Promotional material for Endless Journey Photo: Courtesy of Douban

The global film market has rapidly recovered from the pandemic and witnessed the release of several blockbuster hits this year. As the year comes to a close, and with the festive season fast approaching, the film industry is making its final push to release new films. 

According to Chinese online ­ticketing platform Maoyan, there are over 70 films scheduled for release during the 2023 year-end holiday season, which runs from November 24 to December 31. With that being said, there might be an average of two movies released each day during the year-end holiday season. 

The year-end holiday season holds special significance for China's film industry and many top-tier directors in China tend to choose this period to release their films, anticipating big box office returns.  

Holiday season movie going has become a "new folk custom" in recent years. According to Shi Wenxue, a film critic based in Beijing, more and more people decide to go out and catch a movie with family members and friends as it has become a lifestyle choice in line with social changes in people's lives. 

Promotional material for If You Are the One III Photo: Courtesy of Douban

Domestic domination

Domestic productions have dominated the year-end holiday season. Wanda Pictures' Endless Journey, If You Are the One III directed by famed Chinese director Feng Xiaogang, Shining for One Thing adapted from a popular TV series, and the historic action movie Heroes of Dunhuang are just a few of the offerings to have made or are expected to make a strong box office revenue in this season.

Some films have already piqued public curiosity before their release. If You Are the One III, starring Ge You and Shu Qi, the same lead actors as in previous installments, is set to be released on December 30. The impending release has also generated much buzz on social media. According to Maoyan, videos related to the film had exceeded 830 million views on Douyin as of Tuesday evening. 

The film's director Feng is considered to be one of China's most celebrated directors. According to Variety, China and Netherlands-based Fortissimo Films have picked up international sales rights to If You Are the One III.

Promotional material for Shining for One Thing Photo: Courtesy of Douban

Shining for One Thing is also set to hit the big screens on December 30. The film is adapted from a ­Chinese romance drama of the same name and also serves as a ­continuation of the TV series. The TV drama aired in 2022 was ­especially well received by the younger audiences given its high school romance and mystery storyline.

The movie version of the TV drama retained the same lead actors in the cast and appears to have done a successful job in attracting fans to movie theaters for the remake. As of Tuesday, on Maoyan alone, 1.73 million users had placed the sequel on their "want to watch" list. 

"Even if the movie is poorly adapted, I will give a full score to it, as the release of the movie has already met our expectation, giving us a chance to continue the journey and the love story with the ­protagonists," wrote a netizen on Chinese media review platform Douban.  

On December 5, Shining for One Thing launched pre-sales that exceeded 60 million yuan ($8.36 million) on the first day. Surpassing the first-day pre-sales record held by Detective Chinatown 3 of 59.55 million yuan, it made first-day opening presale history in China, reported domestic media outlet thepaper.cn. 

Promotional materials for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Photo: Courtesy of Douban

Super IPs

Foreign films with super IPs are also showing great promise in China's cinemas. Having derived a huge fan base from Conan IP enthusiasts in China, Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine for instance, is set to be released in China on December 16.

The superhero IP Aquaman also enjoys box-office dominance in the Chinese film market. Following Christopher Nolan, the first major Hollywood figure to have visited Beijing on a promotional tour since the pandemic, actor Jason Momoa and celebrated director James Wan hit the ground running in their journey through China to promote the superhero film's sequel.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is set to be released on December 20 in China, two days before it opens in North America. The pair visited several cities in China including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou to promote the film.

"We attribute a lot of the success of the first movie to our film kicking off here in China and the Chinese audience embracing it. So we're ­super excited to be back here doing it with this one," said Wan in Beijing. 

Meanwhile, Zhang Peng, a film researcher at Nanjing ­University's National Research Center of ­Cultural Industries, told the Global Times, "Box office success is no longer guaranteed for foreign films in the Chinese film market. More domestic films have entered the box office top performance list, which also shows that the development of the Chinese film industry is ­becoming increasingly rational and stable, and a stable ecology of ­production and distribution, screening, and consumption of domestic films have gradually been established."