Movie-goers enjoy themselves at a cinema in Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi Province. The Chinese mainland box office totaled 3.69 billion yuan ($544.33 million) during the first seven days of the National Day holiday period, the second highest grossing amount in history for the same period, data showed. Photo: cnsphoto

The film box office during the coming May Day holiday in China may reach 1.7 billion yuan ($260.34 million), increasing 11.6 percent from the same period in 2019, which might show a solid recovery of the coronavirus-hit film industry, said China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC), a leading investment bank, in its research report on Wednesday. 

The official holiday plan of 2021 May Day holiday from May 1 to May 5 was revealed on Monday. According to the data from Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan, there are 14 films that are planning to be screened during the May Day holiday season. 

Romance movie My Love and suspense film Home Sweet Home have received the movie-goers' most interests. 

CICC report suggested that the specific film season is positive for the revenues of the film industry, which is expected to boost share prices of the movie companies.

"It is estimated that the daily box office in Qingming Festival five-day holiday will reach 300 million yuan, the total box office of May Day holiday is expected to reach 1.5 - 2 billion yuan," said Shi Wenxue, a film critic based in Beijing and a Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) judge, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

However, Shi noted that the final box office may be influenced by people's willingness to go to cinemas and the quality of the films put on show during the holiday.