China's performance market continued to expand in 2025, with total market revenue reaching 83.72 billion yuan (about 12.28 billion U.S. dollars), up 5.19 percent year on year, according to the data released by the China Association of Performing Arts on Tuesday.
Specifically, box office income rose 6.39 percent to 61.66 billion yuan (about 9.04 billion U.S. dollars), while other revenue streams totaled 22.07 billion yuan (about 3.24 billion U.S. dollars), marking a 1.98 percent year-on-year increase.
The number of commercial performances (excluding performances at entertainment venues) nationwide climbed to over 640,400, with total attendance reaching 194 million, marking steady increases of 6.58 percent and 4.22 percent, respectively, from the previous year.
The data indicates that China's performance industry is shifting toward a more experience-driven and ecosystem-based model, moving beyond traditional ticket sales to integrate cultural tourism and digital innovation.
Large-scale commercial events have emerged as a key consumption booster. Performances with audiences exceeding 5,000 saw strong gains in the number of sessions, box office, and audience size, up 12.70 percent, 9.49 percent, and 18.81 percent, respectively.
Beyond ticket sales, such events generated more than 220 billion yuan (about 32.27 billion U.S. dollars) in related spending on travel, accommodation, catering, and shopping, underscoring broader economic impact.
At the same time, original stage performances were thriving, with upgraded productions and strong market reception. Theater performances across venues of all sizes increased by 7.30 percent to 438,700, reflecting a more diversified and optimized industry structure.
With deeper integration between culture and tourism, live performances were increasingly merged with tourism industry, with large- and mid-scale tourism performances seeing strong gains across the board.
China sees robust performance market in 2025, with revenue up 5.19 pct
Nobel laureate in economics Michael Spence said he views U.S. President Donald Trump's high-profile visit to China last week as beneficial, stressing that a mix of cooperation and competition is the most pragmatic path forward amid ongoing global geopolitical uncertainties.
The 2001 Nobel prize winner shed his light on China-U.S. relations on the sidelines of this year's Tsinghua PBCSF Global Finance Forum held in Chengdu City of southwest China's Sichuan Province with the theme "Global Financial Governance in a Changing World."
Although Spence, an American, has been critical of the U.S. president and the economic uncertainty surrounding his policy decisions, he emphasized that efforts to carry out high-level diplomacy should always be welcome.
"People are starting to say that the Trump administration does things that are either unconventional or on slightly less polite terms. It seems to understand that with China, a big powerful country and economy, you have to deal with that pragmatically. China can't be pushed around," he said.
Trump concluded a three-day state visit to China on Friday. This is the first U.S. presidential visit to China in almost nine years, after President Xi previously hosted Trump in Beijing in November 2017.
During the visit, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on Thursday, agreeing on a new vision for building constructive China-U.S. relations with strategic stability.
The two leaders also engaged in candid, in-depth, constructive and strategic communication on major issues concerning world peace and development, exploring a proper way for the two major countries to coexist and reach a series of consensuses.
For Spence, the historic meeting is positive for the world's largest economies to find out how to get along with each other.
"So less confrontation, more kind of a realistic combination of respect, competition, some element of cooperation and so on. So in that sense, I think the mature view of the meeting is that it was a good thing," he said.
Nobel laureate in economics sees positive movement in Trump's China visit
Nobel laureate in economics sees positive movement in Trump's China visit
