Photo: VCG

Real-time data from ticket platform Dengta, shows China's box office revenues in 2021 reached 10 billion yuan ($1.55billion) as of Tuesday morning, the day before the end of the Spring Festival movie season.

The 10-billion-yuan box office performance is a new milestone, surging 2019's record of 5.9 billion yuan. Seven films were released during the Spring Festival holidays, earning more than 6 billion yuan from Thursday to Tuesday. 

The huge box office has boosted the film market as the Chinese film and entertainment sector saw shares surge on Tuesday on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

As of trading close on Tuesday, shares of Alibaba Pictures jumped by 34.58 percent, IMAX China up 31.29 percent, Maoyan up 9.55 percent. Major cinematic technology provider IMAX China leads Chinese film stocks seeing soar 88 percent during trading, a record high since 2018.

The much anticipated suspense comedy Detective Chinatown Vol.3, the heart-warming comedy Hi, Mom, and the star-studded adventure film A Writer's Odyssey are three current pacemakers. 

Detective Chinatown 3, the current leader in ticket sales was shot with IMAX cameras, which has earned 3 billion yuan after five days of showing. Hi, Mom, which was this year's dark horse, has earned nearly 2 billion yuan as of Tuesday, becoming to the most reputable Spring Festival movie on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo, stirring up more than  800 million focuses of netizens. 

According to Bloomberg, China's success of box office this year has been in stark contrast to US movie market as China's theaters have opened while many in the US remain closed during the still raging pandemic. 

During the Spring Festival holidays, China called the public to reduce travel to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Such efforts potentially contributed to the record of Chinese box office as more people celebrate the festival by going to movies, even though theaters follow regulations requiring no more than 75 percent of tickets be sold and despite the increased ticket prices this year. 

"The success shows film's important social function. Even though online platforms are showing excellent films, they cannot replace movie theaters", Shi Wenxue, a Chinese film critic told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

Beyond, Chinese audiences seem to have an increased appetite for Chinese-language films and those depicting Chinese cultural images on the big screen. 

"The 10 billion achievements will likely to bring more confidence to the global film market too," Shi noted. 

Global Times