Cinema of Hong Kong

Cinema of Hong Kong
Replica of the Hong Kong Film Awards statuette on the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
No. of screens282 (2024)
 • Per capita3.1 per 100,000 (2011)
Produced feature films (2005–2009)
Total56 (average)
Number of admissions (2010)
Total22,500,000
 • Per capita3.2 (2010)
Gross box office (2021)
TotalHK$1.2 billion

The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese-language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former Crown colony, Hong Kong had a greater degree of artistic freedom than mainland China and Taiwan, and developed into a filmmaking hub for the Chinese-speaking world (including its worldwide diaspora).

Hong Kong became the leading film exporter in East Asia in the 1960s, with its film output surpassing Hollywood, and remained the second-largest exporter (after Hollywood) from the 1970s through the 1990s. It also had the third-largest film industry in the world during the 1980s and 1990s, behind Hollywood and Bollywood. Despite an industry crisis starting in the mid-1990s and Hong Kong's transfer to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997, Hong Kong film has retained much of its distinctive identity and continues to play a prominent part on the world cinema stage. In the West, Hong Kong's vigorous pop cinema (especially Hong Kong action cinema) has long had a strong cult following, which is now a part of the cultural mainstream, widely available and imitated.

Economically, the film industry together with the value added of cultural and creative industries represents 5 per cent of Hong Kong's economy.