Maoyan: China's Box Office Revenues Top RMB3.95 Billion During Golden Week Period

BEIJING, Oct. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Maoyan Entertainment ("Maoyan" or "the Company") (Hong Kong: 1896), a leading platform providing innovative Internet-empowered entertainment services in China, released China's box office report for China's combined eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period (October 1 to 8). The report showed that China's box office revenues topped RMB3.95 billion (US$586 million) during the holiday, indicating that the country's film industry is recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The National Day holiday, also known as "Golden Week", was the first major holiday period to occur since China's containment of the Covid-19 pandemic and the gradual reopening of cinemas in late July. This year, the week-long holiday was extended to eight days as it coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival.

A mix of newly released movies and blockbusters delayed from the Spring Festival season earlier this year drove box office revenues, marking this year's Golden Week holiday as the second-highest revenue-generating period for this holiday in Chinese film history.

2020 China National Day Holiday Box Office Highlights

• National box office revenues reached RMB3.95 billion (US$586 million) during the eight-day holiday period from October 1 to 8.
• On October 1, national box revenues generated RMB742 million (US$110 million), making it the best single-day performance of the year.
• As of October 8, 2020, annual box office revenues to date reached RMB12.2 billion (US$1.8 billion), compared to RMB11.3 billion (US$1.68 billion) generated by this time last year.
• During the holiday, 10,600 cinemas, or about 93.6% of all cinemas nationwide, held 3.14 million screenings and attracted 99.64 million visits from moviegoers.
• The top-grossing box office movies during the eight-day holiday were the Chinese anthology drama film "My People, My Homeland" (RMB1.869 billion), Chinese animation movie "Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification" (RMB1.377 billion) and Chinese volleyball biopic "Leap" (RMB357 million).
• On average, moviegoers watched 1.12 movies during the eight-day National Day holiday, compared to an average of 1.18 during 2019's seven-day period.
• Movie going in China's lower-tier cities was a major driving force behind the growth of this holiday's box office revenues.

Chinese Blockbusters Drove Box Office Revenues for National Day Holiday Period

During the National Day holiday period, box office revenues were buoyed by a line-up of domestic blockbusters. The Chinese anthology drama film "My People, My Homeland," consisting of five comedic shorts, topped the box office charts by grossing RMB1.869 billion in revenues. The movie, positioned as a parody of last year's "My People, My Country" film, generated over RMB200 million in daily box office revenues for seven consecutive days.

The animated movie "Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification" placed second by grossing RMB1.377 billion in movie ticket revenues during the holiday period. It broke first-day and first-week box office records for an animated film in China, making it the fastest animated film to top RMB1 billion in revenues in Chinese box office history.

In third place was "Leap," a biopic highlighting China's women's national volleyball team and starring actress Gong Li, brought in RMB357 million during the eight-day holiday.

Amongst the top 5 highest-grossing movies during the Golden Week period, three titles were blockbuster movies which had their release dates pushed back from this year's Spring Festival season: "Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification," "Leap" and "Vanguard," an action movie starring Jackie Chan.

Moviegoers in China's Lower-Tier Cities Drove Holiday Box Office Growth This Year

According to Maoyan data, a total of 99.64 million visits to cinemas across China occurred during the Golden Week period. Approximately 10,600 cinemas across the country were open to the public, averaging 12.45 million visits per day.

Compared with 2019's Golden Week period, the proportion of visits to cinemas in tier-1, tier-2 and tier-3 cities dropped slightly this year. The proportion of visits to cinemas in tier-4 and other cities grew from 27.5% to 28.7%.

The rise of movie going activities in lower-tier cities was the culmination of pent-up travel demand that was delayed from this year's Spring Festival period, as much travel was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, many people returned to their hometowns during this year's Golden Week period. Data showed that the proportion of visits to cinemas that happened in non-residence cities rose from 28% during 2019's National Day holiday to 31% this year.

In short, this year's box office figures for the Golden Week period indicated strong signs of recovery for the box office and film industry, as cinemas only started opening to the public in late July. This holiday period showed that demand has bounced back, driven by a mix of newly released films and blockbuster films that saw their releases delayed from the earlier Spring Festival period.

About Maoyan Entertainment

Maoyan Entertainment (Hong Kong: 1896) is a leading platform providing innovative Internet-empowered entertainment services in China. Since its inception, Maoyan has grown from an online movie ticketing service provider to an innovative one-stop platform for entertainment services. Maoyan has a comprehensive strategy to become a leading platform servicing the entire entertainment industry in China. The upgraded strategy is supported by five key platform pillars: comprehensive entertainment ticketing platform, products platform, data platform, marketing platform, and financing platform.

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