China's cinemas raked in more than 1.8 billion yuan (around 253 million U.S. dollars) at the box office during this year's eight day holiday celebrating National Day and the Mid-Autumn Festival.
On Wednesday, the final day of the eight-day holiday, cinema attendance remained strong, with long queues forming for afternoon shows at a movie theater in Shanghai.
Leading the holiday charts were the war epic "The Volunteers: Peace at Last", the World War II film "Evil Unbound", the action fantasy "A Writer's Odyssey II", the comedy "Row to Win" and the drama "Sound of Silence", all of which took more than 100-million-yuan (around 14.05 million U.S. dollars) in box office revenue.
Industry analysts said that the fact that such a broad range of films all enjoyed similar success during the holiday reflects evolving audience preferences, with moviegoers increasingly prioritizing quality content and emotional resonance over big-budget productions and star power.
Many of this year's top holiday releases were produced by major Chinese film companies listed on the stock exchange -- with the film sector showing strong growth before trading was paused during the holiday.
On the last trading day before markets closed for the holiday, Hengdian Entertainment hit the daily increase limit, Zhejiang Huace Film and TV Co. Ltd. advanced 5.57 percent, while Enlight Media and Beijing Culture also posted modest gains.
An analysis of A-share film-related stocks this year reveals that Omnijoi Media, Enlight Media, and Huanrui Century have delivered impressive share price performance year-to-date, with cumulative gains of 149.43 percent, 107.48 percent, and 101.23 percent, respectively. Based on current performance forecasts, multiple companies including Enlight Media and Hengdian Entertainment Co. are expected to double their net profits.
Chinese cinemas take more than 1.8 bin yuan at box office during holiday week
