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Statistics from China's entertainment industries during the five-day May Day holiday witnessed significant rebounds and several new revenue records, demonstrating the huge potential of the Chinese market.
Box office revenues on the Chinese mainland during the May Day holiday had reached 1.67 billion yuan ($258 million) by Wednesday, the final day of the holiday, the box office tracking agency and big data platform Beacon announce in an insight report on Thursday.
Highlights at the cinema included the romantic drama My Love,” which grossed 509 million yuan, while Zhang Yimou's spy thriller Cliff Walkers grossed 502 million. Crime thriller Home Sweet Home ranked third, taking 190 million yuan.
Interestingly, My Love holds its unlikely position as the highest-growing film over the holiday period as it was largely panned by critics and viewers. However, it wasn’t alone and across the more than 10 films that hit screens during the week, the majority received bad reviews, which will likely affect their future potential in the market.
The films that received largely positive reviews, meanwhile, look set to eventually prevail. For example, Zhang’s Cliff Walkers, with its positive reviews from the critics and audiences, looks to overtake My Love in overall takings soon. Also, China's first film about its crackdown on organized crime, Break Through the Darkness, had the least showings nationwide as well as the lowest earnings at the beginning of the holiday but has since started to climb the box office chart thanks to an increasing number of positive reviews.
All in all, despite the lack of high-quality blockbusters and millions of people preferring to spend the break traveling, cinemas still witnessed 43.94 million admissions from 2.26 million screenings during the holiday. Those figures set new records for the May Day film season, including for the total box office takings, the number of admissions, and the number of screenings.
Music fans gather at the Midi Music Festival in Jinan, Shandong province, on May 2, 2021. [Photo/VCG]
Besides flocking to see films, citizens were keen to see live performances too, as evidenced by an insight report released by ticketing platform Damai on May 6. According to its own statistics, more than 3,800 offline professional art performances were held during the holiday. Among them, live music, music festivals, and stand-up comedy performances did well at the box office, with 250% more performances compared to the same period in 2019.
Over 40% of Damai users decided to spend their vacation and leisure time going to music festivals, with 60% traveling to other cities to watch performances. Also according to Damai, there were 56 music festivals, including Midi Music Festival and Strawberry Music Festival, held across China over the holiday, an increase of 37% over the same period in 2019. Takings and attendance also increased by 252% and 173% year-on-year, respectively. It is worth noting that many music festivals were held in “tourist cities,” helping these areas realize the idea of cultural projects helping tourism boom as well as helping emerging music festivals and brands to catch the attention of larger crowds across the country.
Additionally, the China Association of Performing Arts calculated that there were approximately 14,000 various performances nationwide during the holiday, with box office revenues reaching 860 million yuan and admissions exceeding 6 million.
（中国网英文）
