How Does Online Film Distribution Revolutionize The Chinese Film Industry?

Jun 17, 2025 CFM BAT, Daily, Distribution, Festival, Film x Internet, VOD 0

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SHANGHAI June 17, 2025 – Chinese viewers are embracing digital distribution to a greater degree than ever before, offering filmmakers a new way to reach audience and monetize their films, said iQIYI Pictures President Li Yansong at a panel discussion hosted by Winston Baker.

The session was geared around a discussion of how the online distribution will revolutionize the film industry. Moderated by Lindsay Conner, Partner and Co-chairman of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, the panel comprised Li and two other industry leaders, Zhao Fang, General Manager of Wanda Media Co, and Sun Zhonghuai, Vice President of Tencent.

A game changer

Conner jumped into it by posing the key burning questions to the panelists: What is happening in the film distribution in China and why is this happening?

Before the online video sites paved the way for online distribution, the only way for a film to distribute was to get a theatrical release.

“But the game has changed. The online distribution gives a film a second chance no matter whether it has been put on the big screen or not,” said Li.

Sun addressed that Chinese viewers now have a great appetite for online-video platforms with high-quality content. “The paid streaming subscribers in China are growing at a extremely fast pace. With the development of Chinese film market, China will definitely boast a huge group of paid viewers in the future,” he said.

Li claimed that iQIYI’s paid subscribers have reached five million as of June 15, a 765 percent annual increase.

It’s known that China’s non-theater revenues are quite small by world standards. Ancillaries may only make up 10 percent of film revenues. With the online incomes, the situation will be different.

Li sited iQIYI as an example. He revealed that last year, more than 700 films were shown on iQIYI, but only about 300 films had been screened in theaters. For the rest, 30 percent were films that have never got theatrical releases while the other 70 percent were self-produced web series.

“But we paid a lot for their copyrights. Sometimes a film could cost tens of millions yuan, which put online video sites under great capital pressure,” Li added.

As a result, both Li and Sun underlined the importance for video sites to get involved in film and TV production to reduce costs.

Shrink of the theatrical window

The films’ release structure is reshaping as well. Online streaming sites apparently want to make movies accessible out of theaters as soon as possible while theaters are not against the idea unless they try to put the film online during its theatrical run.

Zhao sees there is no conflict between the two parties. “No one could succeed by working alone in the film industry. Online video sites and theaters should work together to make the best of the both worlds. At the moment, most of the films will be shown online a month after being out of theaters,” she said.

But online streaming sites are not satisfied with the idea of waiting for one month to get the movie. They have been pushing to shrink the duration of the theatrical window to less than one month, even to none. Films like BEIJING LOVE STORY have been put online right after their theatrical runs.

 

 

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