From domestic sales to exports, domestic LED movie screens develop in an all-round way

In recent years, China's LED movie screen technology has developed strongly. Driven by LED technology innovation, domestic LED movie screens not only reach leading levels in key indicators such as brightness and color reproduction, but also win market recognition for their stable performance and diverse functionality.

Today, the development of domestic LED movie screens has entered a new stage, and some new opportunities and challenges are coming one after another. How should domestic LED display companies respond? And find the secret to further strengthening the domestic LED movie screen industry?

In 2025, demand for domestic LED movie screens will revive

From 2019 to 2023, domestic LED movie screens are poised to take off. In order to align with the standards of the international film projection industry, Leyard, Unilumin Technology, Alto Electronics, Qingsong Optoelectronics, Times China Film, China Film Technology, Nanjing Lopu and other companies have completed DCI qualification certification for their LED display products. This is not only to prove the technical performance of their own LED movie screens, but also to prepare for the future layout of the global cinema market.

As time comes to 2024, domestic LED movie screens have officially entered the first year of rapid development. During this year, LED movie screens have become one of the most popular applications in the LED display industry. In the context of the National Development and Reform Commission and six other departments issuing policies for the large-scale implementation of theater LED screen projection system update plans in May, the latest application number of LED movie screens in the domestic market has reached a new peak.

According to incomplete statistics from LEDinside, the number of newly launched LED movie screens in China will reach a record high of over 60 in 2024. LED movie screens have been lit up and used in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Harbin, Ningbo, Jiaxing, Chengdu, Guiyang, Zhuhai, Xiamen, Changsha and other parts of the country. Domestic LED movie screens have quickly entered the cinema industry, opening up another booming emerging application market for LED displays.

Entering 2025, the development momentum of the LED movie screen application market remains strong. Just in the past first quarter, a new batch of LED cinemas were officially completed in China. According to incomplete statistics from LED display companies, LEDinside found that in the first quarter of this year, the number of newly installed LED movie screens in China reached 28.

Among them, China Film Guangfeng installed 16 LED movie screens; China Film Technology recently installed 9 LED movie screens; China Leyard completed the latest LED movie screen projects in Ganzhou, Lanzhou, and Beihai; Times Huaying's HeyLED hall was lit and put into use in Fuzhou.

From the above data, we can clearly understand that the LED movie screen application market is still in a period of rapid growth. Driven by domestic policies and market demand, as well as the active promotion of domestic LED display companies, are the keys to the development of this application.

According to the current market product specifications, TrendForce Consulting analyzed that the length of domestic LED movie screen products generally covers 12 meters, 14 meters, 16 meters, and 20 meters. Most of them have 4K resolution, and a few products have 2K resolution. Their applications cover conventional cinemas, small cinemas, private cinemas and other formats. The rich specifications of domestic LED cinema screens allow them to flexibly match the needs of theater equipment upgrades.

In terms of price, the current price of a single LED movie screen is between 1 million and 2 million yuan. The larger the screen size, the higher the price. In comparison, most of the digital projectors commonly used in theaters currently cost between 200,000 and 500,000 yuan. It is obvious that LED movie screens have no obvious competitive advantage in price.

But in addition to price, compared with digital projectors, LED movie screens not only have high brightness, high contrast, and excellent grayscale performance at low brightness, but can also add more business models such as conference halls, seminar rooms, and lecture halls to theaters. While meeting the needs of consumers for high-end movie viewing, it also creates more revenue channels for theater operators. The application of LED movie screens can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Especially for theater operators, the application of LED movie screens has longer-term significance. Although the emergence of the phenomenon-level film "Nezha 2" at the beginning of the year led to "full" seats in theaters of all sizes across the country, after the popularity of "Nezha 2" gradually faded, most theaters still had to face the problem of high operating pressure. Data from relevant agencies show that the number of theaters in operation in the first quarter of this year has even decreased compared with the end of 2024.

Factors such as the slow global economic recovery and the popularity of online audio and video streaming continue to impact the development of the offline theater market. Phenomenal films alone cannot support the long-term development of the theater market. The differentiated business model brought about by LED movie screens is a good opportunity for overtaking in corners, whether it is upgrading old cinemas or building new cinemas. Therefore, this is one of the reasons why although LED movie screens are expensive, cinema operators are willing to pay for them.

As prices continue to fall in the future, the advantages of LED movie screens in the cinema market will become more and more obvious, and will be a key driving force to promote technological changes in domestic cinemas and promote the recovery of the cinema market. Looking forward to the rest of this year, LED cinemas are expected to continue to emerge in the domestic market. Especially the upcoming May Day holiday, summer vacation, and National Day holiday will bring a large number of audiences to the theater market, and LED movie screens may become a potential solution for theaters in various places to attract people.

To conquer the domestic market, the next step for domestic LED movie screens: to enter overseas markets

In the domestic market, the promotion and application of LED movie screens has achieved substantial results. At the same time, domestic display screen companies have begun to develop into the overseas cinema market and continue to expand the influence of domestic LED movie screens.

TrendForce Consulting believes that there are more than 200,000 movie screens in the world, including more than 30,000 high-end screens. These high-end screens are expected to be replaced by LED movie screens in the future. Facing the huge potential replacement demand overseas in the future, going overseas has become an inevitable choice for the development of domestic LED movie screens.

