After 2015 proved to be a great year, China's domestic comedy films are looking forward to another exciting year, as reported by the Xinhua News Agency.
China's total box-office sales reached a record-breaking 44 billion yuan ($6.7 billion) in 2015. The top 10 domestic comedies grossed around 9.5 billion yuan, making up more than 20 percent of the total.
According to statistics by Entgroup, a major entertainment think tank in China, four out of the five films that exceeded the 1 billion yuan mark in 2015 are comedies.
With Spring Festival approaching, several highly anticipated comedies have been scheduled to entertain Chinese moviegoers, almost assuring another large take.
The power of these comedies seems to be in their ability to help lighten the mood in people's lives.
"Mounting pressure in life increases people's interest in comedies, which can leave them laughing," said Wali, a well-known film critic, via her Sina Weibo account.
Boqiao, a film practitioner at a major film corporation in China, agrees with Wali.
"Most Chinese people regard watching films in cinemas as entertainment rather than art appreciation," said Boqiao.
Even amateur comedians have been able to gain huge returns on the big screen, like the film "Jian Bing Man," which stars Internet celebrity Dong Chengpeng.
According to critics, the fan bases of these comedians play a big part in getting an audience for these films. Even if they're directed by newbies, they still get a large following.
"People are familiar with their styles given their popularity elsewhere, especially for the fans in smaller cities," said Wali.
But it's the quality of the film that has the final say.
A prime example is the romantic comedy "Goodbye Mr. Loser," which earned only 10.6 million yuan during its first week in Sept. 2015. However, after buzz on social media talked about how great the film was, the film grossed more than 250 million yuan a week later.
"I'm really happy to see people focus more on the quality of the films," Boqiao said. "Films like 'Goodbye Mr. Loser' have all the merits of a decent comedy."
This also works the other way around.
"Devil and Angel," starring husband and wife Deng Chao and Sun Li, gained unfavorable reviews despite its superstar following.
"You can see that the sales of 'Devil and Angel' dropped dramatically after being played for only a week. Our audience is becoming more perceptive," said Boqiao.
Moviegoers are looking forward to the films scheduled for release during the Feb. 8 Lunar New Year. They will be looking to watch comedies to match their festive mood.