overall box office of domestic animated films fluctuated due to the pandemic, the annual box office was generally above 2 billion yuan, reaching 5 billion in some years. While the number of top-tier works did not increase significantly, their box office range clearly rose, demonstrating stronger revenue-generating power. The 140 million viewership of Ne Zha 1 elevated the typical viewership for subsequent annual champions to over 40 million.
Box office data in the post-Ne Zha 2 era is still in a growth period, but it is clearly felt that during the hot run of animated films, there are more IP licensing deals being implemented, commercial derivative developments being sold simultaneously, and audiences' recognition of animated films has extended from the story to the characters, from the screen to consumer goods, and from the cinema into daily life.
“Domestic Animated Film” Industry Chain Interpretation
The current mainstream industry chain for domestic animated films is mainly divided into four segments: animation production, production and distribution, marketing and promotion, and commercial development. A few works have third-party copyright holders, while for most original works, the copyright holders are the production companies and production parties.
Unlike platform-led or thematic projects, domestic animated films typically start with the work, followed by investment. The animation creators act as one of the core investors and are deeply involved in every subsequent stage. Only a very few domestic animated films are produced entirely by a single production team that handles the full pipeline. This model has high labor costs and requires stable profit-generating projects to sustain the team, such as Light Chaser Animation and Fangte.
Most animated films adopt a model similar to a director's studio plus outsourced production. That is, the in-house team handles core roles like director, screenwriter, and pre-production. Then, through their own or the production party's producer team, the production process is distributed to dozens or even hundreds of outsourcing companies across the country. This model offers more flexibility in project timelines and more options, but requires higher coordination skills from the director, producers, and other roles. For example, works under the Enlight Coloroom system often use this model.
Different animation teams and directors produce different styles. After over a decade of development, a few companies have begun to see initial success in templated creation, and have accumulated loyal fan bases willing to pay for their brand.
Apart from the animation production, the audio portion (dubbing, music, sound effects) and promotional materials (posters, PVs) are mostly completed by outsourcing to professional teams.
The production logic for domestic animated films is more like a production committee. Pure financial investments are rare. Projects with profit potential release limited shares, while those with high profit risk have few willing to gamble. Among the production parties, in addition to the animation creation team as the core, most domestic animated films' production parties mainly handle distribution and promotion work, such as Maoyan, Enlight, Ruyi, China Film, Damai, etc. Some production parties invest in exchange for rights to online streaming, derivative development, etc., such as Bilibili Pictures, iQiyi Pictures, and Pop Mart.
Historically, marketing and promotion have not been emphasized in the field of domestic animated films. Reasons include: on one hand, animators tend to be introverted and less skilled at marketing; on the other hand, the effectiveness of marketing is difficult to quantify, making its value easily underestimated. Most animated films handle their own promotional work, either by the production or distribution side. In recent years, some professional film marketing companies have participated in the promotion of animated films, but the number is small. Examples include Xiaozhuo Culture, Bole Marketing, Loop Play, Infinite Freedom, Bukong Culture, and Kaola Bear.
Commercial development around domestic animated films has grown rapidly in recent years. Outside the cinema, the current revenue sources for domestic animated films include selling online streaming rights, developing derivative merchandise (guzi), and brand collaboration products. The popularity of hit characters extends the life cycle of the work, allowing for long-term commercial value even after release.
Currently, only a few works can generate revenue outside the cinema. Typically, a film needs to achieve a box office of 500 million or even 1 billion yuan or more to attract audiences to buy its derivative products. Therefore, there are almost no professional copyright agencies in the industry that specialize in the licensing development of animated film IPs; this is still led by the production parties.
Overall, the development of the domestic animated film industry chain is a continuous process of learning from and complementing traditional film and online animation. It learns from traditional cinema the anthology model, distribution methods, and production management approaches, and from online animation the non-box-office business models and fan content creation of popular characters. In the future, some film IPs will also come from traditional online literature, novels, games, animation, and comic adaptations, adding the role of IP copyright holders upstream in the industry chain.
Geographically, the initial industrial landscape for domestic animated films has taken shape. Beijing is a resource center gathering companies involved in production, distribution, promotion, and production management. Shanghai, represented by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, explores new creative directions for traditional art films. Guangdong is both a stronghold for powerful children's IPs and a source of high-quality, original works with personality and style. Chengdu is driven by genius directors who have stimulated local industry development. Other regions such as Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Northeast China, and Central China have numerous production companies involved in making, contributing to the development of Chinese animation.
