Amid the rekindling of the U.S.-China trade conflict, with President Donald Trump warning of high tariffs, analysis has emerged suggesting that China is exhibiting a somewhat flexible attitude toward the import of U.S. cultural content.
On the 29th (local time), the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that just two weeks after Chinese authorities announced plans to reduce imports of U.S. films, major American studios like Disney confirmed the release of new titles. SCMP assessed this by stating that 'political tensions remain separate from the cultural sphere, where the situation is limited to symbolic warnings.'
The Marvel film 'Thunderbolts' is set to be released in Chinese theaters next week in time for the Labor Day holiday, and Disney's live-action film 'Lilo and Stitch' has also confirmed its local release for the 23rd of next month. Initially, China had warned of reducing imports of U.S. films in response to strengthened tariffs. However, it has been shown that rather than restrictions on imports, weakened content competitiveness and audience indifference are having a much larger impact on the box office performance of Hollywood films.
According to the Chinese box office tracking organization Maoyan, as of the end of April this year, revenue in the Chinese film market reached 25.5 billion yuan (approximately 45.8 trillion won). This level corresponds to 60% of the total revenue from the previous year, indicating a clear recovery trend. In particular, domestic content, such as the animation 'Ninja 2', is leading the box office, while the market share of U.S. films has sharply declined since the pandemic. The share of foreign films, which was as high as 35% in 2019, has fallen to 21.3% in 2024, and no U.S. film has surpassed 1 billion yuan (approximately 1.8 trillion won) in box office revenue for two consecutive years.
The Chinese government has designated this year as the 'Year of Film Consumption' and is mobilizing state-owned financial institutions and ticket platforms to reduce ticket prices and promote consumer spending. Authorities plan to invest a minimum of 1 billion yuan to encourage domestic consumption. This is interpreted as an intention to support the box office success of domestic content while also making the film industry a key means of boosting consumption.
Experts believe that China is likely to adjust its policies to increase imports from culturally related countries such as Japan, Thailand, and India, while maintaining a strategic reserved state regarding U.S. content instead of a direct confrontation. Lu Feng, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, noted, 'Hollywood films still account for the largest share of foreign films, but gradually more diverse content is broadening the choices for Chinese audiences,' stating that 'market logic is operating in a phase more than political messages.'
In fact, China and Spain recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to expand joint production, and accessibility to European content is also gradually increasing. SCMP assessed that 'instead of dragging the cultural industry into the U.S.-China trade war, Chinese authorities are clearly focusing on enhancing the industrial competitiveness centered on domestic content while flexibly maintaining external openness.'