China’s weekly box office sales from Aug 31 to Sept 6 totalled 803 million RMB ($117 million), which is an increase of 72% compared with the same period last year.
However, this was a 54% fall from the previous week (Aug 24 to 30) when sales reached 1.74 billion RMB, the highest weekly figure since cinemas reopened on July 20. The record was largely due to many couples going to the cinema to celebrate Qixi, Chinese Valentine’s Day, which took place on August 26.
Despite cinemas still facing COVID-secure restrictions, a total of 21.7 million people have visited cinemas since their reopening, a 59% increase year-on-year.
War epic The Eight Hundred raked in 467 million RMB over the week, bringing its total box office to nearly 2.4 billion RMB.
