People attend the opening ceremony of the first China Online Movie Week on Oct 23, 2019. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Critical voices also mount with rapid market growth.

"From our observations, there have been several controversies about online movies in recent years, such as the poor quality," Yang Xianghua, senior vice-president of iQiyi, said Thursday at a forum on challenges and opportunities for online movies.

Adding his perspective, Chang Bin, vice-president of Tencent Penguin Pictures, said, "In terms of the reasons, I think it's not because of the money. It's the lack of talent. I hope online film companies realize the importance of quality filmmaking, in terms of the cast and the script. Some finish script writing and the whole shooting process in just one month. Quality is hard to guarantee that way," Chang said.

Sharing her company's experiences, Mu Xue, CEO of New Studios Pictures, said: "Last year, our online movies were finished in 15 days on average. This year, the average is 20 days, and that number will increase 20 to 30 percent next year. Regarding the production cost, there are no projects invested in at under 5 million yuan ($710,000) in my company. Some cost up to 20 million yuan ($3 million)."

While investment in cinema movies averages at above 5 million yuan ($700,000), that of online movies are usually under 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) - some lower than 300,000 yuan ($42,000).