Chinese Film Market Starts 2024 With Stronger Spring Festival Performance
BEIJING, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- China's 2024 Spring Festival box office revenue reached 3.5 billion yuan (492.7 million U.S. dollars), up about 17 percent year-on-year in the first three days of the festival.
The Spring Festival will be held from February 10 to 17 this year, which is the peak time for movie ticket sales. The eight-day festival is expected to attract more moviegoers to cinemas and is predicted to be a strong start for China's film market in 2024.
Eight films competed for the audience's attention on February 10. Among them, local comedy-drama "YOLO," starring popular comedian Jia Ling, is the highest-grossing film to date, earning more than $1,000 as of Tuesday morning, according to box office tracking firm Dengta Data, 3 billion yuan.
This success was slightly better than the comedy "Pegasus 2", which collected 1.2 billion yuan in the first three days of its release. Written and directed by writer, director and racing driver Han Han, the film will be the sequel to the 2019 Spring Festival Christmas special Pegasus.
In the Spring Festival box office list, the animated film "Boonie Bears: Time Twist" has collected 714 million yuan since its debut and ranked third.
Most of the films premiering at this Spring Festival have a similar feature: they are based on the lives of ordinary people or social issues.
Compared to the film market at spring festivals past, spring moviegoers may not be as excited about blockbusters like The Wandering Earth II, but they may still find something familiar or familiar in the films.
For example, the famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou, who introduced the historical film "Full River Red" to the public a year ago, presented the realistic drama "Article 20". Based on Article 20 of the Chinese Penal Code, the film sparked public debate about how to determine the proper defense to prosecution.
So far, the film has received a rating of 7.9/10 on online Chinese film rating platform Duban, with many critics praising the story and sense of justice.
One reviewer wrote: "Zhang Yimou's real work in recent years." "He was able to show society in small details by showing small aspects of everyday life."
Likewise, "Yolo," which tells the inspiring story of a woman who regains control of her life by training to become a boxer, was well received by audiences for its realistic depiction of overcoming adversity.
Cheng Zhanli, a cinephile from Beijing, shed tears when he saw the film. "I was very impressed by the hero's indomitable spirit," he said.
(Source: Xinhua)
