The China Film Pavilion has returned to Cannes for the fifth consecutive year, and organizers have arrived with news of a booming domestic market and a slate designed to showcase the breadth of talent back home. The numbers alone make for compelling reading. The China Film Co-production Corporation reports that, as of May 5, China’s domestic box office had already reached $1.98 billion — around one-fifth of global revenue year-to-date. That follows a 2025 in which the Chinese market collected $7.45 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21.9 percent. Ticket sales across urban cinemas rose 22.57 percent, and the country added 2,219 screens over the course of the year, bringing the total to 93,187 — more than anywhere else in the world. The five-day May Day holiday, which ended May 5, added around $110 million to that tally, a modest rise on 2025.…