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
China's 42nd Antarctic Expedition team has started unloading supplies for scientific exploration after arriving at waters near the Zhongshan Station, a Chinese research base in Antarctica.
The ongoing seven-month scientific exploration mission is supported by Chinese icebreakers the Xuelong and the Xuelong 2, which set sail from Shanghai on Nov 1.
The two icebreakers will deliver about 2,000 tons of supplies to the Zhongshan Station for scientific exploration.
The Xuelong 2 arrived first at a designated unloading spot about 12 kilometers from the Zhongshan Station. Later, the ship's Ka-32 helicopter transported in batches more than 300 tons of polar fuel to the research base when weather conditions were favorable.
"Nearly 90 members of the expedition team carried by the two ship are already at the Zhongshan Station, preparing for receiving supplies and assignments for scientific exploration," said Wang Tao, person in charge of unloading operations at the Zhongshan Station.
Thanks to more than 30 hours of efforts by the Xuelong 2 to widen the channel and lead the way, the Xuelong, which was carrying about 1,500 tons of supplies, has also arrived at the unloading spot.
The unloading operations, involving a combination of sea-ice transport and helicopter lifts, are expected to be finished within two weeks.
And then, the Xuelong and the Xuelong 2 will proceed to China's Qingling Station and Changcheng Station in Antarctica, respectively.
The expedition team includes more than 500 members from over 80 institutions on the Chinese mainland, along with researchers from more than 10 other countries and regions, such as Thailand, Chile and Portugal, as well as China's Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, in support of broader international scientific collaboration.
They will conduct multi-disciplinary scientific surveys, advance several major national research projects, and test domestically developed equipment under polar conditions.
Particularly, scientific drilling experiments in lakes deep in the Antarctic inland ice sheet will be carried out for the first time.
China's 42nd Antarctic Expedition team unloads supplies at Zhongshan Station
