Dead of Rights Courtesy CFCC Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment When the curtain comes down on the year for Chinese cinema, among the main talking points will be two promising trends that emerged across 2025: A box office rebound and the expanding diversity of content that has helped the industry back on its feet. At last report in state-sponsored media, the BO for the year - around $5.98 billion - has already topped 2024. Not exactly back to pre-pandemic levels of around $9.2 billion, but a sign that recovery is well underway. The main driver of that recovery has been the global animated hit about a little demon boy -Beijing Enlight Pictures' Ne Zha 2 - which blew past Pixar's Inside Out 2 with an estimated box office of more than $2.2 billion globally to become the biggest animated hit of all time. But if you dig a little further into the charts, you'll find an assortment of productions that differ in both story and in style. Related Stories Movies Italy's Oscar Contender 'Familia' Takes a Genre-Bending Deep Dive Into Trauma and Abuse Movies 'Trillion': What's the Joaquin Phoenix Exec-Produced Film About? You'll Only Find Out at the Very End The Shen Ao-directed Dead to Rights (China Film Group) is a case in point. After taking $381 million from the Chinese BO - and finding limited release across North America in August - it has been submitted as Chinese official international Oscar submission. The film takes a nuanced look at events in and surrounding the Nanjing Massacre in 1937 - when invading Japanese forces killed an estimated 300,000 people - that's in contrast to the bombast of the majority of China's historical epics Shen and his team went through painstaking research into the real-life story at the film's heart - how a photographer risked everything to keep record of the atrocity - and they were mindful of the needs of contemporary Chinese audiences, as well as the international audiences opening up to Chinese films. "I believe today's audiences no longer want to follow a single narrative or a lone hero, so we brought together characters from different walks of life - civil servants, businessmen, actors, housewives, soldiers, translators - and let their stories intertwine to create a complex, ensemble-driven narrative," explains the director. Dead to Rights is among a number of productions being showcased at the China Film Pavilion inside AFM this week. The third installment of the initiative - run by the China Film Co-Production Corporation (CFCC) under the guidance of the China Film Administration - has been showcasing 70 Chinese film companies and 200 of the country's latest productions. Among those featured have been the China Film Group Corporation, Bona Film Group, CMC Pictures, Lianray Pictures, China Film Archive, China Film Foundation and the Shanghai International Film Festival, while along with both Dead to Rights and Ne Zha 2, the spotlight has fallen on other titles, like Shenzhou 13, A Tapestry of a Legendary Land, The Shadow's Edge, Nobody and Curious Tales of a Temple. Other features of this year's pavilion have included a promotion of Chinese locations and studios, along with a virtual reality interactive - or "experience zone" - designed to showcase how the Chinese industry is developing this evolving technology with previews of upcoming VR projects like Journey to the Center of the Earth and Mulan 2125. Organizers hope both initiatives will pave "new avenues for global cooperation." AMC Century City 15 has also been the host of a "China Film Promotion" that presented representatives from more than 30 companies and more than 30 films, while the University of Southern California also hosted a screening of Dead of Rights as well as the hit comedy The Adventure. That Duo Ma-directed production puts a clever contemporary twist on the notion of time-travel, as a disgruntled middle-aged man swaps places with his teenage self - and then they communicate via instant messaging. Producer Zhang Xiaolei agrees with the notion that Chinese audiences are demanding more diversity in content - and studios are listening. Zhang, whose film took in more than $23 million since its release on Aug. 8, believes the film "struck a nerve among those trapped in the grind of corporate life" while also probing the "confusion and regrets that mark contemporary family life." Chinese movies have gone from thinking "entertainment first" to "meaningful expression," the producer says. "The decision to blend comedy with more profound subject matter reflects [studio] Ultra Comedy's guiding creative philosophy: 'to make laughter warmer,'" says Zhang. "We've always believed in the unique emotional power of comedy and have been dedicated to exploring the human and social truths behind the laughter. To us, comedy should not be