The director is the core of domestic animated film creation. Talented directors have their own distinct creative styles. Even in a series, different directors can produce significantly different quality. Among the 197 animated films with a box office over 10 million yuan that we analyzed, over 160 directors were active, and a total of 50 directors had cumulative box office exceeding 100 million yuan for their works. The director's ability sets the lower limit of a work's quality and also defines its upper limit to some extent, making them a key focus in animation project investment.
Among the TOP 20 directors by box office, one type is directors who have deep roots through multiple series works, developing long-term in the animated film field. They typically release a new film every 1-3 years, with improving quality and stable teams, and often mentor new directors to create together, such as Ding Liang, Lin Huida, and Lin Yongchang of the Boonie Bears series. Another type is genius directors with single works achieving high box office. They prefer independent creation, with each work's production cycle taking 3-5 years or even longer, such as Tian Xiaopeng, Jiaozi, Yu Shui, and Mou Zhengyang.
Although domestic animated films have a long development history, there are currently not many directors in the market capable of creating high-quality animated films. Established directors come with their own audience appeal, but audiences will not develop prejudice against high-quality works just because the director is a newcomer. The box office performance of Langlang Shan Xiao Yao Guai and Ba Xian! has validated the explosive potential of new directors. It is believed that more genius new directors will emerge in the future, alongside continued deep cultivation by veteran directors of series films.
From a long-term perspective, rather than betting on a single blockbuster, it is better to build a serialized reserve within an extensible worldview. Turning a single film into a growing IP is a prudent strategy for many companies. However, making an IP is clearly not easy. Releasing multiple films tests the team's overall strength, content creation ability, and the temperament of the core team. Long-term IP development requires not only passion but also more patience and income support.
Serialization is a conventional choice for high-box-office films and IP adaptations. To date, 17 series IPs with cumulative box office exceeding 100 million yuan have emerged in domestic animated films. They have a certain national recognition and stable viewing audience, and are often supported by revenue streams beyond box office, such as derivative products, brand licensing, animated series, and offline theme parks. The performance of each new release in a series fluctuates depending on its own content quality and the competitive environment of the same release window.
The highest box office is achieved by Jiaozi's Ne Zha: The Demon Child series, with two films grossing over 20.481 billion yuan in the mainland. The largest number of films is the Boonie Bears series, with 12 films accumulating over 9.61 billion yuan. The cumulative total box office of other series IPs is below 1.5 billion yuan. The Little Submarine series is the IP with the longest life cycle within the scope, though its box office is not outstanding; since the first film's release in 2008, new works continue to appear on the big screen.
Most serially IPs are children's oriented, with over 10 years of accumulation, intervals of 1-2 years between installments, and 5-10 films each with cumulative box office over 10 million yuan, forming a stable business model. Examples include the GG Bond series from Winsing Animation and the New Big Head Son and Little Head Dad series from CCTV Animation.
Non-children's animated films have a shorter development history in the domestic market. Not many have completed multiple films and been successfully released. The number of films in series IPs is mostly 2-3, such as Light Chaser Animation's White Snake series and New Gods series, Mu Tou's The Legend of Hei, and Yidong Culture's I Am What I Am series.
Analysis of Upcoming “Domestic Animated Film” Slate
What will the domestic animated film market look like in the next 3-5 years? The slate of upcoming films is an important basis for analysis. We have compiled 445 works that completed script registration at the Film Bureau from January 2024 to July 2026. Although only the film title, registration entity, screenwriter, and a brief script summary are available, they are sufficient to draw some conclusions.
Breaking down the script registration numbers by year, there were 132 in 2024, 161 in 2025, and 152 as of July 2026. It is evident that the Ne Zha 2 effect has spurred more project filings and more participants entering the game. Although the number of registrations is high, very few will actually be completed and receive wide theatrical release. The final stories of many films will also be adjusted from the registration information, and the 445 registered projects of recent years will be no exception. For commercial animated films with wide releases, the production cycle from script registration to release is typically around 2 years, which may be shortened to 6-8 months for children's series films, while a few projects may extend to 3-5 years after registration.
