Photo/VCG111419229437

According to Dengta Data, the box office for the May Day holiday (April 29th to May 3rd) in 2023 was 1.52 billion yuan, with a total of 37.65 million viewers and 2.298 million screenings.

This is the third highest-grossing May Day holiday in Chinese film history, following 2019 and 2021. The national box office for the 2021 May Day holiday was 1.674 billion yuan, 1.527 billion yuan in 2019, 1.006 billion yuan in 2018, 784 million yuan in 2017, and 650 million yuan in 2016.

The five top-grossing films are: "Godspeed" with 513 million yuan, "Born to Fly" with 466 million yuan, "All These Years" with 174 million yuan, "The First Slam Dunk" with 149 million yuan, and "Justices Seeker" with 47.45 million yuan.

Among the films released during the May Day holiday, "Born to Fly" was the first to cross the 500 million yuan mark, with a score of 9.7 on Taopiaopiao, the highest among the new films released during the holiday.

The overall good performance of the box office for this year's May Day holiday strongly boosted the stock prices of most listed companies behind the films on the first day of trading after the holiday. As of the market close on May 4, China Film Co Ltd rose 6.19%, Hengdian Entertainment Co Ltd rose 9.98%, Bona Film Group Co Ltd fell 3.74%, Shanghai Film Co Ltd rose 10.0%, and Enlight Media rose 14.48%.

Who is paying for this year's May Day holiday? According to Dengta Data, female viewers accounted for 65% of ticket buyers during the May Day holiday.

In terms of city contributors, first-tier cities contributed more than 15.6% to the box office during this year's May Day holiday, higher than the 2022 average. 

Dengta Data shows as of 9:00am on May 4th, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou ranked the top four by box office. "The First Slam Dunk" contributed significantly to the box office in Shanghai, while "Born to Fly" contributed significantly to the box office in Shenzhen. When it comes to second- and third-tier cities, the rankings of Hohhot, Urumqi, Lanzhou, Harbin, Xinxiang, Wenzhou, Nanyang, and Tianjin in terms of box office rose significantly compared to the full-year rankings in 2022.