"STAYING PUT" HOLIDAY

The Spring Festival holiday, traditionally one of the most important occasions of family reunions marked by mass human migration, was quite different this year from the previous years.

The holiday saw a reduced people movement as many Chinese opted to stay put in response to the government's call for avoiding unnecessary gatherings as part of anti-epidemic measures.

Han Xiaoli, head of the China Film Distribution and Exhibition Association, hailed the role of movies in meeting the needs of people staying local during the holiday.

"Advance ticket sales for Spring Festival and the day after it beat expectations, especially in big cities, from where box office earnings accounted for a larger share than they did before," he said.

While moviegoing is increasingly becoming an integral part of the Chinese people's Spring Festival celebrations, many found it difficult to buy a movie ticket in their cities during the holiday as cinemas were fully booked for many of the timing slots.

"Never have movie theaters been such a hit in a Spring Festival holiday," said Chen Ke, a young Beijinger from the city's Chaoyang District.

The holiday saw a record high of 160 million people visiting movie theaters, up 21 percent from 2019, official figures showed.

Yin Hong, vice chairman of the China Film Association and a renowned film critic, attributed the soaring box office to multiple reasons.

Moviegoing, already a key part of festival consumption in China, rose as people reduced travels during the holiday, said Yin, also a professor at Tsinghua University, in a social media post. He added that the newly released titles in diversified genres were in a good place to meet the needs.

Much higher ticket prices than usual also fueled the surge in box office earnings, he said, noting that the increase in rates far exceeded the possible losses caused by the attendance cap, which, imposed as part of anti-epidemic measures, is at 75 percent in most of the country and 50 percent in areas like Beijing.