Movie-goers enjoy themselves at a cinema in Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi Province, on Thursday. 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

China's box office, including pre-sales for the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday that started on Friday, reached 178 million yuan ($26 million), with 79.73 percent of cinemas nationwide resuming normal operation as of press time, and it exceeded 100 million yuan on Saturday, data from ticketing platform Maoyan showed.

The domestic movie market has recovered and even surpassed pre-epidemic levels in terms of the number of new films and 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. 

Data from Maoyan showed that there were 1.05 million screenings as of press time with 4.78 million tickets sold across the country, while 9,646 cinemas are now operating.

In comparison, the box office for the Dragon Boat Festival holiday in 2021 exceeded 460 million, which at that time was the lowest since 2015. 

Affected by domestic COVID-19 outbreaks, the box office for the five-day May Day holidays in 2022 reached 297 million yuan, data from ticking platforms showed. Meanwhile, the box office for this year's Qingming Festival from April 3 to 5 totaled 120 million yuan, as fewer than 50 percent of the country's cinemas were operating.  

As for the recovery of China's box office in the post-epidemic era, due to the lack of quality imported films and the resurgence of domestic outbreaks, the box office for the off season will probably be maintained at 50 to 60 percent of the level in 2019, data from Top Consulting showed. 

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

The 2022 domestic box office is expected to reach 415 million yuan if cinemas across the country 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 reach 673 million yuan in 2023 if social production and life are fully restored to normal. 

Domestic tourism also recovered steadily during the holidays as local COVID-19 flare-ups were tamed, and in particular there were improved situations in Shanghai and Beijing, two of the country's largest cities.

Beijing announced on Sunday plans to gradually lift epidemic restrictions starting Monday, including a resumption of dining in restaurants in most districts and reopening of major cultural and entertainment places such as cinemas, museums, art galleries and other spaces at 75 percent capacity.  

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 carried 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 holiday. 

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

Global Times