According to the Film Data Information Network of the People’s Republic of China, an institution directly under the Central Propaganda Administration, movie ticket sales in China have brought in more than $1.5 billion so far this summer, just over half of last year’s record revenue of $2.89 billion.

Summer is usually one of three lucrative periods for China’s film industry, but industry analysts, observers and customers say a weaker economy and a lack of creative domestic films are to blame for the decline.

Some potential moviegoers explained why they are staying home this summer.

One person posted on social media: “The impact of last year’s economic crisis has officially become visible this year. Everyone thinks 40 to 80 yuan (4.5 to 10 euros) per ticket is expensive.”

“Many movies that are in theaters in July are available on streaming services in August,” wrote another. “We prefer to watch them at home rather than go to the theater.”

A moviegoer in Beijing who identified herself as Ms. Yu told VOA that the film market was sluggish this year because the themes were monotonous and streaming services allowed anyone to watch movies at home without spending money.

“Everyone’s life is already miserable,” she said, “that’s why we don’t want to watch sad films.”

Although streaming services have become cinemas’ biggest competitors, the economic crisis may be the main reason for the collapse in ticket sales, said Shenzhen-based film director Zhang, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue.

“The purchasing power of young people and parents has dropped,” Zhang told VOA. “One reason is that young people are not going out, and parents whose income has dropped are under great pressure to raise their children. So they naturally limit their consumption activities, apart from eating and drinking, not just going to the movies.”

According to the World Bank, China’s economy has struggled to stabilize since the pandemic. Growth is expected to decline to three percent in 2022 before a moderate recovery to 5.2 percent in 2023. The World Bank expects China’s growth rate to fall below five percent again this year, while youth unemployment has risen sharply.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics has excluded students from its unemployment calculation after China hit a record high of 21.3% in youth unemployment in June 2023, prompting authorities to temporarily suspend the release of the statistics.

Darson Chiu, director general of the Association of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Taiwan, told VOA that China’s controls on film and creativity also contributed to the weak box office numbers.

“China has a very strict censorship system,” Chiu said. “Cultural activities need creativity and they need to be bottom-up. But it’s obviously a top-down (censorship) mechanism, so it (the Chinese film industry) is not as creative as in other more open and free economies.”

Lee Cheng-liang, assistant professor of communications at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan, said Chinese cinemas mostly showed domestic films in the summer, which struggled to find investors.

“The economy is in decline, investors are more cautious to minimize risks, so they are diversifying the film themes they invest in,” Lee told VOA. “If you focus on the Chinese market, you won’t necessarily make money unless you are at the top of the pyramid.”

Director Zhang said Chinese summer comedies “Successor,” which criticizes China’s social education system, and “Upstream,” which portrays parcel delivery workers, are films that have “no sympathy for the general public.”

Commercial films are often condescending, he said, with hypocritically fabricated plots to show the suffering of people at the bottom of society. “It’s actually a very distorted way,” Zhang added.

Other film critics, however, consider Upstream to be a great work with increasingly positive audience response, exposing China’s immense economic problems and the struggle of its army of gig workers.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said “Successor” accounted for nearly 30 percent of China’s summer box office revenue, with box office revenue of nearly 3.2 billion yuan as of August 20.

Zhang said the more depressing the social and historical period, the more popular the comedy is because audiences want to feel “dreamy and painless.”

Despite the weak box office results this summer, not all critics are negative about the Chinese film industry.

“Ticket sales are not good this summer, but that doesn’t mean their (Chinese) films are bad,” Michael Mai, a film critic from Taipei, told VOA. “Their audiences are hard to please. Why? Because their appetite is too big. They have all kinds of films.”

Mai pointed out that there are three major periods in the Chinese film market: the Lunar New Year season in January and February, the summer season from June to August, and the week-long National Holiday season starting on October 1.

Movie ticket sales are always subject to seasonal fluctuations, Mai says, so people should focus more on long-term trends.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.