From the film titles and synopses, the animated films in preparation have several characteristics: A high proportion of children's content, including new films in classic series IPs, animal protagonists, fairy tale adaptations, and historical stories; traditional culture IPs are also a mainstay, with new interpretations and mashups still being the mainstream. The sources of inspiration are wide-ranging, from Han Yuefu poetry to Yuan Dynasty drama, from the Four Great Classical Novels to contemporary literature, from Fengshen Bang to Classic of Mountains and Seas, from landmark buildings to intangible cultural heritage—everything is covered. In terms of specific characters, the value of Wukong is self-evident, and Erlang Shen, Red Boy, Chang'e, Mulan, and Mazu also appear frequently. Three Kingdoms has become one of the most frequently referenced works aside from Journey to the West.
After reviewing the information on these works, one truly feels the profound depth of Chinese traditional culture. Even with so many diverse script registrations, they can still maintain freshness for the audience. There is absolutely no impression of “not enough traditional culture”; rather, one wants to exclaim, “This can be made into an animated film too?”
Fantasy and science fiction remain the mainstream for the domestic animated film market in the near future. There are also a small number of historical, war, and xuanhuan (mystical) animations, while realist subjects are very rare. After all, the advantage of animation lies in creating visual spectacles; realist stories test the screenwriting skills too much. But which projects will ultimately become true blockbusters when the final results are submitted is still unknown. Among seemingly unremarkable story outlines, there are bound to be hidden gems that surprise the market.
Besides stable series IP sequels, sequels to blockbuster films or top directors, random appearances by genius directors, and new works from established animation film companies, the registration information also reveals the participation of two major groups worth noting. First, the deep involvement of traditional filmmakers and traditional film and television companies. For example, registrations include Tiangong Kaiwu (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature) scripted by renowned director Lu Chuan, The Great Human Battle by renowned director Tsui Hark, and Half-Demon Si Teng registered by Lianrui Pictures. There are also adaptations of traditional novel IPs into animated films, such as The Trouble with the Celestial Secretary and Battlefield Flowers. Their works may bring new creative concepts and more solid promotion and distribution resources to the animated film industry.
Second, the adaptation of online-born IPs, including online novels, anime series, and domestic manhua. For instance, The Outcast, Douluo Continent, Cangyuan Tu, The Legend of Hei, The Bizarre Tales, etc. Moving from the internet to the big screen, they bring not only the art style of online anime series but, more importantly, introduce new IP copyright holders and investors from internet companies. They also differ from the traditional habit of theatrical films relying too heavily on a short release window, attempting to combine multiple media for long-term IP operation and commercial development concepts and ideas.
Of course, there are also some domestic animated films that have been officially announced but have not yet completed script registration. Among them will certainly be blockbuster works released within the next 5 years, and we leave room for more anticipation for these works.
“Domestic Animated Film” Top Ten Development Trends
After reviewing information on 197 released domestic animated films and 445 registered ones, we boldly predict the top ten development trends in the domestic animated film field over the next 3-5 years, which also include our thoughts and expectations for the industry.
Trend 1 (Prospects): A Sunrise Industry with Fierce Competition and Polarized Box Office
In the next five years, domestic animated films will undoubtedly be a sunrise industry with many excellent works, box office growth, audience recognition, and broad commercial prospects, driving the common development of both the domestic film and domestic animation fields. The current number of registered works, talent reserves, mainstream media attention, market word-of-mouth feedback, and attractiveness of derivative licensing development all provide objective preparation conditions for the upward period of the domestic film market.
A sunrise industry means fiercer competition, more new players entering, each with their own strengths and resources. The influx of capital and talent exacerbates the Matthew effect in the industry: resources will gather towards the stronger side, the strong get stronger, and box office polarization becomes the new normal.
Competition in the content industry ultimately boils down to the quality of the work, and this is especially evident in domestic animated films. This relatively immature field has not yet seen too many phenomena like popular directors/actors carrying the box office, resource monopolies through competition, or malicious fandom infighting. The general attitude of the audience is to support by buying tickets, and the original intention of creators is to make Chinese animation better.
Although there is competition among creators, there is more collaboration: mutual help in production capacity and mutual appreciation in creation. Audiences don't necessarily avoid one film just because they watched another; they mostly support with an inclusive attitude. As long as good works continue to be produced, there is still plenty of room for growth in domestic animated films.
