BEIJING, Dec. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- China's 2019 box office has beaten the record set last year, and is on the way to set a new record high, according to data from Maoyan Entertainment ("Maoyan" or "the Company") (Hong Kong: 1896), a leading platform providing innovative Internet-empowered entertainment services in China.
The annual box office record of RMB60.7 billion (US$8.67 billion) set in 2018 was surpassed on December 13 of this year, Maoyan's data shows.
Domestic movies have become the key driver for box office growth in China. For each important movie season this year, there were high-grossing blockbuster domestic movies that made significant contributions to the box office.
During the Chinese New Year holiday in February, the busiest time for the nation's movie industry for the whole year, the science fiction blockbuster "The Wandering Earth" earned more than RMB2 billion over seven days and became China's third highest-grossing film of all time with total box office hitting RMB4.65 billion. "Crazy Alien" and "Pegasus" were also very successful and ranked among the top ten movies at the box office for the year.
In the summer, "Ne Zha", an animation fantasy adventure film released in July, brought in nearly RMB5 billion as the most successful movie for the year. With "Ne Zha", "The Bravest" and other domestic movies, the box office for the summer reached RMB17.64 billion, up 2% from last year.
Three domestic movies, "My People, My Country", "The Captain" and "The Climbers", helped drive the box office for China's National Day holiday (October 1 to 7) to RMB4.38 billion, a record for this holiday and an increase of 129% over the same period last year. In October, the total China box office hit RMB8.167 billion, surging 119% over the same month last year.
Among the top 10 movies so far this year, eight were Chinese films, with a combined box office of RMB22.6 billion. Only two were imported, including "Avengers: Endgame" (No.3, RMB4.24 billion) and "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" (No.10, RMB1.43 billion).
The movie market in China has increasingly polarized with top blockbusters taking more and more market share. The revenues of "The Wandering Earth" and "Ne Zha" reached RMB9.62 billion, almost one-sixth of China's total box office this year.
Besides the few blockbusters, China needs more high-quality movies to drive the steady growth of the box office. This year, there were some small-budget quality movies that became box office dark horses, including "Song of Youth", "The Legend of Hei" and "White Snake".
High-quality content and good word-of-mouth are now playing a vital role in a movie's box office success. With online platforms, such as Maoyan, social media and short videos, the internet has become the most effective channel for good movies to reach the target audience and generate good word-of-mouth for the box office success.
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: online ticketing platform, products and services platform, data platform, marketing platform, and funding platform.
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ICR Inc.
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