Movie Box Office Sales During China’s Spring Festival Holiday Reach $992M
According to Dengta, a Chinese movie data platform, the total box office proceeds from movies debuting during this year’s Spring Festival holiday reached 6.734 billion yuan ($992 million), ranking second in Chinese film history and exceeding the 6.039 billion yuan recorded in 2022.
The total number of people that watched movies in the Spring Festival this year reached 129 million – 10 million more than those in 2022. Jiangsu Province was the box office champion for the Spring Festival for the third consecutive year. Compared with 2022, individual movie attendance has decreased, with an average of 48.6 people watching a movie and an average fare of 52.3 yuan.
Movies with many types and diverse themes, such as comedy, suspense, science fiction, spy and war, family, and animation meet the needs of groups with different preferences. The average film length increased to 130 minutes, an increase of 21 minutes compared to last year.
This year, the two films’ box office surpassed 2 billion yuan. “Full River Red” obtained 2.596 billion yuan in box office sales, with its comedic elements and patriotism, ranking first, and “The Wandering Earth 2” became the highest-profile movie this year, with 2.3 billion yuan in box office sales.
The high box office sales come from the increasing number of cinemas and high-quality content. There are 11,544 cinemas with box office income on January 22. The six films have their own characteristics regardless of box office figures, and they are loved by their target audiences to varying degrees. At present, the average score of them on Taopiaopiao and Maoyan, two online movie ticketing service providers, is 9.3 points, and that on Douban, Chinese social media and review site, is 7.3 points.
Analysis and discussion around this year’s films has continued on major social platforms. In addition to comments on the plot and special effects of The Wandering Earth 2, the audience also set off a wave of discussion upsurge in astronomy, military science, astrophysics, network science, cryptography, artificial intelligence, cyberspace and many other areas.
At the beginning of The Wandering Earth 2’s release, some partners launched branded merchandise based on the film, and with the continuous expansion of the film’s influence, the total amount of branded merchandise crowdfunding exceeded 40 million yuan.
SEE ALSO: “The Wandering Earth 2” Surpasses $15M in China’s Pre-Sale Box Office
Many exoskeleton robots in The Wandering Earth 2 come from robot company ULS Robotics. The firm said that the real version of the exoskeleton robot has been produced in small batches, and will be used for civilian products. The company even published a lucky draw on Weibo, with the prize of a mass-produced exoskeleton product. The post has been forwarded nearly 140,000 times, and netizens marveled in their comments, “This is not an illusion, but a technological application.”
As for “Deep Sea,” which pays attention to the inner world of a few marginal groups, and “Hidden Blade,” which uses fragmented narrative techniques to present spy war themes, although their quality is still good, their temperament does not fit the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival holiday, and they were unfavorable in terms of film arrangement time and the distribution in cinemas.
Sports biopic “Ping-Pong of China” was released on January 24, but its performance failed to meet expectations amid fierce competition. It only took in 29.25 million yuan at the box office on its premiere day, ranking seventh. On January 25, the film’s developer announced its withdrawal and adjusted to small-scale screenings from January 26.
