China’s Film Industry Hits a Slump as Productions Plummet and Jobs Dwindle

By Lu Yixin, Vision Times

China’s once-booming film and television industry has fallen on hard times, with declining production, retreating investment, and the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) leaving actors and crew members struggling to find work or remain employed at all.

On Aug. 19, prominent Chinese talent manager Yang Tianzhen discussed what industry insiders have described as a “winter” for China’s entertainment sector during an episode of her podcast, Tianzhen But Not Naive (《天真不天真》), featuring actress Song Jia.

RELATED: China’s Film Industry in Crisis as AI Replaces Actors and Jobs Dwindle Across Hengdian

Plunging numbers

During the episode, Yang said many actors currently have no work as the number of productions entering filming has plummeted. “The production start rate this year is very low. It’s said to be only 30 percent of last year’s,” Yang said.

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“There are very few projects that can actually be filmed,” she added. “For many productions, contracts may already have been signed with the actors, but then filming can’t begin because the investors pull out or the platform withdraws. Right now, it feels like the whole landscape has fallen apart.”

Even some of China’s best-known stars appear to be spending extended periods away from film sets. For instance, actress Liu Yifei, one of the country’s most well-known actors across the region, has reportedly gone more than 900 days without joining the production of a new drama.

China’s ‘Hollywood’ falls quiet

The slowdown is particularly visible at Hengdian World Studios, China’s sprawling film and television production hub. During the first half of 2026, the average number of productions filming there each week fell 24.84 percent year over year to 22.75, while studio vacancy reportedly approached 80 percent. By Aug. 18, just 16 traditional long-form dramas were filming at the complex, compared with roughly 30 to 40 during previous summer peak periods.

Hengdian’s Actors Guild has accumulated roughly 140,000 registrations over the years, though only about 10,000 actors currently live and seek work there. Recent reports put the number of available casting notices at just 700 to 800 per day, resulting in many performers being left without work.

AI has made particularly rapid inroads into China’s booming short-drama sector, where the cost difference can be substantial. Traditional live-action short dramas can cost 500,000 yuan or more to produce, while some AI productions have reportedly been made for just several thousand yuan.

The cost difference is putting pressure on entry-level actors, camera operators, editors, and other production workers as studios experiment with increasingly automated production.

Investors retreat after years of losses

Changing audience tastes have added another challenge to the already-struggling industry. China’s entertainment industry previously relied heavily on the assumption that popular “traffic stars,” celebrities with enormous online followings, could reliably translate attention into box-office revenue.

But that formula has become less dependable as audiences grow more selective and star power alone no longer guarantees commercial success. In 2025, the country’s 10 highest-grossing films accounted for more than 65 percent of annual box-office revenue, reflecting an increasingly concentrated market in which a relatively small number of breakout hits captured much of the available audience.

But perhaps the most consequential shift is occurring behind the scenes as investors become increasingly reluctant to finance new projects. Major Chinese entertainment companies, including Huayi Brothers and Bona Film Group, have reported substantial losses in recent years.

Huayi Brothers, once regarded as a bellwether of China’s film industry, accumulated more than 8.2 billion yuan in losses between 2018 and 2024. Bona Film Group has also remained in the red, posting cumulative losses of roughly 2.96 billion yuan from 2022 through 2025.