China's Spring Festival box office record spirals upward

The Spring Festival box office on the Chinese mainland has notched up another 1.6 billion yuan (around $248.4 million). It follows beating 2019's record of 5.9 billion yuan on Monday.

The total receipts during the week-long holiday have reached 7.58 billion yuan as of 4 pm on Wednesday, according to Chinese movie-ticketing and film data platform Maoyan.

Given the movie season's momentum, a higher benchmark is still likely, even though the holiday will wind down at midnight.

Top contributors include Detective Chinatown 3 and time-travel comedy Hi, Mom. Detective Chinatown 3 has generated a revenue of 3.5 billion yuan or 46 percent of the movie season's total takings by Wednesday afternoon. Hi, Mom, for its part, has raked in 2.6 billion yuan during the same period, accounting for 34 percent of the total takings.

More than 155 million tickets have been sold since Thursday, the day when the holiday began, according to box office tracker Dengta Data.

According to China Film News, the holiday box office crept up over 6 billion yuan on Monday, breaking the record set in 2019.

The jump-start in China's Spring Festival box office came after the COVID-19 outbreak forced an unprecedented cancelation or postponement of movie releases during the same movie season in early 2020.

The Spring Festival is a lucrative movie season in China as movie-going has become an increasingly prominent pastime for Chinese people during this holiday.