The rise of box office in new first-tier cities like Suzhou—what does it mean for the future development of China's film market?

Suzhou in 2023 secured its position as the national “ticket warehouse” ahead of schedule with a box office of 1 billion yuan. Chengdu, Chongqing, and other new first-tier cities continued to climb into the top ten box office rankings. The rise of these non-traditional film centers is quietly rewriting the landscape and future trajectory of China’s film market.

The box office boom in new first-tier cities like Suzhou is reshaping the future ecosystem of China’s film industry

1. Changes in the box office landscape: driven by regional economies and demographic structures

The growth of box office in new first-tier cities is not accidental; its core driver stems from the deep coupling of regional economic strength and population demographics:

• Economic engine supports consumption power: Suzhou’s GDP surpasses Hong Kong, ranking sixth nationwide. Its strong economic foundation ensures cultural consumption. By 2025, nine of the top ten box office cities will be among the top ten economically, confirming the positive correlation between economic level and box office scale.

• Young population activates market potential: New first-tier cities attract large numbers of young people through industrial resources, with the 18-30 age group becoming the main moviegoers. Take Suzhou as an example, where rural cinemas coverage reaches 80%, and rural box office accounted for 35% in 2022. The sinking market and young audiences together form a core growth driver.

2. Changes in the market ecosystem: adaptive restructuring of content creation and distribution strategies

The rise of new consumer forces is prompting profound industry reforms:

• Popularization of creative perspectives: High-box-office films shift from grand narratives to emotional resonance. For example, “Nanjing Photo Studio” approaches history from the perspective of ordinary people, aligning with new first-tier city audiences’ preference for realistic themes; films like “In the Octagon” and “The Disappearing Her” boost box office through emotional resonance, validating the content logic of “emotion and quality.”

• Regionalized distribution strategies: film companies target new first-tier cities for roadshows. The “Three Major Teams” roadshow in Suzhou increased ratings to 7.9; the creators of “The Bounty Hunter” openly stated that the sequel depends on regional box office feedback, showing the importance placed on local market responses.

3. Structural challenges: conflicts between the middle tier and deepening market sinking

The expansion of new forces also exposes deep market contradictions:

• Dependence on top-tier hits and collapse of middle-tier films: In 2025, “Nezha Conquers the Demon Child” contributed 30% of the year’s box office from a single film, yet the number of films in the 1-5 billion yuan range halved year-on-year. While new first-tier markets support blockbuster hits, they cannot hide the shrinking space for small- and medium-budget works.

• Increment from sinking markets and content mismatch: Box office share in third- and fourth-tier cities rose to 47.5% (2025), but rural cinemas mainly show Hollywood visual effects films and family animations. Domestic cultural topics, such as intangible cultural heritage documentaries like “Learning Intangible Cultural Heritage in Suzhou,” still rely on overseas festivals. There is yet to be an effective connection between regional特色 content and the sinking market supply.

4. Future pathways: reshaping a multi-dimensional ecosystem

The sustained growth of new first-tier cities requires overcoming three major bottlenecks:

1. Regional customized production: learn from Suzhou’s local cultural IP development experience (such as intangible cultural heritage documentaries), and combine with the cultural genes of cities like Chengdu and Chongqing to establish regional特色 content incubation mechanisms, avoiding homogenized creation.

2. Breakthroughs in multi-tiered distribution: refer to the diverse genre coexistence model of the 2025 Lunar New Year’s box office of 5.3 billion yuan, implementing differentiated scheduling for different city levels, and opening regional exclusive screening channels for art films and dialect films.

3. Technology-enabled sinking markets: utilize cloud cinemas and rural digital projection alliances to reduce the penetration costs of small- and medium-budget films, while simultaneously increasing rural audiences’ acceptance of diverse genres, alleviating the structural gap in middle-tier content.

Conclusion

The box office rise of cities like Suzhou essentially marks a structural transition of China’s film market from a single-pole drive to a multi-center collaboration. When “10 billion yuan ticket warehouses” and “35% rural market share” become the new normal, the future market will no longer rely solely on the lighthouse-led influence of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Instead, it depends on whether regional cultural genes can be activated and segmented supply systems reconstructed—this is the key to breaking dependence on top-tier cities and a necessary step for Chinese cinema to evolve from scale expansion to quality co-evolution.