China's marine economy remained stable in the first three quarters of 2026, with growth increasingly driven by innovation and higher-quality development, according to the country's Ministry of Natural Resources on Wednesday.
Preliminary figures show that China's gross marine product reached 8.5 trillion yuan (about 1.28 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters, up 4.9 percent year on year. It was 0.3 percentage points faster than the country's overall GDP growth.
As an important driver, the marine industry has contributed 0.4 percentage points to national economic growth.
Meanwhile, China has been improving how marine resources are allocated. The country has been actively exploring layered, three-dimensional use of the sea and strengthening overall management.
"Support for projects requiring the use of sea areas and islands has steadily improved. Nationwide, approvals were granted for an additional 219,000 hectares of sea areas and islands, covering projects with more than 670 billion yuan in investment. This has helped meet the needs of industries such as fisheries, manufacturing, transport and tourism," said Meng Qinglei, deputy director of the Marine Strategic Planning and Economics Department with the Ministry of Natural Resources.
China’s marine economy maintains steady growth from Jan to Sept
China's box office revenue has exceeded 31.5 billion yuan (about 4.73 billion U.S. dollars) so far this year, with domestic films entering into the overseas markets at a notably faster pace. Since the start of this year, a number of Chinese films, including racing-comedy "Pegasus 3," suspense-action thriller "Blades of the Guardians," the word-of-mouth hit "Dear You," and animated fantasy-comedy "All Wishes Come True," have been released overseas one after another.
According to the China Film Administration, more than 20 domestic films were released abroad in the first half of this year. By late August, Chinese films have raked in more than 450 million yuan (about 67.51 million U.S. dollars) at the overseas box office in 2026.
This year's Chinese films going overseas are no longer confined to a single genre such as Kung Fu or Wuxia, but have instead seen a collective overseas expansion across multiple genres, including realistic drama, animation, suspense, and sports.
Many of these films have been released simultaneously worldwide right from the start of their theatrical run.
The overseas markets are no longer limited to traditional Chinese-language film strongholds such as North America and Southeast Asia, but have further expanded to European countries including Germany, the UK, Ireland, Hungary and France, as well as more emerging Southeast Asian markets such as the Philippines and Indonesia.
"Global audiences are showing growing interest in Chinese films, and I think this is a very positive trend," said Zhang Yiwu, a professor at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University.
Chinese-made films enter into overseas markets at faster pace
Chinese-made films enter into overseas markets at faster pace
