In the recently concluded 12th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival, the organizing committee reported that they have made 15.1 billion yuan worth of contracts and sales through the event. These numbers broke last year's 14.8 billion yuan financial report even though there was a campaign to reduce the overcapacity of the animation industry.
The event is often considered a benchmark for China's cartoon and animation industry to determine the latest trends and preferences of animation and cartoon enthusiasts in the country. Last year, China was able to produce 134,000 minutes of TV animation shows which is half of its 2011 performance after the government subsidized domestic animation producers. However, there were complaints about the low quality of these animations and the growing market bubbles for these types of shows.
In Hangzhou, for example, the government shifted its support to the animation industry from direct investment to nurturing market-based finance. With this in mind, there is now a re-directed focus on both quality and quantity of animation made locally in the country. However, there is still a considerable drop of Chinese animation companies, especially in cartoon production capital Hangzhou even if their output value has increased by up to 6.2 billion yuan.
The popularity of Chinese animation is visibly seen in the movie sector as it has reported a box office revenue percentage of 78.6% or 2 billion yuan last year, slowly catching up with the 2.3 billion yuan made by international films.
The 12th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival was attended by 1.38 million people throughout the six day event and featured 1,500 local and foreign companies and 320 animation-related goods.