Creators and audiences jointly maintain the growth of the overall market. Audiences are willing to enter theaters and actively give feedback, and distributors are willing to adjust screen share based on market feedback—this is a sign of healthy industry development. However, the true quality of a work cannot be faked, and box office polarization will become more pronounced. As more films are released, competition within popular slots like Spring Festival and summer will become fiercer, requiring increasingly higher comprehensive capabilities from film production and distribution parties.
Trend 2 (Market): From Children's to Youth, High Box Office Still Requires Family-Friendly Appeal
In the next five years, the market for children's animated viewers will remain stable for a long time. While children's films find it difficult to contribute blockbusters with box office over 1 billion, they will remain the mainstay in the 50 million to 100 million range, and there will also be films breaking 100 million during key slots like Children's Day and winter/summer vacations. Children's animated films have relatively lower investment, allowing them to be profitable and sustain long-term development within this box office range.
Youth-oriented animation has been the mainstay of high-box-office animation in recent years. The audience is made up of viewers who grew up watching children's animation over the past decade, and are also internet-era natives who have accompanied the “rise of Chinese animation” along the way. They are pure and passionate, expressing their likes directly and rebelliously, and are willing to discuss and share on the internet. Most importantly, this group has both content consumption ability and purchasing habits for derivative licensed products outside the theater. They will also be the core audience for online-born IP-adapted films in the next few years. If a film's quality satisfies this group, it will generate a certain fan effect, with box office revenue typically exceeding 500 million yuan, along with steady non-box-office income.
To truly achieve box office of 1 billion yuan or more still requires meeting the viewing needs of family audiences. That is, the film must be understandable and appealing to viewers of all ages and genders, triggering emotional resonance, rather than stubbornly clinging to niche, personalized, stream-of-consciousness styles. Production and art must also be top-notch. In recent years, top children's series IPs have also been trying to move towards family-friendly directions, including upgrading stories and production. But breaking the public's stereotype of an existing IP is not easy, and this will be the core challenge for children's IP upgrade.
Trend 3 (Landscape): Traditional Filmmakers and Animators Join the Competitive Track
What impact will the entry of new players have on domestic animated films—more positive or more negative? The films that will be released intensively over the next two years will provide the answer.
Traditional filmmakers bring experience and characteristics different from animation in terms of big-screen storytelling, camera work, and art style. They will certainly bring new inspiration to animated content creation. They come with their own audience base, topic potential, promotion and distribution resources, and capital. Some have animation professional backgrounds and are using established IPs for animation adaptation. The high starting point brought by these advantages is worth looking forward to. However, production capacity is the first hurdle to overcome. Traditional filmmakers making animation need a bridge between live-action films and animation—people who understand both—and such talent is rare in the industry. Domestic animation production capacity is relatively fixed, and past collaboration with the film and television circle has been limited. A filmmaker's animation debut may not be able to use top-tier domestic animation production capacity. Outsourcing partnerships will face many adjustments in creative and communication habits, and the final visual presentation may differ greatly from the director's vision. Building in-house production capacity is unlikely, and the film and television CG companies they have worked with usually lack full pipeline capabilities or have different art styles. These conditions will all affect the production cycle and quality of a traditional filmmaker's first animated film.
In contrast, the problems faced by animation series companies and video platforms are the opposite. They have sufficient and mature production teams, IP sources, and a fan base. What they lack is the ability to control 120-minute big-screen narratives, the high-density promotion and distribution capabilities required for a short release window, and the word-of-mouth management skills needed to compete in the same slot. Although video platforms can get support from their internal film business teams or seek external professional support, facing a new field still requires time for exploration and adaptation.
Trend 4 (IP Sources): New Adaptations of Traditional Culture, Trial Adaptations of Online-Born IPs
Traditional culture remains the main source of inspiration for domestic animated films. Eleven years ago, Monkey King: Hero Is Back smashed the market's stereotype of domestic animated films with a single blow, and it still needs to occasionally make cameo appearances in new films to move audiences to tears. This is also an inevitable result influenced by various objective factors.
Currently, the screenwriting ability of most domestic animated films is insufficient to support purely original works, and investors are unwilling to take such high risks. Top films in box office history are all adaptations of traditional culture. Mythological IPs familiar to audiences can avoid a cold start in the title and PV, attracting the first wave of viewers, and can also gain public support during the box office rise. Compared to realistic daily-life subjects, fantasy, science fiction, and xuanhuan stories are more suitable for presenting visual spectacles through animation. Most importantly, China's traditional cultural content reserves are rich and diverse enough, with countless high-quality materials to support creation, adaptation, and new interpretations. Although most current script registrations are still limited to sources like Journey to the West, Three Kingdoms, Fengshen Bang, and Classic of Mountains and Seas.
