Donnie Yen in The Monkey King Photo: CFP

Huang Bo in Breakup Buddies Photo: CFP

The Chinese mainland box office currently sits at 28 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) and is expected to reach 30 billion yuan by the end of the year, an increase of 6 billion yuan over last year's total, which was already a new record high for the industry.

Looking at 2004's 1.5 billion yuan box office, revenue within the market has seen incredible increases over the past decade.

While 2014 marks an all new high point for China's movie market, this year's domestic box office winners reflect a number of changes within the country's film industry, including audience preferences, new developing trends and several new challenges.

Top 10 Domestic Films



Breakup Buddies



Director: Ning Hao

Box office: 1.16 billion yuan

The Monkey King



Director: Zheng Baorui

Box office: 1.05 billion yuan

Where are We Going, Dad?



Director: Xie Dikui

Box office: 696 million yuan

Breakup Guru



Director: Yu Baimei, Deng Chao

Box office: 666 million yuan

The Continent



Director: Han Han

Box office: 630 million yuan

The Man from Macao



Director: Wong Jing

Box office: 525 million yuan

Tiny Times 3



Director: Guo Jingming

Box office: 522 million yuan

Fleet of Time

Director: Zhang Yibai

Box office: 510 million yuan

My Old Classmate



Director: Guo Fan

Box office: 456 million yuan

The House that Never Dies



Director: Ye Weimin

Box office: 411 million yuan

Changes



1. Audiences prefer realistic films



Except for the Monkey King, a fantasy film based on a classic Chinese story, the rest of the top 10 domestic box office winners were all stories taking place in modern society. Nostalgia over lost youth was a huge trend in this year's films. Encouraged by the huge success of So Young in 2013, several films featuring similar topics came out this year, like Fleet of Time and My Old Classmate.

While films featuring situations audiences can relate to had a great year, films featuring less-than-realistic situations became less popular. For instance, Brotherhood of Blades, a period action film, had a horrible time at the box office.

2. Audiences would rather laugh then cry



Rom-coms were the go-to-choice for movie makers this year. Breakup Buddies, The Breakup Guru and Tiny Times 3 all made it on the Top 10 list. Although films like Women Who Flirt and Meet Miss Anxiety didn't make it on the list of best box office performers, they are two films that keep popping up on-end-of-the-year lists voted on by audiences online.

However, no matter if it's John Woo's The Crossing, a film depicting a sorrowful period of history in China, or The Golden Era, a film depicting the life story of famed writer Xiao Hong, all under-performed at the box office.

3. New directors conquer all



Among the top 10 films, half of them are by new directors. For directors Yu Baimei and Deng Chao (The Breakup Guru), Han Han (The Continent) and Xie Dikui (Where are We Going, Dad?), this was their first time directing a big screen work.

4. Lack of quality



Although box office numbers look optimistic, it's hard to say that the Chinese movie industry is doing better than ever. Not a single one of the top 10 commercially successful films were critically acclaimed. Seven out of 10 have a score less than a 6 out of 10 on media review site douban.com. For instance, The Monkey King, while ranking No.2 at the box office, only has a 4.2 out of 10 on Douban, while mega-hit Tiny Times 3 only has a 4.3. How to create quality films that also perform well financially remains a major concern.

Future trends



The number of cinemas and screens in China are rapidly increasing this year. According to data provided by entgroup.cn, 325 more cinemas and 1,609 screens were added during the first quarter of 2014, bringing the total number of screens in the mainland to 20,007. 

To satisfy the huge demand in the Chinese movie market, not only are foreign companies looking to bring their films here, domestic companies are also working on bringing in more overseas movies. This has led to a rise in co-productions with different countries, a trend that is sure to continue next year.

Starring Brad Pitt, Fury marks an attempt by a Chinese company, Huayi Bros, to invest in a Hollywood film. Unlike other Chinese backed films that add Chinese elements to make their films more palatable to domestic audiences, Fury contains no such elements. Instead of trying to get involved on some level with actual production, the script or cast choices, Huayi Bros' only role has been that of a financial investor.

According to the 21st Century Business Herald, Huayi Bros President Wang Zhonglei has said that Fury marks the first film made through the strategic cooperation between Huayi and QED International and that Huayi Bros intends to keep investing in more Hollywood productions that have global appeal.

Another guarantee that co-produced films will continue to be a trend is the joint agreement, signed between China and South Korea in July, which allows co-productions made by studios from both countries to be regarded as domestic films in both markets.

Meanwhile, The Nightingale directed by Philippe Muyl and the upcoming Wolf Totem directed by Jean Jacques Annaud, show that co-productions between China and France are also on the rise.