BEIJING — China’s 2024 box office revenue slumped by almost a quarter from the previous year, official data showed on Wednesday, dealing a blow to a limping domestic industry yet to fully recover from the pandemic.

Box office revenue totaled 42.502 billion yuan ($5.82 billion), according to the China Film Administration. That’s down 22.6% from 54.915 billion yuan in 2023, and 34% lower than the pre-pandemic peak in 2019.

Of that, box office revenue of domestic films totaled 33.439 billion yuan, plunging 27.3% from 46.005 billion yuan in 2023.

Hopes for a post-pandemic uptick in box office revenue for the second year were dashed despite successes including YOLO, a comedy on how a reclusive woman reconnected with society through boxing, and Successor, another comedy, about how a couple hid their wealth from their son to promote character building.

The slump was caused by a mix of factors — a decline in the number of feature films, competition from online offerings including micro dramas and a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

For the whole of 2024, the number of moviegoers in urban theatres totaled 1.01 billion, down from 1.299 billion a year earlier.

A total of 612 feature films were produced last year, down from 792 in 2023.

With the local film industry on a wobbly footing, foreign movies made a comeback.

Hollywood blockbuster Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Japanese animated feature The Boy and the Heron made their mark in the top 10, securing the 9^th and 10^th spots, respectively.

In contrast, the top 10 list of movies by revenue in 2023 was entirely dominated by local titles, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Other foreign successes included Alien: Romulus. The sci-fi horror flick raked in 786 million yuan, making China its biggest global revenue contributor, Xinhua reported.

The decline in Chinese offerings last year reflects ebbing investment and output capacity in an industry still struggling with the aftermath of strict COVID-19 restrictions, which disrupted movie production from 2020 to 2022.

As of 3:30 p.m., box office revenue on New Year’s Day in 2025 was a little over 200 million yuan. That was a far cry from the record 1.53 billion yuan during the previous New Year’s Day holiday, which was two days longer thanks to a weekend. — Reuters

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TAIPEI — A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is set to be released this month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now.

China has ramped up military activity close to democratically governed Taiwan in recent years, including massing naval forces around the island this month.

The new game, titled “2045”, tasks gamers with navigating the troubles of war by using colorful action cards, and role-playing characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

That includes members of Taiwan’s armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians working to sabotage the island’s defense, as well as citizens picking up guns to defend their homeland.

China claims Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan’s president and his government strongly object to China’s sovereignty claims and say only the island’s people can decide their future.

Taiwanese board game maker Mizo Games started crowdfunding the game in August. Within two-and-a-half-months, the company had received more than T$4 million ($121,966) to fund the project.

“It is not quite peaceful around Taiwan island and the Western Pacific as we speak,” Chang Shao Lian, the founder of Mizo Games told Reuters at his Taipei office.

Mr. Chang said he wanted “players to feel they want to win and think about what they will do to win.”

The game, which is also set to go on sale in the US and Europe later in the year, has been developed at a time when Taiwan officials have intensified preparations for scenarios including a China conflict.

Before the new year, Taiwan’s presidential office held its first “tabletop” exercise involving government agencies beyond the armed forces, simulating a military escalation with China.

The exercise involved scenarios, including the island being “on the verge of conflict,” to test the readiness of government offices and civil society.

Players who participated in a test run of 2045 said they learnt about what might happen in the event of a Chinese invasion and that they hoped the game could help people understand the implications of a war.

“I’m not very knowledgeable on military matters, therefore through this game I learnt about where the army may land and launch an attack,” said Kalin Lai, a 23-year-old who tried out the game.

Mizo has previously created two other Taiwan war-themed board games — one about surviving an air raid in Taipei and the other about a bombing in Kaohsiung during Japan’s colonization of the island between 1895 and 1945. — Reuters