Cinema ticket sales website Maoyan.com found 57 percent of its users this year were born after 1990.

"The generational shift in China's film industry has been completed this year, as the market has been taken over by young people and older directors have failed to impress audiences," said Zhang Yiwu, a film professor at Peking University.

Most younger people go to cinemas for entertainment and social purposes while paying less attention to films as a form of art, said Rao, adding that the change means more opportunities for "layman" directors who have won fans in other fields.

It is not just blockbusters, but art-house gems, that are benefitting from the expanding market.

In 2006, Golden Lion winner "Still Life" by Jia Zhangke only took 3 million yuan at the box office in China. Nine years later, Chinese cinema-goers have handed over 30 million yuan to see Jia's latest work, "Mountains May Depart."

With ticket prices remaining stable in the past decade, the figures indicate the audience for Jia's films has increased nearly eight-fold.

It's a pleasant picture for film directors and fans -- and there's more to come, with senior officials bidding to attract fresh investment. In late October, they had a first reading of a draft law promising anti-piracy measures and tax perks for filmmaking.

Related:

'The Martian' keeps ruling China's box office

China box office to rule by 2018, Imax CEO says