{"id":475940,"date":"2026-02-15T06:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T06:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475940\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T06:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T06:02:10","slug":"chinas-box-office-presales-fall-over-60-from-last-year-in-crucial-lunar-new-year-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475940\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s box office presales fall over 60% from last year in crucial Lunar New Year window"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>China\u2019s box office presales topped 200 million yuan (US$28.9 million) by Saturday ahead of the coming <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3337459\/hard-work-and-long-hours-fuelled-chinas-rise-now-it-mulls-benefits-longer-breaks?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lunar New Year holiday<\/a>, led exclusively by domestic productions \u2013 a decline of more than 60 per cent from about 600 million yuan over the same period last year, according to Taopiaopiao, the online ticketing arm of Alibaba Pictures.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Presales are closely watched by distributors and investors as an early indicator of holiday audience demand.<\/p>\n<p>Long seen as a crucial pillar of China\u2019s film market, the Spring Festival season is facing <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3328370\/chinas-super-golden-week-box-office-lags-annual-picture-improves?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">cautious expectations<\/a> for its 2026 releases, analysts said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The holiday season\u2019s box office has expanded dramatically over the past decade, growing from 336 million yuan in 2011 to over 9.51 billion yuan (US$1.37 billion) last year \u2013 accounting for nearly one-fifth of annual takings and becoming a crucial determinant of the industry\u2019s full-year trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>That success has also raised the bar. The <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3297145\/chinas-box-office-riding-lunar-new-year-wave-record-spring-festival-holiday-haul?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2025 Spring Festival season<\/a> shattered multiple records in China\u2019s film market, attracting 187 million film-goers, making it one of the strongest holiday performances in China\u2019s film history.A single domestic animated feature, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3301513\/chinas-ne-zha-2-still-flying-high-highest-grossing-animated-movie-all-time?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ne Zha 2<\/a>, defined that peak, with 4.8 billion yuan in holiday takings. The film not only captured a dominant share of season revenue but also contributed about 30 per cent of China\u2019s annual box office in 2025.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Against that high base, the overall supply for this year\u2019s Spring Festival season has yet to show comparable breakout potential, independent film producer and commentator Guan Zhi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s box office presales topped 200 million yuan (US$28.9 million) by Saturday ahead of the coming Lunar New&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[193174,49,48,95,193176,75,193178,193179,137540,101170,176266,160865,337,44915,193177,193175,193181,193180,134552],"class_list":{"0":"post-475940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-blades-of-the-guardians","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-chinas-film-market","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-gen-z-viewers","15":"tag-guan-zhi","16":"tag-hubei-province","17":"tag-jackie-chan","18":"tag-jet-li","19":"tag-lunar-new-year","20":"tag-movies","21":"tag-ne-zha-2","22":"tag-panda-plan","23":"tag-scare-out","24":"tag-spring-festival","25":"tag-spring-festival-season","26":"tag-zhang-yimou"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}