China’s National Day Holiday Box Office Falls 36% Despite Cheaper Tickets

Ticket sales plunged as cheaper admissions failed to offset weak attendance during one of the country's most important cinema periods.

Moviegoers visit a cinema in China during the National Day holiday as the country's holiday box office falls sharply from a year earlier. ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images

BEIJING — China's National Day holiday box office fell 36% year on year to about 1.17 billion yuan ($174 million), highlighting continued pressure on domestic consumer spending despite lower movie ticket prices.

The seven-day holiday period from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7 recorded one of the weakest National Day box office performances in recent years, according to Caixin Global.

Average ticket prices fell to about 36.4 yuan, their lowest level in five years. However, cheaper tickets failed to offset weaker attendance.

About 32 million movie tickets were sold during the holiday period, down by roughly 18 million tickets from a year earlier, according to Caixin Global.

Holiday box office revenue has declined for four consecutive years since 2023, after reaching a peak of 4.47 billion yuan in 2019.

Crime thriller "Traces of Justice" was the best-performing film during this year's holiday period, generating about 420 million yuan in ticket sales.

No new release achieved a rating above 7.5 on Douban during the holiday, potentially contributing to weaker audience enthusiasm, according to Caixin Global.

The National Day holiday is traditionally one of China's most important periods for cinemas and consumer spending. As a result, box office figures are closely watched as an indicator of household demand and consumer sentiment.

The latest figures suggest that lower prices alone may not be sufficient to revive demand in China's cinema market.

The weaker performance also adds to broader concerns about the pace of China's domestic consumption as policymakers seek to encourage households to spend more.

For China's entertainment industry, the holiday results could increase pressure on studios and cinema operators to produce more commercially successful releases while attracting audiences through stronger content and promotional strategies.