Box office sees lucrative May holiday gains

BEIJING－China's box-office revenue during the five-day May Day holiday hit a record high of nearly 1.67 billion yuan ($258 million).

Data from the China Film Administration shows that it is more than the 2019 ticket sales of 1.61 billion yuan in that same period.

Holidays are usually lucrative movie seasons in China. The gains from this holiday further boost the market's growth this year that started with record-high New Year's Day earnings, bringing the current box-office total to approximately 22.3 billion yuan.

According to official figures, movie theaters across China saw a total of more than 44 million moviegoers over the five-day period.

Domestic titles contributed to more than 96 percent of holiday ticket sales, with the top seven earners being Chinese productions.

My Love, a romantic drama from Enlight Pictures, topped this year's May Day holiday sales amassing about 511 million yuan. It was immediately followed by Cliff Walkers, a movie marking renowned director Zhang Yimou's first foray into the spy genre, which grossed 504 million yuan.

The two films each accounted for more than 30 percent of the holiday sales total.

Crime thriller Home Sweet Home ranked third with 190 million yuan, or 11 percent of the holiday sales total. It stars singer-actor Aaron Kwok, as well as 20-year-old Zhang Zifeng who has recently become an online sensation due to her role in the hit drama Sister.

Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong, a crime thriller starring Louis Koo, Tony Leung Ka Fai and Francis Ng, pocketed 161 million yuan.

Break Through the Darkness, a crime action tentpole telling the story of China's fight against organized crime, raked in 114 million yuan.

Analysts say the latest figures once again indicate the close relationship between China's movie market performance and the holidays.

Yin Hong, vice-chairman of the China Film Association and a professor at Tsinghua University, says the holiday movie period did not see a single player dominating the box office, but a close-knit competition involving films of a variety of genres.

Among the packed lineup of titles released on April 30 and May 1 were films in the spy, thriller, comedy, animation and romance genres.

Cliff Walkers is set in 1930s Harbin, and it is about Communist Party special agents as they engage in a battle of wits against their enemies to complete a secret mission.

Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association, spoke highly of the storytelling and production quality of Zhang's new film.

"It is not only Zhang's personal breakthrough in terms of film genre and narrative exploration, but it is also an expansion and breakthrough for China's new patriotic films," Rao says.

When asked how he created well-received films, Zhang says it is important to portray the characters' stories well.

"There is no shortcut. Let the audience be moved by the emotions of the characters and the brilliance of human nature," he says.

"Some moviegoers have told me that they understood the bravery of the country's heroic revolutionary forefathers through this movie, which makes me believe I have done a meaningful thing."

While the holiday box-office peak is closely related to the mature film consumption habits of the Chinese audience during the holidays, industry observers have called for more quality films and the cultivation of a regular film-viewing habit apart from the holidays to promote the high-quality development of China's movie industry.

Yin says there is a need to see more quality titles on regular release schedules like weekends, and the importance of providing the audience with more movie choices.

Xinhua