Over the last seven days, China’s box office reached a record-breaking weekly gross of $946 million in ticket sales.
People across China celebrated the traditional Spring Festival holiday this past week, but the country’s film industry had extra celebrations in store.
China’s box office reached a record-breaking weekly gross of $946 million in the last week, while also breaking records for the highest single-day gross ($200 million), the highest single-day audience numbers (30 million) and the highest single-day gross for a single film ($85 million).
The competition has been led by domestic blockbusters, further upsetting established beliefs about Hollywood’s appeal in the world’s second-largest box office.
The Chinese fantasy film « Monster Hunt 2 » led on Feb. 16, the first day of the holiday, with a record $85 million in box-office receipts, according to Entgroup, a Chinese media and entertainment consulting firm. The film’s success contributed to a record-breaking 30 million people going to the movies that day.
On Feb. 18, the adventure comedy « Detective Chinatown Vol. 2 » rose to the top in single-day earnings, with $50 million in ticket sales; it led in cumulative receipts two days later as well, with $251 million. Meanwhile, the underdog military action film « Operation Red Sea » was slowly catching up. It overtook « Detective Chinatown Vol. 2 » in single-day earnings on Feb 22.
By Thursday afternoon, these three films alone had contributed $821 million to China’s total box office. Last year, the entire Spring Festival lineup managed $538 million in the same period, a record at the time.
