Young Adult Movies Have Taken Off in China

Sep 20, 2025 CFM Daily, Production, Trends 0

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By Hua Yang

Young adult movie is now becoming China’s favorite genre film to produce these days. After the huge box office success of LOVE IS NOT BLIND back in 2011, films adapted from a young adult novel or with that audience in mind have been rampaging through Chinese theaters. Here’s a look at top 10 young adult movies that have reaped millions of dollars in China.

 

LOVE IS NOT BLIND (2011)

As the forerunner of this young adult movement, LOVE IS NOT BLIND opened to immediate commercial success in 2011, laying groundwork for its successors. The film grossed a total of $56 million at the box office with a low budget of $1.4 million.

It is a romantic comedy adapted from an online novel that has been popular on the Internet, telling a story of how a woman deals with her break-up with her boyfriend in the following 33 days. The film was released just before November 11, the Singles’ Day (imagine 11.11) in China.

 

SO YOUNG (2013)

SO YOUNG, based on popular writer Xin Yiwu’s best-selling novel, is acttress Zhao Wei’s directorial debut. With a nostalgic look at college romance in 1990s, the film became and still is the top young adult hit of all time in China with over $118 million at box office.

 

TINY TIMES 1.0-4.0 (2013-2015)

Best-selling author Guo Jiming’s TINY TIMES franchise was adapted from his own novel series, which revolves around the relationship among four Shanghai girls who go through high school and college and then enter the real world.

Despite being criticized for promoting materialism, the franchise has gained great popularity among the post-90s female demographic, taking in a total of $290 million for the four installments with the last one released in July 2015.

 

THE CONTINENT (2014)

Han Han, a best-selling author and blogger who is often compared to Guo Jingming, made the jump to the big screen with THE CONTINENT. The film follows three guys who grew up together on the east side and set off for a journey, earning $101 million in China.

 

 

FLEET OF TIME (2014)

FLEET OF TIME, released as BACK IN TIME in North America, is another coming-of-age film adapted from a popular novel by Jiu Yehui. It follows a group of friends who experience high school, college and eventually adulthood together through the 1990s and 2000s. Directed by Zhang Yibai, the film took in $93 million.

 

MY OLD CLASSMATE (2014)

MY OLD CLASSMATE bears the same title as a popular campus folk by musician and TV celebrity GAO Xiaosong, who also produced the film. The screenplay, which tells a love story of one couple from high school through university, wound down at a cume of $73 million at box office.

 

THE LEFT EAR (2015)

Taiwanese singer and actor Alec Su brought Rao Xueman’s popular novel THE LEFT EAR to the big screen in 2015. The film tells the story of a deaf girl who falls in love with one of her friends, grossing $79 million in China.

 

20 ONCE AGAIN (2015)

20 ONCE AGAIN is a remake of 2014 Korean hit MISS GRANNY, following a 70-year-old woman who is magically restored to her beauty of 50 years earlier. The film stars hugely popular former EXO member Lu Han and was initially intended to be released side-by-side with the Korean version. 20 ONCE AGAIN took in $59 million.

 

SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW (2015)

Casting another popular former EXO member Kris Wu Yifan, SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW got a lot of hype. Directed by actress-helmer Xu Jinglei, the film tells a story of a girl who goes to Prague and meets a young guy there. It was released just before Valentine’s Day in 2015 and grossed $45.2 million.

 

FOREVER YOUNG (2015)

As the latest to join the youth movement, FOREVER YOUNG is based on a hit song by He Jiong, the host of China’s hippest variety show HAPPY CAMP, which has lasted 18 year. It is about a group of young musicians and dancers who go through college. Released in July 2015, one day after TINY TIMES 4, the film ended up with a total of $61 million.

 

A similar formula

These films’ success in recent years seems to prove that Chinese young adult films could be counted on to become box office powerhouses, especially when based on best-selling books or in some cases popular songs.

It is not hard to notice that most of these films employ a similar formula: adapt a best-selling young adult novel or anything with that audience in mind; cast young popular actors and actresses; release at a major box office period; target at mainly young female moviegoers.

But strictly speaking, current China’s young adult movie is more like a theme rather than a genre, or at least not the exact genre defined in Hollywood.

Chinese young adult titles rely heavily on the tenets of romance and pains. Elements like unexpected pregnancy, abortion, studying aboard and friend’s death have served as the basic premises for these movies.

But in Hollywood, young adult genre covers a much wider rage of interests, not only coming of age and first love, but also rebellion, fantasy, sex and angst.

So, what’s the catch in China?

 

One explanation is that these films, to some extend, documents or reflects the youth born in the 1980s and ‘90s in China, which has never been done before and therefore appeals to current young adults. Before the trend, there were only films describing the youth born in the 1960s and ‘70s, which are much more serious.

Young moviegoers, especially young females, have been dominating China’s box office. In 2014, there are a total of 830 million admissions, in which, 19- to 30-year-olds account for more than 50 percent.

So it’s no wonder that films flashing back to the 1980s and ‘90s could have done so well at China’s box office.

Starting with a popular young adult book or a song is also less risky for film studios as they already have brand recognition and target at the most profitable audience.

TINY TIMES 4.0, the final installment of the series, has already hit theaters in July 2015, but there are plenty of other young adult movies in the works, such as SO YOUNG 2, the sequel of the 2013 hit, and SUMMER’S DESIRE, based on popular writer Ming Xiaoxi’s book.

 

Where does it end?

While a bunch of Chinese young adult films have struck box office gold, there are others who didn’t make it into the big league.

SINGING WHEN WE’RE YOUNG in 2013, a retro high school movie produced by Andy Lau, only grossed $364,000 and another youth-centered film in 2013, YOUNG STYLE, also flopped than soared, taking in less than $5 million.

The list is getting longer. In 2015, the much-anticipated young adult film THE ARK OF MR. CHOW ended up with a meager total of $8.2 million.

The craze on high school or college love will have an expiration date, especially when people are pounded by the onslaught of similar films, which is the nature of almost any popular trend.

When the buzz dies down, young audiences will probably start looking for other things besides coming of age or puppy love in a young adult film. The millions of dollars conferred by a young adult hit are always for the few, not the many.

At the moment, though some films are successful financially, they are poorly put together as film studios are in hurry to cash in on the young adult movie hype. But they will not be able to get away with it when the market cools down. When that time comes, the standard will be set higher.

However the glut is unlikely to end in the near future, as film studios have already picked up dozens of novels and stretch as far as possible.

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