Domestic movies to overload festival
By Qin Zhongwei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-12 10:16
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Movie fans will be overloaded with choice this lunar festival as the city prepares for what experts say will be the most hectic film season ever.
"The number of movies to debut during the Spring Festival is more than in all other years," Kang Xuejun, manager of New Century Cinema, told METRO. He estimated there would be 40 percent more films compared to the same period in 2009.
Kang's observation was echoed by Wu Juan, from the media office of UME, another famous cinema chain in the capital.
"From now until Feb 16, there will be seven to eight new movies, which means at least one new film every two days. This has never happened before," Wu from UME's Huaxing cinema said.
The period from late December to early February is typically the busiest of the year for Chinese box offices.
But this year is particularly heavy with some 40 new movies set to premiere, according to local media reports.
Although Chinese movies have until recently been competing with Hollywood blockbuster Avatar, which grabbed 700 million yuan from Chinese mainland box offices by the end of January, the main competition over the festival will be between domestic rivals.
"Besides two or three Hollywood films, the rest are Chinese with various genres like Kungfu, cartoon and romantic love stories," said Wu.
This year is already off to a great start. Last month, UME's Huaxing outlet brought in almost 15 million yuan for the previous month, a record for a single movie theater in a mainland city thanks to the release of Avatar - and the success is likely to continue, according to Wu.
"Although the 15 million yuan record will be difficult to break, 10 million yuan won't be a big problem this month," she said.
The overlap of Valentine's Day with the Spring Festival this year is yet another recipe for success.
Chen Yan, 26, from Heilongjiang province who recently married her boyfriend, plans to celebrate the Spring Festival in cinematic style.
"We hope to spend the night in the cinema by watching Avatar," Chen said.
"This was the best way I could think to spend our time on the first day of the festival," she added.