China's box office exceeds 2018 target of 60 bln yuan

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China has met its box-office target for 2018 days before the year's end, with movie ticket sales exceeding 60 billion yuan on Saturday, according to the country's largest online movie ticketing service.

Statistics by Maoyan showed that box office sales reached the 60-billion-yuan mark by 5:05 p.m. BJT, including pre-sale tickets.

Whether China could reach the goal it set for its domestic box office had been a hot topic in the film industry since last month's box office receipts exceeded last year's total revenue of 50 billion yuan.

"Operation Red Sea," " Detective Chinatown 2" and "Dying to Survive" were the the top 3 contributors to the box office this year, raking in 3.65 billion yuan, 3.4 billion yuan and 3.1 billion yuan, respectively.

Together, the three films grossed nearly 10.15 billion yuan or 16.9 percent of the annual box office.

The share of the top 15 movies in China's 2018 box office. /Maoyan Data

Meanwhile, "Aquaman" is expected to surpass "Venom" and rise to the seventh place in the box office.

In 2018, a total of 393 domestic films were released in theaters, accounting for 62 percent of the total movies shown in China, with the remaining 38 percent, or 122 films, consisting of imported titles.

Eighty films racked up more than 100 million yuan, of which 16 brought in more than one billion yuan.

According to Maoyan's data, domestic films have outperformed foreign movies this year.

Six of the top 10 box office films so far have been domestic productions, with "Operation Red Sea" topping the list. "Avengers: Infinity War" ranked first among foreign movies, taking in 2.39 billion yuan at the box office.

So far, 14 films are confirmed to debut in China during the 2019 Spring Festival in February. Next year's Spring Festival box office is also expected to set a new record, exceeding that of the 2018 Chinese New Year.