The digital economy has become an important pillar to move towards an economic power. The direction of our country's current struggle is using digital technology to empower the cultural industry with new opportunities, realizing new formats of the cultural industry, and promoting the high-quality development of the cultural industry. Based on the spatial panel data of China，s provincial level from 2011 to 2021 , a comprehensive evaluation index system for the development of the digital economy and cultural industry was constructed. The regression results of the spatial econometric model show that the digital economy can significantly promote the development of the cultural industry and will have obvious spillover effects on neighboring areas. However, the impact results have regional heterogeneity and time lag.