For example, in May 2024, Times China Film’s HeyLED movie screen was launched in the VOX Cinema in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; in July 2024, Times China Film announced that Europe’s first HeyLED movie screen had officially landed in Romania’s Inspire Cinema. The theater uses the HeyLED 2K 10-meter LED movie screen that has passed Hollywood DCI certification;

In November of the same year, China Film Group revealed that the new cinema in Dinkelsbühler, Germany, had purchased 10 sets of China Film CINITY LED projection systems and would build a full CINITY LED cinema;

Lopp previously stated that the company's fully sound-transparent LED movie screen has received orders from overseas customers. Regarding the demand for LED movie screens in overseas markets, Lopp said that a new generation of young overseas investors are trying various business models in theaters, and they are very interested in LED screens. Therefore, Lopp also believes that its fully sound-transparent LED movie screen will soon be used in overseas markets in the future;

In early April this year, China Film Optical Peak also brought its VLED LED movie screen to the CinemaCon 2025 exhibition in the United States as the first step to open VLED LED movie screens to overseas markets.

Compared with the above-mentioned companies, well-known domestic LED display companies Leyard and Unilumin Technology started promoting LED movie screen products in overseas markets earlier.

Leyard's LED movie screen products have been lit up and used in more than 20 internationally renowned cinemas, including Alcazar Cinema in France, CGV Buena Park in the United States, and Odeon Multicines in Spain.
Unilumin Technology's UCINE LED movie screen has successfully set up cinemas in Los Angeles, Moscow, Eastern Europe and other places. According to Unilumin’s previous disclosure, in March this year, the UCine LED cinema was also completed in Slovenia.

Although the overseas market is relatively broad, compared with the development of the domestic market, the development of domestic LED movie screens in overseas markets may face some challenges in the short term.

Challenge 1: The DCI standard may become a "stumbling block" for domestic LED movie screens to go overseas

First of all, the DCI standard may bring certain obstacles to the development of domestic LED movie screens overseas, especially in the North American market. In fact, DCI is a digital movie standard jointly developed by the seven major Hollywood film studios in the United States that combines image quality and sound effects requirements with copyright protection requirements. It is not an international standard certification for film projection systems.

However, thanks to the leading film industry in Hollywood in the United States and the dominance of TI's DLP digital cinema projectors in theaters, the DCI standard has become a mandatory standard for playing Hollywood blockbusters. With the development of LED movie screens, DCI standards are also being continuously upgraded and improved in a targeted manner. Dong Zhigang, general manager of the Cinema Division of Unilumin Group, said at the TrendForce 2025 New Display Industry Seminar that the DCI standard is being updated at an average frequency of once a year.

Its updated content focuses on areas related to LED movie screens, adding intra-frame contrast tests, minimum effective black points, stereoscopic projection tests, etc. This series of adjustments not only reflects the needs of technological development, but also reflects the power game among all parties in the industry.

Therefore, in the short term in the future, the DCI standard will still be a "stumbling block" to the development of domestic LED movie screens in overseas markets. Fortunately, domestic companies and groups are setting up relevant international standards and taking the initiative to change this dilemma, hoping to safeguard the development of domestic LED movie screens in the global market in the future.

In June 2024, my country submitted a draft standard proposal for "Optical Technical Requirements and Measurement Methods for Digital Cinema LED Cinemas". At present, the standard project has been approved by the International Organization for Standardization, officially established, and the standard drafting work has begun. The initiative in the development of the LED movie screen industry in the future is expected to be in the hands of the Chinese people.

Challenge 2: International companies are also paying attention to the application of LED movie screens

Domestic LED movie screens in overseas markets not only have to face the requirements of DCI standards, but also face the market competition brought by international companies.

In the LED movie screen application market, Samsung is the ancestral player and introduced LED movie screens to the Chinese market for the first time in 2018. Although domestic companies have frequently developed LED movie screens in recent years, Samsung is also quietly consolidating its market position in the global LED movie screens.

In early April this year, Samsung released a new generation of Onyx LED movie screen series, with four standard sizes of 5 meters, 10 meters, 14 meters and 20 meters, covering P1.25~P5.0 pitch. The new series of products has become the world’s first Class 1 cinema-grade LED display to obtain DCI certification. It is reported that the Pathé Palace Cinema in Paris has installed this equipment, and the new cinema LVL 11 Entertainment in Mesa, Arizona, USA has also installed a new generation of Samsung Onyx LED movie screens and is expected to open this fall.

LG Electronics is also stepping up its efforts in the LED movie screen business. LG Electronics will launch the LED movie screen brand "LG Miraclass" in 2023. Currently, LG Electronics has provided LED movie screen solutions to more than 20 movie theaters in more than 10 countries and regions around the world, including Merrill Mall in the United States, Spain, France and Thailand. At the end of April this year, LG Electronics has launched LED movie screen projects in three theaters in South Korea. It is expected that in the first half of this year, LG Miraclass LED movie screens will complete more installations and applications in Australia, Morocco and other places.

In the future, domestic LED movie screens must gain more market share overseas, continue to improve their technical performance, and achieve a higher cost performance, so that they can gain an upper hand in the competition with international companies.

Summary

In the field of LED movie screen applications, although domestic companies are latecomers, they have caught up step by step and become a part of the industry that cannot be ignored.

In the future, with the continuous iteration of LED technology and the continuous improvement of the industrial chain, the global market competitiveness of China's LED movie screens will further enhance, continue to challenge the status of traditional projection technology, and the first-mover advantage of international companies in the field of LED movie screens, and further expand the application capacity of China's LED display screens.