China's box office, including pre-sales for the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holidays starting on Friday, has reached 140 million yuan ($21.02 million) as of press time, exceeding 100 million yuan on Saturday, data from domestic ticketing platform Maoyan showed.

The domestic movie market has recovered and even surpassed pre-epidemic levels in terms of number of new films and cinema screenings, but the box office hasn't been able to catch up due to the resurgence of COVID-19 outbreaks and strict epidemic prevention measures, according to a report by GF Securities.

The box office recovery in the US has been significantly slower than China, tied to the number of people still avoiding large gathering, and a drop in new releases, said the report.

The 2022 domestic box office is expected to reach 415 million yuan if cinemas across resume normal operation from June onwards, recovering to about 70 percent of 2019 levels, according to GF Securities.

Moreover, China's box office has the potential to grow by 62 percent to 673 million yuan in 2023 if the social production and life is fully returned to normal.

Domestic tourism is also recovering steadily during the holidays as local COVID-19 flare-ups have been gradually tamed, and in particular the improved situation in both Shanghai and Beijing.

Passenger journeys are also picking up, with 6.4 million passengers expected to travel by train on Sunday, according to the China Railway. The national railroad has been carrying an average of 5.4 million passengers per day from June 2 to June 5, an increase of more than 2 million over levels recorded during the May Day holidays.

Data from travel agency Ctrip showed that the total number of travel product orders booked through the platform on Dragon Boat Festival increased by 37 percent nationwide compared with the first day of the May Day holidays.

Global Times