Many Chinese chose to celebrate the first day of the Year of the Snake by watching movies on Wednesday, leading to record sales at the cinema box office.
According to Dengta Data, a company that tracks Chinese box office sales, box office sales during the Spring Festival holiday, including pre-sold tickets, exceeded two billion yuan (over $276 million) as of 4:23 p.m. on Wednesday.
Six films are scheduled to be released during the holidays: The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero, Ne Zha 2, Chinatown 1900, Creation of the Gods II: Demon Power, Operation Hadal a Bubba Bears: The Future Reborn. Each of the first four named films crossed the 200 million yuan mark in ticket pre-sales, making it the most successful pre-sale period in history.
The six films offer a diverse range of genres and themes to satisfy a wide range of audience preferences. Compared to last year's Spring Festival, which was dominated by comedies and dramas, this year's selection includes mythology, epic stories, war stories, action adventures, martial arts, animation, comedies and science fiction. This wide variety ensures that there is something for everyone and filmgoers are in for a treat.
A resident of the eastern Chinese city of Dongying with the surname Li shared his enthusiasm with China Media Group (CMG). "There are so many great films this year. Whether it's 'Chinatown 1900', 'No Zha 2' or 'Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero', they all celebrate traditional Chinese culture," Li said.
Since the film Detective Chinatown 1900 filmed even in his home province of Shandong, Li said he bought tickets for his family to watch it on the first day of the Year of the Snake.
This year's Spring Festival season is also notable for the number of special effects blockbusters that boast the highest "special effects quotient" in the history of the holiday movie season.
In addition, many cinemas have upgraded their facilities and expanded their services to provide a more comfortable and better viewing experience.
To further enhance the cinema-going experience, cinemas across the country have launched a series of promotional activities.
Huang Qianyu, a cinema manager in the city of Yichun in East China's Jiangxi province, told CMG: "To improve the quality of the viewing experience, the cinema has introduced a new 20-metre wide transparent LED screen that offers audiences a whole new way of watching films."
Huang added that the cinema has also launched online discount packages to help audiences make the most of the Spring Festival film season.
With such a strong line-up and enhanced audience experience, the 2025 Spring Festival film season is kicking off in record time and promises to be an unforgettable celebration of Chinese cinema.
CMG/ gnews - RoZ
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