BEIJING, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The total pre-sale box office of six domestic movies set to debut on the Chinese mainland on Wednesday, this year's Spring Festival, has exceeded 1 billion yuan (about 139 million U.S. dollars), according to data released by the box office tracker Beacon on Tuesday.

 

China's Guotai Junan Securities earlier predicted that the total box office revenue for the 2025 Spring Festival holiday from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4 is expected to reach 8.4 billion yuan. Meanwhile, China International Capital Corporation estimated that the box office revenue for the holiday could grow by about 9.7 percent year on year to 8.8 billion yuan.

 

Chen Jin, a data analyst from Beacon, said the industry had also been optimistic about this year's Spring Festival holiday box office as the films feature strong IP foundations, diverse genres and creators with proven box office appeal.

 

All six films in this year's Spring Festival holiday are productions from popular IPs. The current biggest winner at the pre-sale box office is Tsui Hark's adaptation of Jin Yong's wuxia classic "The Legend of the Condor Heroes."

 

The novel itself has been adapted into several TV dramas and inspired a number of films over the past decades. The film, starring popular actor Xiao Zhan, has raked in over 310 million yuan in pre-sale.

 

The other five productions are all sequels to previous blockbusters, including "Detective Chinatown 1900," the newest installment of the "Detective Chinatown" franchise that debuted in 2015, and "Ne Zha 2," a sequel to the 2019 animated blockbuster "Ne Zha" after five years. Both films have earned over 210 million yuan in pre-sale.

 

The second episode of the Chinese myth trilogy "Creation of the Gods," which hit the 2023 summer box office with its first installment, has earned about 180 million yuan.

 

In December, the China Film Administration launched a movie-going promotion project in response to the declining cinema audiences last year. During the event that runs from December 2024 through February 2025, supporting organizations including China UnionPay and online movie ticket distributor Taopiaopiao will jointly contribute no less than 600 million yuan in consumer subsidies for moviegoers.