Domestic movies have again dominated the box office during China's 2018 National Day holiday. But unlike last year, when box office figures reached 2.7 billion yuan, this year saw a decline.

During the Golden Week from September 30th to October 7th, the mainland box office earned 1.9 billion yuan, or around 275 million US dollars. It's a lot for one week, but is still down 27 percent on 2017 figures. That's according to Mtime, one of China's biggest online ticketing platforms.

Eleven movies from genres such as action, animation, comedy to fantasy were competing for viewers over the week-long holiday.

The biggest winner was Chinese mainland-Hong Kong co-production 'Project Gutenberg', which earned 683 million yuan or just under a hundred million US dollars.

Starring Hong Kong actors Chow Yun Fat and Aaron Kwok, the movie surpassed the highly anticipated comedy 'Hello, Mrs. Money' and Zhang Yimou's 'Shadow' to reach the top spot by its third day on release.

Mahua FunAge's 'Hello, Mrs. Money' failed to live up to expectations. It took only 515 million yuan, or under 75 million dollars, landing in second place.

Coming in third was Zhang Yimou's period movie 'Shadow', which pulled in 453 million yuan, or almost 66 million dollars.

Wang Wenliang is duty manager of one of the busiest cinemas in Beijing, UME in Shuangjing. He said the box office decline was due to the poor quality of the comedy movies released during the holiday.

WANG WENLIANG, DUTY MANAGER SHUANGJING UME "Nowadays many moviegoers prefer comedies, but 'Fat Buddies' and 'Hello, Mrs. Money' released this holiday failed the expectations of many viewers due to poor quality, even though they gained high box office sales in their first few days. Zhang Yimou's period movie 'Shadow' is of high quality, however it's not so acceptable for many viewers, as they say it's hard to follow the plotline."

Despite the decline in the holiday movie market, many moviegoers believe the quality of Chinese movies is improving. This encourages them to choose domestic productions when they go to the cinema.

"I used to prefer Hollywood blockbusters, but now domestic movies will also be my choice because their quality is improving."

"The quality of domestic movies is improving. Now we have 'Wolf Warriors 2' and 'Operation Red Sea'. I think they're as good as Hollywood blockbusters."

"I used to be fascinated with Hollywood movies, but we are seeing great improvements in domestic movies, especially in visual effects. I prefer domestic movies when I go to the cinema."

Comedy 'Fat Buddies' earned 198 million yuan or almost 29 million dollars, to take fourth place.

Drama 'Lost, Found' was the highest-ranked new release. It pulled in 59.7 million yuan or 8.6 million dollars in three days for fifth place.