List from Wikipedia, of films that basically only ever screened in China:
1979: Gunshots in the CIB – 600 million
Cong Nu Li Dao Jiang Jun – 470 million
Ji Hongchang – 380 million
1980: Legend of the White Snake – 700 million
Murder in 405 – 600 million
Sesame Official – 500 million
Mysterious Buddha – 400 million
1981: In-Laws – 650 million
The Xi’an Incident – 450 million
Du Shiniang – 260 million
1982: Shaolin Temple – 500 million
Kai Qiang, Wei Ta Song Xing – 330 million
1983: Wudang – 610 million
The Disciple of Shaolin Temple – 520 million
A General Wearing the Sword – 260 million
Little Heroes – 260 million
The Burning of Imperial Palace – 240 million
1984: Deadly Fury – 500 million
1985: Holy Robe of the Shaolin Temple – 200 million
After that, the next film that sold 200+ million tickets in China was Ne Zha 2 in 2025.
Here’s a graph that shows the ticket sales boom (using a slightly different critera) very clearly.
For comparison, the non-Chinese film that has sold the most tickets worldwide is Titanic, with reported sales of just under 390 million tickets.
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