Online-born IPs will move to the big screen with the entry of new players. The first challenge for trial adaptations of online novels, anime, manhua, and game IPs is creating original or adapted film screenplays. Whether the script quality satisfies IP fans and attracts a broader audience will determine the impact on the entire IP's reputation.
Unlike traditional animated films, for online-born IPs, the film is just one link in their content development. While they hope for high box office revenue, they also hope to use the film's heat to nourish the IP and develop richer derivative content and products. This business logic may bring downstream resources and experience to the film industry, achieving complementary advantages.
Trend 5 (Story): Formulaic and Templated, Emotional Resonance Matters More
Whether children's, youth, or family-friendly, most domestic animated films today have similar narratives, showing signs of templating and formulization. This is an inevitable path during the early stages of industry development. It provides the market with a stable and predictable base.
This phenomenon is mainly reflected in: Single genre: children's films are either science fiction or fantasy adventure; non-children's are fantasy emotion or traditional culture new adaptations. Similar core elements: children's films always involve team adventures, time travel, happy endings; youth films always have depression, pain, and family of origin issues; family-friendly films are likely to be funny in the beginning, miserable in the middle, and inspiring at the end. Stereotypical character development: for example, the protagonist must save a cat at the beginning, the main team always consists of two people forming a CP, the protagonist is always arrogant, rebellious, and fighting, new characters are always good at first and later turn into villains, and villains often reflect real-world groups.
Of course, this is not entirely a bad thing. Creating following successful market cases is better than writing blindly. But when formulaic stories become too common, audiences will start to experience aesthetic fatigue and need freshness, deeper emotional resonance, or a unique perspective different from the past. At this point, the core of the story becomes particularly important. Compared to traditional animators who bury themselves in work, the future of domestic animated films requires more creators with keen market insights, who, during creation, think about who they are telling the story for, which groups to attract, what emotions and feelings to evoke, and how they differentiate from past works.
Trend 6 (Art): Chinese Style Leads Market Differentiation
The entry of traditional filmmakers and series animators into the domestic animated film industry brings the most direct impact not only in IP sources but also in changes to art style. Over the past decade, the art of domestic animated films on the big screen has still been concentrated in Japanese-style 2D animation and American-style 3D animation. In terms of facial features, body proportions, color, texture, and lighting, they lean more towards overseas creative habits. Terms like “ugly,” “pointy chin,” and “chopstick legs,” which differ from traditional Chinese public aesthetics, have become prevalent. This is also related to many animation talents having overseas study or work backgrounds.
Even in the past three years, some works have promoted themselves as “de-Americanized and de-Japanized,” but they still retain many Western traces in character modeling, which is not truly Chinese-style modeling in the traditional sense. There is even a mix of Chinese subject matter, American 3D style, and Japanese-style anime narrative.
The participation of new players will bring a batch of Chinese-style 2D animation and works under China's animation industrial system (3D) to the big screen. There have already been successful cases like Langlang Shan Xiao Yao Guai and The Legend of Hei moving from online animation to the big screen. Next, many online-born 3D animation projects will be released, bringing freshness to the market with differentiated Chinese-style 3D and Chinese-style art effects.
Trend 7 (Promotion and Distribution): Promotion Becomes Systematic, Distribution Has Room, Overseas Expansion Becomes New Growth
With more people and money flowing into domestic animated films, the improvement of the promotion and distribution system is an inevitable trend. Although many films currently do not hire professional marketing companies for support, when a film is not good or faces a serious word-of-mouth crisis, marketing companies indeed cannot solve the root problem. However, high-box-office films must have support from multiple professional marketing companies. The promotion window for films is short, and the tasks are very fragmented; non-professional companies can hardly cover everything.
Even if many creators believe their film is good and doesn't need promotion, to rely on word-of-mouth communication, they must first attract the first batch of audiences into theaters. Most domestic animated films tend to start cold; only a few have a fan base. Even with a fan base, there are plenty of failure cases where promotion was not done well. Pre-release positioning, word-of-mouth management, and material placement are all very important. In today's film market, even if the wine is good, the alley is deep. Therefore, animated films with significant investment and confidence in their projects will be increasingly willing to spend money on promotion and marketing. However, there are not many talents and companies that understand animation, film, and marketing simultaneously. The selection of marketing companies is important.
