Holiday box office revenue hits 1.6b yuan
Print Edition
The box office revenue on the Chinese mainland during the May Day holiday, from May 1 to 5, had reached 1.6 billion yuan (US$247.2 million) as of 5pm yesterday, the country’s film regulator said.
Romantic drama “My Love” and spy thriller “Cliff Walkers” were the top earners, pocketing 490 million yuan and 474 million yuan, respectively, according to data by the China Film Administration.
A total of 12 films, the largest number ever, were released in hopes of benefiting from the lucrative five-day national holiday. The holiday has seen steady growth in recent years and has become one of the busiest times for movie screenings after the seven-day Spring Festival holiday and the National Day holiday.
Despite the post-pandemic shadow, the total earnings surpassed 450 million yuan on May 1, the second highest daily box office takings in May Day holiday history. And the first two days of the holiday together saw 79 million yuan in box office revenue, making up 70 percent of the week’s earnings, according to the box office tracker Maoyan.
“My Love,” starring actor Greg Hsu and actress Zhang Ruonan, dominated Maoyan’s weekly chart, with 424 million yuan in three days. Adapted from the 2018 South Korean movie “On Your Wedding Day,” the film tells a love story between a couple that lasts for 15 years since high school.
This was followed by award-winning director Zhang Yimou’s spy thriller “Cliff Walkers” at 253 million yuan. Boasting veteran actors Zhang Yi, Yu Hewei, Qin Hailu and Zhu Yawen, the film depicts four special agents of the Communist Party of China carrying out a secret operation against enemy’s suppression in the snow city of Harbin, northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province.
Among the 12 newly released films, 11 were domestic productions, with “Cliff Walkers” enjoying the highest rating of 7.7 out of 10 on film-reviewing platform Douban.
Little wonder that it caught up with “My Love” in daily box office earnings four days since its release on April 30, but still needs some time to surpass the latter in total earnings.
The suspense thriller “Home Sweet Home,” directed by Hong Kong’s Leste Chen, came in third. Focusing on the lives of a family of four after the intrusion of a mysterious visitor, the film brings together veteran actors Aaron Kwok and Duan Yihong and post-2000s talents Zhang Zifeng and Rong Zishan.
Zhang gained much acclaim recently for her role in the hit film “Sister” released during the Qingming Festival holiday this April and Rong won praise for his role in last year’s blockbuster web series “The Bad Kids,” raising filmgoers’ expectations for their performances.
Crime films “Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong” and “Break through the Darkness” came in fourth and fifth, respectively. The former, starring Hong Kong A-listers Louis Koo Tin-lok and Tony Leung Ka-fai, portrays prosecutors’ investigation of a corrupt top police officer, while the latter is the first domestic film themed on the operation by the national office against organized crime.
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