China Hits Highest Single Day Box Office Record of the Year Over National Holiday

Chinese Market Hits Record Box Office

The Chinese box office hit its highest single-day record of the year on Thursday, reaching $107 million— RMB 728 million — over 10 times what North American cinemas made in the entirety of last weekend.

That sum marks China’s second largest October 1st National Day box office in history, achieved even as cinemas continue to operate at only 75% capacity. This year, Thursday was a dual holiday coincidentally marked by both the Mid-Autumn Festival and the first day of the National Day week-long vacation, typically one of the busiest times for cinemas. For comparison, the total box office gross for North America over the latest three-day weekend period was just $9.26 million. Relative levels of movie-going are of course tied to progress in battling the pandemic: China only had 11 new Coronavirus cases nationwide on Wednesday, while the U.S. logged 43,114 despite China having over four times the population of the US.

Leading China’s box office Thursday was Enlight’s greatly anticipated animated feature, Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification, from the same cinematic universe as last summer’s breakout animation hit Nezha, which became China’s second-highest grossing film of all time.

The film opened at number one with a $52.7 million box office, according to data from industry tracker Maoyan — setting a new record for the biggest single-day ticket sales for an animated title in China. It also opened in the United States this Thursday in select U.S. theaters, distributed by Well Go USA.

Second in the running was the patriotic film made specifically for the National Day holiday, My People, My Homeland, which grossed $39.3 million on its opening day. Produced by Beijing Culture, the film was exec produced by Zhang Yimou and features shorts from top directors Ning Hao, Xu Zheng, Chen Sicheng, Yan Fei, Peng Damo, Deng Chao and Yu Baimei.

The Jackie Chan action flick Vanguard — directed by Stanley Tong — came in third on its second day in theaters, earning over $8 million, bringing its two-day cumulative up to $16.8 million. The film is also set to open this Friday in Ukraine and later this month in Russia via Trinity CineAsia, which also holds rights in the U.K. and Ireland

A propaganda documentary about the 2019 National Day military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China debuted Thursday in seventh place, earning $134,400. It was produced by China’s military-affiliated studio.

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