BEIJING: As a testament to its economic vitality, the weeklong National Day holiday has sparked a box office surge, underscoring the potential of China’s resurgent market.
As of Friday, the vacation starting from Tuesday has raked in 1.47 billion yuan ($209.4 million), a 45 percent increase compared to the same period in 2022 and slightly surpassing the year-on-year figure in 2023, according to Maoyan Pro, a real-time movie information tracker.
Fueled by the boom, this year’s box office tally has surpassed 36 billion yuan, deemed by many industry insiders as an inspirational sign to uplift morale following the sluggish previous seasons from the May Day holiday to the summer vacation and Mid-Autumn Festival.
The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death, the latest directorial work by Chen Kaige, the first Chinese filmmaker to win a Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, is currently leading the holiday box office charts with earnings exceeding 500 million yuan .
As the second installment of Chen’s trilogy The Volunteers, an epic that chronicles the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53), the 144-minute new movie recounts a pivotal battle in Cheorwon, where 25,000 Chinese People’s Volunteer Army soldiers engaged around 50,000 United States-led “United Nations Command” forces in 1951. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
