China’s extended “super golden week” holiday saw cinemas’ box-office revenues slump compared to last year’s National Day break, but nationwide takings since the start of the year have already exceeded the total for all of 2024.
Advertisement
According to box-office tracker Dengta Data, cinemas raked in 1.83 billion yuan (US$257 million) during the eight-day holiday, which ended on Wednesday. That was the second-lowest total since 2017 and down from the 2.1 billion yuan reported for the regular seven-day National Day holiday last year.
This year’s ticket sales were roughly on par with those in 2015. The weakest performance since then was in 2022, when sweeping pandemic lockdowns across China dragged the holiday box office to just 1.5 billion yuan.
The National Day holiday – extended this year because Monday’s Mid-Autumn Festival coincided with the golden week – is traditionally China’s second most lucrative film season, trailing only the weeklong Spring Festival or Lunar New Year period.
Major releases are typically timed for the two long holidays in an effort to capture higher audience turnout and spending. Annual National Day box-office revenue peaked at 5 billion yuan in 2019.
Advertisement
Cinemas attracted 50 million film-goers during this year’s National Day period, down from 52 million during the same holiday last year. Domestic films accounted for 98.9 per cent of total ticket sales, up 3 percentage points year on year.
An increase in screenings, lower ticket prices and an extra day off were not enough to entice film-goers to turn out in greater numbers. Total screenings were up 12 per cent year on year to 3.65 million, while the average ticket cost 36.6 yuan – 3.8 yuan less than last year.