According to Chinese media, the "winter" of the Chinese film industry is continuing, and this wave is now said to have affected even the stars at the peak.
Although she is an A-list actress, Liu Yifei has not participated in the new film crew for more than 900 days, causing her acting career to fall into a prolonged gap and attracting attention in the industry as well as fans.
The actress who once created a fever with many works is now placed in a situation of "no film to shoot". However, this is not only a personal choice but also reflects the purification and major changes of the entire Chinese film industry.
China's film industry is gloomy
According to information announced by Hengdian Film Studio, on August 18, there were only 16 long-running TV series crews filming, a sharp decrease compared to about 30-40 crews in the same summer period in previous years.
Statistics from entertainment bloggers also show that the average number of film crews filming per week in Hengdian in the first half of 2025 was 30.27 crews, but in the first half of 2026 it was only 22.75 crews, down 24.84%. In the period before and after the Lunar New Year, the number of film crews even decreased by 43%, and the rate of vacant studios at times was nearly 80%.
The decline of Hengdian affects the entire surrounding ecosystem. The locality has about 140,000 registered extras, but currently only about 800 have received actor recruitment notices.
A supporting actress shared: "Many people have left, everyone doesn't have movies to shoot, can't survive". She said that the salary also decreased from 600 CNY to 300 CNY per day.
A-list stars also lack jobs
Not only less famous artists, A-list actors are also lacking roles. At this year's Weibo Night event, Liu Haoran, Wen Qi and some actors even publicly "look for work".
Manager Duong Thien Chan admitted that many actors are unemployed, while the rate of film projects starting to be filmed is only about 30% compared to the previous year.
Trieu Huu Dinh once said that in the first half of this year, he only received about 10 script reading invitations, a sharp decrease compared to the busiest period. He described the current situation as that TV dramas are "no one looking for", while movies are almost "no longer". Colleagues who were once so busy that it was difficult to meet can now easily date each other to eat.
Even A-list stars like Liu Yifei have not joined the new film crew since completing "Rose Story" in November 2023, which is more than 900 days.
In the industry, there is information that her salary of up to 650,000 CNY per episode makes many film crews hesitant, while the actress is also quite careful in choosing the script.
Why is the Chinese film industry "frozen"?
According to insiders, the appearance of short films produced by AI is one of the reasons why the Chinese film market is cooling down.
The production cost of a human-starred film can be up to 500,000 CNY, while AI films only cost about 1% of this number, creating a major impact on the industry. Among the short films released in the first quarter of this year, up to 95% are produced by AI.
Second, audiences no longer easily pay just because of the reputation of the "traffic star". The formula "famous star means high revenue" gradually loses its effect. Without good scripts and talent, even famous artists can hardly guarantee success.
Third is the capital withdrawal from the film market. Many large entertainment and film companies have been losing money for many years, making investment activities more cautious.
Finally, there is the tightening of censorship, prolonged censorship time, and even some projects have to go through a new censorship process when changing the publishing platform. This has caused many projects to be stalled or canceled.
