Big-budget Chinese productions carrying nationalist propaganda, known as "main melody" (zhuxuanlü) films. They topped the box office every year between 2017 and 2023, except 2019. "Wolf Warrior 2" in 2017 took in 4.6bn yuan. In 2018 authorities set up a fund to back films featuring "major revolutionary historical themes that enhance cultural confidence".
Propaganda films used to be a bore. "The Founding of a Republic" (2009) was so widely panned that Douban, a review site, had to turn off ratings for it. In the late 2010s, filmmakers learnt to weave propaganda together with high production values, engaging stories, big-name directors and star-studded casts. The genre peaked in 2020, when main melody titles made up 53% of the box-office sales for the top 20 films. By 2026 their share had fallen to a mere 12%.
"Scare Out", a 2026 spy thriller made in collaboration with the Ministry of State Security, grossed 1.25bn yuan ($182m)—well below "Wolf Warrior 2". Some 200,000 ratings on Douban scored it a tepid 6 out of 10. Audiences appear to be tiring of formulaic patriotic tropes. Consumer gloom amid a property downturn and deflation may also make nationalist narratives ring hollow.
A forthcoming film titled "The Battle of Penghu" depicts the conquest of Taiwan by the Qing dynasty in 1683. "The reunification of Taiwan is unstoppable", its theatrical poster declares.
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.