The domestic film market distribution is very sensitive. Theaters follow the box office: if people are watching, they get screen share. Although many animated films are not strong in distribution, as long as the work has quality, buzz, and paying audiences, distribution is not a worry. However, non-top-tier works with acceptable distribution capabilities should be cautious with sneak previews. If early small-scale sneak previews destroy word-of-mouth, it can directly affect the official release's screen share and attendance.
Overseas distribution is still a blue ocean. Works that gain mainstream recognition domestically have every opportunity to compete for more global box office when going abroad. Cultural differences raise the threshold of understanding, but the values conveyed by the work can resonate universally. Courageously going abroad is the first step to being understood, and even more, the starting point for cultural exchange. Domestic animated films will inevitably become an important medium for cultural confidence and a cultural business card for a major country.
Trend 8 (Commerce): Commercialization Leaves the Theater, Derivative Licensing Sought After
In the past, when domestic animated films left the theater, they could only earn additional income from selling online streaming rights, at most some plush toys for children's films. Today, IP-based animated films can penetrate all aspects of consumers' lives—clothing, food, housing, transportation—and maintain a long-term development cycle after leaving theaters.
There are two main reasons for the rapid growth of commercialization of animated films: first, high-box-office, high-heat works break out and spark discussion; second, the growth of 2D/fandom consumption in recent years, with a mature and complete industry chain that can quickly integrate IP for product monetization. Based on this, the creation of domestic animated films can also consider shifting from a work-focused mindset to an IP-focused mindset, preparing for product development from the content creation stage, and adding developable design elements.
Animated films that leave the theater will also return to the theater, promoting the transformation of theaters from single screening spaces to super entertainment spaces. From basic derivative product sales and limited product sets to deeper interactive immersive experiences, commercial expansion based on blockbuster content will continue to grow.
Trend 9 (Talent): Scarce Genius Directors and Deeply Rooted Production Teams
Animated films often reflect the individual heroism of the director and the collective portrait of the vast, unsung production team. Even with industry growth, there will not be a massive talent increase in a short time. Making animation has its thresholds. Although overall, the national animation production capacity is limited, the films delivered by different director teams vary vastly. In the coming years, domestic animated films will maintain the creative habit of a director-centric system. Scarce genius directors determine the number and completion degree of blockbuster works.
Although the director determines whether a work is outstanding or mediocre, a broader range of production staff supports the director in realizing the visual presentation. Technological progress across the entire industry and the improvement of industrial processes help more directors realize their dreams, and also give more creators the opportunity to become directors after accumulating experience. The quality of domestic animated films on the big screen improves year by year, and visual progress never stops. The industry's development also relies on more creative people who invest long-term and specialize in their areas, bringing China's animation production capacity in line with the world's top level. The rapid development of domestic animated films will also attract more top talents from different fields to participate, bringing new ideas to existing production teams.
Trend 10 (Risk): Rise and Fall by Word-of-Mouth
The biggest risk for domestic animated films is the mismatch between word-of-mouth and work quality. Social media dissemination and increasingly complex fandom dynamics mean many animated films face a trial of word-of-mouth upon release. Films with poor quality but inflated word-of-mouth are easily exposed, while works of good quality that fail to promote their word-of-mouth effectively may suffer losses due to low box office.
Beyond the content itself, the statements of core creators, online and offline marketing activities, collaboration partners, and co-branding brands all require greater caution, especially for works of higher quality, to avoid backlash from non-content reasons during the hot release period, which could affect audience attendance and harm excellent creators and works.
Some works exhibit “overreactive” behavior due to excessive word-of-mouth management, labeling any objective criticism as troll attacks, even pursuing online harassment, which adversely affects neutral viewers. Allowing normal audience opinions and recognizing that different people have different tastes are lessons that more creators and promotion teams need to learn.
Conclusion: The industry is a sunrise, but for individual films, it presents layer upon layer of challenges. Yet we still prefer to look at the future of the domestic animated film market with a more optimistic mindset, hoping that every creator can find an audience that resonates with their work, and that domestic animated films can step onto a broader world stage, spreading the beauty and kindness rooted in the Chinese spirit.
Best wishes to Chinese cinema, and best wishes to Chinese animators!
