In Cinemas Across China during the National Day holiday, the total box office revenue for films was only 18.23 billion yuan (RMB), a decrease of nearly 13% compared to the same period last year. The average ticket price was 36.6 yuan, a 9.28% drop from last year’s 40.4 yuan, marking a five-year low. None of the films managed to surpass the 500 million yuan mark in box office sales.
On October 9, the National Film Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party announced the box office data for the 2025 National Day holiday (October 1-8), with a total box office revenue of 18.35 billion yuan and a total audience of 50.07 million.
Compared to the box office figures from the National Day holidays of 2024 and 2023, this year’s box office revenue experienced a decline of 12.8% and 33%, respectively. In 2024, the total box office revenue was 21.04 billion yuan with an audience of 52.09 million; in 2023, the total box office revenue was 27.34 billion yuan with an audience of 65.10 million.
As for ticket prices, based on data from Maoyan Professional Version and Beacon, the average ticket price for this year’s National Day holiday period stands at 36.6 yuan, a 9.28% decrease from last year’s 40.4 yuan, hitting a five-year low.
According to Maoyan Professional Version data, the total box office revenue this year is only higher than in 2016 and the pandemic-affected year of 2022, with box office revenues of 15.9 billion and 15 billion yuan, respectively. The highest box office revenue was recorded in 2019 at 44.7 billion yuan, more than double that of this year.
The top five films at the box office during the National Day holiday period are “Volunteer Army: Blood and Peace,” “731,” “Assassination of the Novelist 2,” “Nomad Life,” and “Deafening,” each breaking through the 100 million yuan mark in box office sales. The respective box office revenues for these films during the National Day holiday period were 4.50 billion, 3.44 billion, 2.95 billion, 2.19 billion, and 1.75 billion yuan.
The so-called “main theme” film “Volunteer Army: Blood and Peace” failed to exceed 500 million yuan in box office revenue, not only displaying a significant difference from the top films in the same period in previous years but also falling short compared to the previous two films in the series – “Volunteer Army: Soldier Attack” (8.6 billion yuan) and “Volunteer Army: Battle of Life and Death” (12 billion yuan).
Maoyan entertainment market analyst Lai Li mentioned that this year’s new films during the National Day holiday lacked the driving force of blockbuster films, resulting in relatively lackluster market performance. There were no single-day box office hits of over 100 million yuan and no film exceeded 500 million yuan in box office revenue during this holiday season.
Domestic films accounted for 98.93% of the box office revenue during the National Day holiday period, and the cooling trend of the film market has sparked discussions online.
Netizens commented saying, “Brainwashing on TV is one thing, but now they are targeting movie theaters every year,” “The people are not easily fooled,” “Patriotism cannot be proven by watching a movie; there are more and more attempts to pursue high box office results by hastily creating ‘main theme’ films, and some moral blackmail to watch them, which is not convincing at all,” “If the quality of the movies is low, don’t expect high box office returns! Audiences are not easily deceived anymore,” “Not even a single imported film, and it has been three months since any Japanese films were imported.”