(Yicai) Jan. 5 -- China’s film market is recovering quickly and box office takings over the forthcoming Chinese New Year holiday are expected to exceed CNY12 billion (USD1.7 billion), according to the chairman of movie production and distribution company Huanxi Media Group.

The data coming out from the Chinese New Year will be worth looking forward to, Dong Ping said in an interview with Yicai.

Many people choose to go and watch movies during the Spring Festival, as it is called in China, with the period usually making up a third or even more than half of annual box office receipts. This year, the Spring Festival falls next month.

Receipts over the recent three-day New Year's Day holiday rose to CNY1.5 billion (USD211.1 million), a new high for the period, while they rebounded to CNY54.9 billion (USD7.7 billion) last year, or about 85 percent of the pre-pandemic level in 2019 and an increase of about 60 percent on the averages for 2021 and 2022, Dong said.

Nearly 50 new films in many different genres and starring A-list celebrities will enter cinemas from Feb. 10 to 17, according to ticketing platform Maoyan.

“"The post-pandemic recovery of the Chinese film industry truly began in 2024 because most of the films supporting the box office in 2023 were delayed in production for various reasons, including the pandemic, over the past few years,” Zhu Yuqing, deputy secretary-general of a committee of the China Film Association, told Yicai.

Zhu added that in the past six months, there has been a continuous flow of news about the shooting of new dramas at Hengdian World Studios, a barometer for the Chinese film industry, which indicates that production is being stepped up.

Editor: Emmi Laine