China’s 2025 Spring Festival movie pre-sales surpass 169m yuan on day 1, boosted by rising enthusiasm of filmgoers

Pre-sales for China's 2025 Spring Festival movies began on Sunday and surpassed 169.8 million yuan ($23.2 million) as of 12 pm on the same day, according to statistics from film data platform Beacon.

As of 2:27 pm, the box office pre-sales topped 100 million yuan. This marks the fastest 100-million yuan pre-sale total in Chinese cinema history, according to CCTV news.

The amount had broken records three times as of press time, with the earliest time surpassing 30 million yuan in just 1 hour and 40 minutes.

With the Chinese New Year rapidly approaching (starting on January 29), consumer enthusiasm for festival spending is steadily growing, as Spring Festival movie releases continue to draw significant audience attention.

A number of new films have been prepared for release as the Spring Festival approaches and Chinese authorities have launched a special campaign to boost movie consumption during the festive season.

The National Film Administration launched the national film consumer benefit season recently, which runs from December 2024 to February 2025, covering major movie periods such as the New Year and Spring Festival, CCTV news reported. Several organizations are participating, and a total of no less than 600 million yuan will be allocated to subsidize movie consumption.

Meanwhile, leading Chinese online ticket platforms have introduced promotional campaigns to boost movie ticket sales for the Spring Festival season, with online ticket purchasing becoming the preferred choice for consumers.

Chinese e-commerce platforms, including Taobao and JD.com, have launched campaigns to promote movie sales. For instance, the online ticketing platform "Tao Piao Piao" under Taobao is introducing subsidies, offering discounts between 15 and 60 yuan.

Another China-based e-commerce platform JD.com is offering a range of discount vouchers for popular movies, with no restrictions on the cinema or specific films.

A customer service person at JD.com told the Global Times on Sunday that these vouchers can also be used for upcoming movie releases, as long as they are used for ticket purchases.

In 2024, China's consumer market showed steady growth.

In December, retail sales reached 4.52 trillion yuan, a 3.7 percent increase year-on-year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.

For the full year of 2024, online retail sales totaled 15.52 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.2 percent year-on-year, the NBS said.