China becomes world’s largest movie market

As the clock hit midnight on Oct 15, China saw this year’s box office taking reach 12.95 billion yuan ($1.93 billion), helping the country overtake the North America to soar as the world’s largest movie market.

In spite of the COVID-19 blow, the domestic film industry has undergone a stable recovery, helped by summer and National Day holiday blockbusters including The Eight Hundred and My People, My Homeland.

According to the movie information live tracker Beacon, nearly 85 percent of this year’s box office were earned by Chinese films.

Encouraged by the National Day box office bonanza, which reaped 3.95 billion yuan, a dozen of new films will open ahead of the 2021 Spring Festival holiday, one of the country’s most lucrative periods to attract floods of moviegoers.

Among them include several big-budget films pulled from 2020 Spring Festival due to the pandemic, such as Detective Chinatown 3 and The Rescue, as well as some new releases, including the animated film New Gods: Nezha Reborn and Assassins in Red.