China's film industry reached a historic milestone over the New Year holiday, with box-office takings soaring to 1.533 billion yuan (approximately $215 million) from December 30, 2023, to January 1, 2024. This surge marks the highest earnings ever recorded during this festive period.
Leading the charge were popular films such as \"Shining for One Thing,\" \"Johnny Keep Walking,\" \"The Gold Finger,\" \"I Did It My Way,\" and \"If You Are the One 3,\" all securing top positions in the holiday box-office charts.
Tencent-backed Maoyan Entertainment, a leading Chinese movie-ticketing platform, reported unprecedented numbers for New Year's Day 2024. The day saw 36.164 million admissions and 1.402 million screenings, setting a new record for the total number of screenings on New Year's Day in China's cinematic history.
The success extended beyond the holiday, with 2023 overall box-office takings reaching 54.915 billion yuan. Domestic films played a significant role, contributing approximately 46 billion yuan, which accounts for 83.77 percent of the total revenue.
Of the 73 films that surpassed the 100 million yuan mark, 50 were domestically produced. Moreover, the top 10 box-office rankings were exclusively occupied by domestic movies, highlighting the strong performance of China's local film industry.
Maoyan further highlighted the achievements of director Zhang Yimou, who emerged as the highest-grossing director of 2023 with cumulative box-office takings of 5.895 billion yuan. Zhang's major directorial works this year, including \"Full River Red\" and \"Under the Light,\" solidified his position, with \"Under the Light\" becoming the highest-grossing film of 2023, amassing an impressive 4.544 billion yuan in box-office revenue.
Reference(s):
Chinese cinemas see record box-office takings over New Year holiday
cgtn.com
