On September 15th, the China Performance Industry Association released a brief report on the national performance market for the summer of 2025. According to the monitoring and comprehensive calculation of the ticketing information collection platform of the China Performance Industry Association, there will be 126300 commercial performances (excluding entertainment venues) nationwide in the summer of 2025 (July August), a year-on-year increase of 4.18%; The box office revenue was 15.135 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.90%, with an audience of 42.2332 million people, a year-on-year increase of 5.17%. Excellent plays have received high praise in the market. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti Fascist War, and many places have launched excellent red play performances during the summer. For example, the exhibition and performance of excellent stage art works on the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti Fascist War collected 22 outstanding stage art works such as the dance drama "Deep Memory" and the musical "Harbin under the Night", which received widespread praise. Henan has selected 13 excellent stage art works with anti Japanese themes and presented 15 wonderful performances during the one month exhibition period. Shanghai has launched the 2025 Shanghai Red Culture Season and the 2025 Shanghai Stage Art Excellent Drama Exhibition, bringing together a number of red themed plays such as the Huai Opera "Spark", the drama "Towards Yan'an", and "Heroic Sons and Daughters". High quality plays with a good reputation are still the main box office force for professional theater performances. For example, the classic dance drama "Silk Road Flower Rain", which has been in production for 46 years, was performed 10 times in a row at the Yellow River Theater in Gansu Province; The dance drama "Du Fu" premiered in 2016 and underwent further upgrades and adjustments in 2022. It toured in multiple cities such as Chengdu and Harbin and received high praise in the market. Professional theaters keep up with summer consumption hotspots, integrate into the overall urban cultural and tourism situation, and become comprehensive art spaces that can be stayed, explored, and consumed. For example, Harbin Grand Theatre launched an immersive travel shoot during the summer, designing pop-up corridors for various types of musicals based on scenes and characters from multiple musicals, ranging from Republican espionage to Tang poetry, from martial arts to tragic dramas, allowing audiences to experience different lives through characters in immersive scenes. Large scale performances drive diversified consumption. Concerts and music festivals continue to play a cross city driving role, and product designs that break down barriers to consumer scenarios are gradually improving. In July and August, the box office and audience numbers of large-scale commercial performances with over 5000 people nationwide maintained an upward trend compared to the previous year. The cultural and tourism linkage relying on large-scale performances is more extensive and in-depth. During the Mayday Beijing Bird's Nest concert in Beijing, several city landmarks were linked to the concert. Beihai Park, Ritan Park, and Ditan Park had dedicated photo areas for music fans, and several Beijing time-honored catering companies used the concert to carry out promotional activities. In Urumqi, one singer after another held a concert, and fans exclaimed, 'Flight tickets and hotels should be booked in advance.' The 2025 Xinjiang Super Strawberry Music Festival attracted 79900 attendees in two days, boosting the dining and accommodation expenses at the event venues. It is worth mentioning that this summer, the market for large-scale concerts and music festivals continues to show a downward trend. Third - and fourth tier cities, with venue upgrades, policy support, and integration of cultural and tourism resources, are becoming a new blue ocean for the performing arts economy. Taking Suining, Sichuan Province as an example, the "Golden Melody Legend Tour Suining Station" was very popular, with tickets sold out 10 days in advance. The scene of classic songs being sung outside the venue through "aerial singing" further confirmed the strong demand of grassroots people for high-quality performances. The summer tourism performance market continues to rise in popularity, with the number of performances, box office, and audience numbers in the national tourism performance market maintaining a year-on-year upward trend from July to August. A new cultural and tourism consumption ecology of "performance leading tourism and tourism promoting consumption" has initially formed. In Wuhan, the immersive 4D technology large-scale residency show "Water Show" at Hanxiu Theater premiered in July. The work incorporates elements of Jingchu such as the Yellow Crane Tower, Jiangcheng Water Dance, Tiger Seat Bird Frame Drum, and Phoenix Dance Nine Heavens, making it a must-have for many summer tourists to relax at night. In Lhasa, the "Love Lhasa" series of projects will meet with the audience in August, showcasing Lhasa's cultural and tourism resources while providing tourists with a comprehensive experience that combines leisure and entertainment, cultural appreciation, and commercial consumption. In Langfang, "Only Dream of the Red Chamber · Drama Fantasy City" is linked with the surrounding cultural, commercial, and tourism industries, launching multiple linkage consumption discount measures. Visitors can enjoy dining discounts, free exhibitions, and cultural and creative discounts with ticket holders. Driven by a series of high-quality tourism and entertainment projects, "watching the scenery during the day and watching at night" and "traveling with performances" have become new trends in cultural and tourism consumption. Policy support can stimulate the popularity of entertainment consumption, which cannot be separated from policy support. This summer, various regions have taken promoting performance consumption as a powerful lever to expand consumption, and have intensively introduced various policies to support the development of the performance market. In July, Guizhou Province issued the "Three Year Action Plan for Building a National Important Performing Arts Market in Guizhou Province (2025-2027)", proposing to "optimize the business environment" service chain ", refine the high-quality performing arts" supply chain ", and strengthen the integration of business formats" industry chain ". Jiangsu Province has announced the first batch of cultural, sports, and tourism linkage projects to boost consumption, with a total of 11.76 million yuan in reward and subsidy funds, covering multiple fields such as concerts, cultural performances, sports, and new cultural and tourism formats. Zhejiang Province has released several measures to promote consumption through the performing arts economy, fully leveraging the role of the performing arts economy in prospering the cultural market, expanding new spaces for service consumption, and promoting consumption quality and efficiency improvement. In addition, Beijing and Shanghai have introduced more targeted consumer subsidy policies. Shanghai has launched the "Le Shang Shanghai" cultural consumption voucher, which is aimed at national audiences watching performances in Shanghai and can be used to offset ticketing expenses for various types of performances such as plays, operas, concerts, etc; Beijing has issued a special subsidy of 20 million yuan through the "Golden Autumn Huimin Performance Event", forming a three-dimensional consumption incentive system of "performance+event+tourism". This policy covers three months and each person can enjoy six discounted ticket purchases per month. This "direct subsidy" model not only boosts box office revenue in the short term, but also cultivates audience viewing and consumption habits through high-frequency and low threshold cultural experiences, promoting a more diverse audience structure and injecting new vitality into the entertainment market. (New Society)