China's 2025 three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday box office had exceeded 300 million yuan (about 41.3 million U.S. dollars) as of 15:57 Saturday, showing a significant increase over the same period last year, according to online ticketing platforms.
Hollywood blockbuster "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" has emerged as the clear frontrunner with more than 122 million revenue (about 16.9 million U.S. dollars), demonstrating the enduring appeal of the action franchise among Chinese moviegoers.
The holiday lineup also features multiple animated films catering to the International Children's Day, which falls on Sunday, also the second day of the traditional holiday.
The three animated films claimed the second to fourth spots on the box office rankings: the legendary Japanese cartoon figure Doraemon's new movie "Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Art World Tales," China-produced "Endless Journey of Love," and the Disney production "Lilo and Stitch."
The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Duanwu Festival, falls on the fifth day of the fifth month in the traditional Chinese calendar. This year, it was celebrated on Saturday, May 31. During the festival, people follow the tradition of dragon boat racing and eating zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) to honor the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.
China's box office in Dragon Boat Festival holiday surpasses 300 mln
The uncertainty of Chinese AI and semiconductor industries has led to volatility in China's stock markets this week, said China Global Television Network (CGTN) analyst Timothy Pope on Friday.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.61 percent to 3,814.20 points on the day.
The Shenzhen Component Index closed 2.47 percent lower at 13,774.68 points, while ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, lost 2.65 percent to close at 3,480.87 points.
"It was a volatile week for the Chinese mainland markets, particularly for technology stocks. We saw some very strong gains in the middle of the week, but today brought a reality check for AI and semiconductor shares. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.6 percent by the close today, although it still finished 1.3 percent above last Friday's close. The Shenzhen Component and ChiNext also fell sharply today but remained higher over the week," said Pope.
Friday's drop, according to Pope, was due to the profit-taking from the tech-related industries.
"By Tuesday, AI stocks were looking a bit oversold following last week's rout. We saw new Chinese model releases like Kimi K3 also causing a bit of a stir, restoring some longer-term confidence in the sector's viability. And in fact, demand for some of those models was strong enough for developers to suspend new subscriptions while they expanded their computing capacity at the back end. But this week's trading also really illustrates the uncertainty surrounding the valuations of Chinese AI and semiconductor companies. Many of them are trading at demanding multiples of their expected earnings, but technology, of course, remains the main engine of the current market rally. And that is creating quite a short cycle of news-driven gains, followed then very quickly by profit-taking," the analyst said.
China's stock markets suffer volatility as uncertainty of AI, semiconductor sectors emerges: analyst
