More than eye-catching special effects and car chases, Chinese moviegoers are also looking for art-house movies and films that cover people's everyday lives, movie experts shared.

Thus, Wang Yichuan, the dean of the school of arts at Peking University, said the popularity of low-budget movies, which provides quality rather than effects, in China is rapidly increasing.

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"Chinese directors now make bold decisions to try more diversified genres because low-budget films require only small investments, which means the risk is also small," said Wang.

Based on the survey conducted by Tsinghua University, low-budget Chinese movie fans are young people, with an average age of 20. Most of those who patronize low-budget films are female Chinese.

The success of low-budget Chinese film "Black Coal, Thin Ice," for instance, further gives evidence to the fact that low-budget films are on the rise in the world's second-largest movie market, which is China.

While low in budget, the movie bagged the best film award at the recently held 2014 International Film Festival in Berlin. The film's budget was only US$3 million but it raked in more than US$6 million within three days after its opening. Directed by Diao Yinan, the movie is a detective thriller set in northern China.

China's total box office sales in 2013 reached 21.9 billion yuan (US$3.52 billion), making it the second largest in the world next to the United States. More than half of the box office sales in China were from domestic films.

While Hollywood movies continue to be popular in the country, experts said low-budget Chinese movies had also stirred the standings of foreign films. For instance, the Chinese movies Finding Mr. Right and So Young surpassed the ticket sales of Man of Steel and the Wolverine.