China posted a record US$1.3 billion ($1.76 billion) in box office receipts over the week-long Lunar New Year holiday period, suggesting efforts by Chinese officials to boost consumer spending are working.
Box office sales rose to 9.48 billion yuan compared with the previous year, according to data from the ticketing site Maoyan. That’s a 18% increase from the previous period, when it reached 8.02 billion yuan. The Lunar New Year holiday ran from Jan 28 to Feb 4 this year.
Sequels to fan favorite movies dominated. Ne Zha 2, an animated fantasy adventure film, took the top spot with 4.84 billion yuan. That was followed by Detective Chinatown 1900, the fourth instalment of the comedy-mystery series, with 2.27 billion yuan. Fantasy blockbuster Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force, came in third place with 998 million yuan.
The holiday also shattered records for Imax China, which saw US$53 million in sales, beating its previous record set in 2023 by 57% in US dollar terms. Imax also posted its highest market share of 4% and saw its highest attendance with 5.5 million moviegoers, climb 73% from 2021.
China is home to over 800 Imax theaters, the most in any market globally.
China has sought to boost consumer spending to help bolster its struggling economy. The country’s film authority introduced subsidies worth 600 million yuan at the end of last year. A number of local governments provided cinema vouchers, with banks and online booking platforms also offering discounted tickets between December 2024 and February.
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It marks a turnaround from last year, which saw the country’s box office fall 23% to 42.5 billion yuan, its third-lowest level in the past decade, excluding the pandemic. Despite the increased number of Hollywood films released in China last year, sales of the US films more than halved compared to the peak due to moviegoers’ growing appetite for local productions.
Growing concerns over the fresh trade tensions between the US and China may complicate US studios’ plans to release and promote big films. US titles scheduled for release worldwide this year include Paramount Global’s eighth Mission: Impossible and Walt Disney Co.’s Avatar and Zootopia sequels.
