Hundreds of millions of people are stranded in cities around China during this Lunar New Year holiday, as coronavirus restrictions interrupt a travel season that is generally the world’s largest annual migration. Instead, they are going to the movies – and driving a resurgence at the box office.
“Detective Chinatown 3,” the latest installment in a long series of police, raised about $ 397 million in three days, according to Maoyan, who tracks ticket sales across the country. This set a world record for the longest opening weekend in a single market. The previous record holder, “Avengers: Endgame”, raised $ 357 million in its weekend debut in the United States and Canada in 2019.
The strong display was a strong reminder of the power of the Chinese consumer. Although the Chinese economy roared back as the country largely controlled the coronavirus, buyers and moviegoers were slow to open their wallets.
Now, people like Sophia Jiang are ready to spend, even on a film that has received warm reviews.
During the Lunar New Year holiday, Jiang, a 40-year-old freelance writer, used to go with her parents to her hometown in northern Jilin province. But officials have imposed restrictions on visits to ancestral homes this year to contain any outbreak of coronavirus. Photos circulating on Chinese social media show wagons that are frighteningly empty at a time when travelers are usually huddled shoulder to shoulder.
Trapped in the southern city of Shenzhen, Jiang has already been to the cinema three times during the seven-day holiday, which ends on Wednesday. “Detective Chinatown 3,” she said, was the worst in the group.
“The story wasn’t that bad,” said Jiang, “but it wasn’t particularly amazing, either, and I fell asleep twice.”
Quality aside, China’s rising box office returns have provided a promising signal for the global film industry, which has seen big and small cinemas decimated by the pandemic and has been plagued by concerns about the future of cinema.
As of Tuesday morning, China’s total revenue for the new year had reached $ 1.55 billion, according to local trackers. In contrast, total ticket sales last year in the United States, where many cinemas are hung to survive, totaled $ 2.2 billion.
“Some argued that during the pandemic, people got used to watching online entertainment at home,” said Jane Shao, president of Lumière Pavilions, a Chinese cinema chain, in a telephone interview. “But I think this is proof that cinemas are an effective place for social gatherings.”
Shao, who oversees 40 cinemas in 26 cities in China, said the Lunar New Year’s box office was “day and night” compared to last year, when the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan prompted the government to close the cinemas early in the holiday. The recovery has been slow, she said, but recent figures have been encouraging.
“It was a devastating year for our industry, but people were thrilled to be back in theaters,” said Shao.
“Detective Chinatown 3” was initially scheduled for release during the holiday last year. Most cinemas in China reopened in July, but most were limited during this month’s holiday to 75% capacity, and only 50% in areas like Beijing, which has recently seen small outbreaks.
Theaters were instructed not to sell concessions, further reducing profits. The prices of movie tickets during the holiday were higher than usual, helping to bridge the gap.
The film features two clumsy detectives, played by Wang Baoqiang and Liu Haoran, who are going to Tokyo to investigate the murder of a powerful businessman. Online, the public criticized its excessive advertising of product placement, scenes of abuse against women and scattered plot topics. But the film benefited from the strong brand recognition of the “Detective Chinatown” franchise.
The Lunar New Year holiday has traditionally been a coveted window for movie releases, and viewers had a more diverse selection to choose from than in previous years. Second over the weekend came “Oi, mama”, a time travel comedy that grossed $ 161.9 million, according to Maoyan. “A Writer’s Odyssey”, an adventure film, came in third, with $ 48.4 million.
Rudolph Tang, 41, a classical music critic, said he saw the three. But he said he felt especially compelled to watch “Detective Chinatown 3” in part because he remembered seeing a poster of the film on the facade of the historic Grand Cinema in Shanghai, at the height of the coronavirus outbreak in China a year ago, when the normal streets have been emptied and cinemas closed.
“Watching the film brought back many memories of the difficulties that people went through,” said Tang in a telephone interview. “I felt like I was declaring that the scar healed in China and that people can go back to theaters now and watch movies.”
Last year, box office revenue totaled $ 3.13 billion in China, making it the largest film market in the world, ahead of the United States. But it is unclear whether the initial momentum of the Chinese film industry this year could boost it beyond the performance of 2019, when it recorded $ 9.2 billion in sales.
China’s box office success will depend in part on the pace of Hollywood’s recovery. While national productions are on the rise, China still has a strong appetite for Hollywood films, and many theater managers expect titles like “No Time to Die”, Bond’s latest film, and Disney’s “Black Widow”, stay on schedule for theatrical releases later this year.
It is also unclear what role the unique circumstances of this year’s Lunar New Year holiday may have played in the weekend’s impressive box office performance. Air travel fell 72 percent in the first week of the holiday period compared to the same period last year, according to Chinese state media. Train travel fell 68% in the first two weeks of the travel season compared to last year.
Still, the phenomenon of going to the movies during the Lunar New Year holiday seems to be here to stay.
“Celebrating Lunar New Year in China traditionally means setting off fireworks, eating cookies and attending the Spring Gala Festival,” said Yin Hong, professor of cinema at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “Now, more and more, going to the cinema with the family is being incorporated into this tradition.”
Coral Yang and Liu Yi contributed to the research.