Ticket sales at China's nationwide box office during the recent Spring Festival holiday period made history by surpassing 7.9 billion yuan (about $1 billion) at 3 p.m. on February 17. These earnings, covering the period February 10-17, broke a record set during 2021's Spring Festival holiday of 7.84 billion yuan, according to the data from Beacon, an Alibaba-owned box office tracker.
A moviegoer buys tickets with a self-service machine at a cinema in Yangzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province on February 16, 2024. /CFP
Three domestic productions, namely "YOLO," "Pegasus 2" and "Boonie Bears: Time Twist," maintained their positions as the top three of the chart respectively. To date, the box office sales for the three over the eight-day holiday period sit at over 2.6, 2.3 and 1.3 billion yuan respectively.
Analyst Chen Jin from Beacon highlighted three trends of China's movie market in that period: Firstly, females have dominated the movie audiences, reaching 63.1% of the total. Secondly, more movies were screened beyond fist-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai and witnessed rising box office revenue in lower-tier cities. Thirdly, a rising number of audience members choose to watch a movie with someone else, especially their family members.