Along with the progress of reform and opening up, the Chinese film industry has also made remarkable achievements amid economic growth. It has recorded social changes in the past decades through the medium of the film. The film market of China has exceeded that of North America, becoming the largest in the world during the first season of 2018.

In the initial stage of reform and opening up, old Chinese movies were rescreened and foreign movies dubbed. Both these practices ignited audiences' passion for movies. In 1979, the attendance of Chinese moviegoers reached a record high of 29.3 billion. However, the popularity of televisions and other entertainment activities in the late 1980s drew many audiences away from movies when the film industry fell from its peak and faced a crisis.

The employment of a socialist market economy in China in 1992 promoted the rejuvenation of the domestic film industry. With the introduction of free competition and reforms, the Chinese film industry made a bountiful recovery and experienced rapid growth. In the same period, China began to introduce overseas movies into the domestic market, especially those from Hollywood. Despite the argument that foreign movies occupy the space of domestic ones, Chinese movies with increasingly higher quality have gained a firm foothold in the local market with box offices setting several new records.

The development of the Internet has injected new energy into the Chinese film industry. In 2015, Internet giants such as Tencent and Alibaba developed their own film arms and began to purchase intellectual property rights to popular online stories to be adapted into movies. With big data, more accurate marketing strategies can target specific audiences to satisfy their personal preferences. Since the development of online cinemas may pose threats to the survival of offline ones, the film industry is also exploring more advanced film screening technologies to provide audiences with an improved movie experience.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article published in Oriental Outlook on October 11)