Maoyan Entertainment (“Maoyan” or “the Company”) (Hong Kong: 1896), a leading platform providing innovative Internet-empowered entertainment services in China, announced that China’s box office set a new record this summer with total revenues rising to RMB17.6 billion (US$2.45 billion).
According to the data jointly released by Maoyan and Weibo, the summer box office (from June to August) increased to RMB17.6 billion in mainland China, up from RMB17.4 billion for the summer of 2018 and RMB 16.3 billion for same period of 2017. IMAX theaters also reaped record box office this summer, with revenues rising 18.2% year over year to RMB669 million.
Movie ticket sales this summer in mainland China reached 499 million, up from 496 million in 2018 and 474 million in 2017. The average price of a movie ticket was RMB35.3 this summer, an increase of RMB0.3 from last summer.
During the summer, the box office in June exceeded RMB4 billion for the first time, up 16.3% year over year, to RMB4.16 billion. August also set a new record for the month with the box office hitting RMB7.77 billion, an increase of 13.7% year over year.
Among all moviegoers this summer, about 19.5% were students, up from 18.8% last summer.
The best performing movies at the box office this summer were the Chinese animation movie “Ne Zha” (RMB4.68 billion), Chinese disaster drama “The Bravest” (RMB1.63 billion), and Marvel’s superhero movie “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (RMB1.41 billion). As the first animation movie to top the summer box office, “Ne Zha” has become the highest-grossing movie in box office in the country so far this year.
About 26 imported movies were released this summer in mainland China, about half of which were animated movies. The box office for imported movies accounted for 33% of the total this summer, up from 24% for the summer in 2018. Among the top 10 movies at the box office this summer, five were imported movies.
On Weibo, a leading social media platform in China, there were more than 9 billion playbacks of movie-related videos and 12 billion views of movie-related content and reviews in the summer this year.
As a comprehensive platform servicing the entire entertainment industry in China, Maoyan updates box office statistics in China in real time, based on its highly scalable and reliable technology infrastructure and artificial intelligence capabilities.
Based on its large user base and unique data insights, Maoyan provides innovative one-stop entertainment services for the industry. This summer, Maoyan is the producer and distributor for such hit movies as “Looking Up” and “Line Walker 2”. It is the co-producer and co-distributor for movies, including “The White Storm 2” and “My Best Summer”. Maoyan also provided marketing and data support for several other movies.
With 250 million users, Maoyan’s WeChat mini program launched marketing campaigns, including “Super Day”, summer discounts and ticket lotteries, for several movies this summer. Maoyan’s targeted WeChat advertisements could reach the core viewers for movies. Maoyan’s media matrix also supported movie promotions with over 1.2 billion playbacks of related videos. Among them, videos for “Ne Zha” generated more than 300 million views.
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