Key Takeaways:
Maoyan Entertainment said it expects to report its profit rose around 200% last year, citing strong performances for its films and cost controls
The movie ticketing and production company's revenue rose between 12.7% to 15% in 2025, far slower than its profit gain
The blockbuster "Ne Zha 2" shattered Chinese box office records early last year, grossing a staggering 15.46 billion yuan ($2.25 billion) in ticket sales to become the world's highest-earning animated film of all time. But even as the movie's producers and cinema operators boomed, online ticketing platform Maoyan Entertainment (1896.HK) failed to profit from the hit, reporting a 37% profit slump in the first half of last year.
But the Chinese film market's boom also proved to be short-lived, with the box office flagging in the second quarter of last year as "Ne Zha" inevitably lost momentum. That didn't bode well for Maoyan and its peers, leading investors to worry the group would suffer in the second half of the year as well. Against that backdrop, Maoyan's upside profit surprise for all of 2025, contained in an announcement last week, defied the earlier skeptics.
The company said it expects to report 2025 revenue between 4.6 billion yuan and 4.7 billion yuan, up 12.7% to 15.1% year-on-year. While that increase was modest, the company said it expects to report its profit surged by a much larger 196.9% to 224.4% year-on-year to between 540 million yuan and 590 million yuan.
Three key profit drivers
Maoyan attributed the big profit leap to strong performances for some of its key metrics, led by films it promoted, produced and distributed. Several titles delivered especially strong results. Those included its self-distributed and produced "Detective Chinatown 1900," which grossed over 3.6 billion yuan, making it China's third-highest grossing film of 2025. Another hit, "Nobody," generated 1.7 billion yuan, while "The Lychee Road" raked ...
