Strong pre-sales ahead of Dragon Boat Festival demonstrate China's robust film market

Promotional material of Lost in the Stars Photo: Courtesy of Maoyan

Chinese film data analysts say the current strong pre-sales for the Dragon Boat Festival holiday (June 22-24) demonstrate the strength and healthy recovery of the Chinese market.

According to Chinese ticketing platform Beacon, as of Sunday afternoon, the total pre-sales for the film period had exceeded 31.83 million yuan ($4.47 million). Among them, presales for domestic-made crime and suspense film Lost in the Stars starring Zhu Yilong and Yi Ni have taken a significant lead with 14.89 million yuan, while Chinese film Love Never Ends ranks at second with 12.79 million yuan.

Love Never Ends, starring veteran actors Ni Dahong, Kara Wai, Tony Leung and Ye Tong, was pre-screened at the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival, where reviews described it as "full of warmth and care for reality and humanity, with excellent and wonderful performances by the actors."

According to the current holiday film slate, in addition to these two films, 10 new films across a variety of genres such as suspense, crime, drama, romance, family and animation will make their debut. For the non-traditional blockbuster period of the Dragon Boat Festival, this film lineup can be described as reaching "a high point" in terms of both quantity and quality.

According to the Beacon, after 2014, the total box office for the film period rose rapidly and then remained stable at around 700 million to 900 million yuan until 2019. The record for the period is 912 million yuan in 2018.

Chen Jin, an analyst at Beacon Professional Edition, told the Global Times on Sunday that based on the current situation, the presales total for the current holiday is comparable with pre-pandemic levels, showing that the healthy recovery of the box office is something "very much worth looking forward to."