Domestic hits push China's National Day box office past 1 billion yuan

Led by the strong performance of domestic films, China's National Day holiday box office crossed the 1-billion-yuan mark (around $149.2 million) on October 6, the second last day of the weeklong holiday season.

Among the top five highest-grossing movies of this year's National Day holiday, three are domestic productions, with the crime thriller "Traces of Justice" and the family comedy "Mr. and Mrs. Pardon" taking the top two spots and jointly securing over 50% of the total revenue, according to industry platform 1905.com. Meanwhile, the anti-war film "Once Upon a Time in the Middle East," released in August, continues to hold strong at the fourth spot.

The stage for Chinese films extends far beyond domestic cinemas. A number of films released in the National Day holiday season have officially announced their plans for global releases.

The holiday hit "Traces of Justice" is set to land in Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions as well as Singapore and Germany on October 15. It will be released in Malaysia on October 22 and several other countries, including the UK, US, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, at the end of October. The crime action film "Go for Broke 2" will also be launched overseas this month. It is set to premiere in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia on October 15 before officially being released in the United Kingdom and Ireland the following day and the North American market on October 23.

Industry experts say China's film market is shifting from pure box-office competition to broader success in terms of content, services and deeper audience engagement, while at the same time on global screens, Chinese films are also moving from "being noticed" to "being remembered."