Speaking at a TIFFCOM seminar, Cai Gongming, founder of Chinese distributor Road Pictures, explained how his company has built up Japanese anime to be one of the strongest film import categories in the mainland China market.
And although Chinese audiences remain focused on local, Chinese-language movies, he also said that Hollywood has been making a slow comeback in the market this year.
Road Pictures scored major hits in 2023 with Japanese anime titles Suzume, which grossed $117M, and The First Slam Dunk, which took around $75M.
As a result, the total box office of this category in the China market increased by 90% year-on-year. This year, Cai said the combined box office of Japanese anime movies is on the same level as 2023, although the per picture average is lower as twice as many titles have been released.
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