China's 2024 May Day holiday recorded a box office revenue of 1.527 billion yuan (over 211 million U.S. dollars), according to the data release by China Film Administration Monday, the second largest for this holiday.
A total of eight films were released on May 1, the first day of the five-day holiday, and five of them grossed a box office revenue of over 100 million yuan (about 14 million U.S. dollars).
Among them, Formed Police Unit, an action thriller that tells the story of Chinese peacekeeping police, claimed the top spot on the daily box office chart in the Chinese mainland, grossing 400 million yuan (over 55 million U.S. dollars) .
Comedy The Last Frenzy and the action thriller Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In posted box office revenues of 392 million yuan (over 54 million U.S. dollars) and 255 million yuan (over 35 million U.S. dollars), respectively, ranking second and third on the list.
"This year, we saw a wide variety in subjects and genres of movies. And it was the success of teamwork rather than a particular single one. Previously, it might be the first or first two movies released for the holiday dominated the market, but this year, the first five all posted an over-one-million-yuan box office revenue," said Hu Jianli, a council member of the China Film Critics Association.
Talking about the exceptionally impressive frenzy that the moviegoers showed for the Formed Police Unit, Hu said that the film's director played a significant role in making it a success.
"Its director Lei Daat-chiu is really good at directing the action scenes. He won the Hong Kong Film Awards for best action director, so his action scenes and gun battle scenes are quite impressive. For the first two days of the May Day holiday, the film led the box office revenue by far," said Hu.
After making a turnaround on May 3, The Last Frenzy topped the single-day box office chart for three consecutive days.
"There are quite a lot of punchlines in the movie and it is close to our daily life. The second reason is that its leading roles' acting is of distinctive personal styles, and certain lines and comedy gags in the movie can really amuse the audience. In fact, in the past few years, the holiday movie market has proved again and again that comedies are moviegoers' prime choice if they decide to walk into a cinema in holiday," said Hu, when explaining the film's surprise rise.
Holiday box office grosses 1.527 bln yuan
