Holiday Box Office: National Day

Along with the Lunar New Year, China’s National Day holiday is one of the two so-called “golden weeks” in which citizens are given a full seven-day reprieve from work. Leisure activities such as domestic and international travel and more recently, moviegoing, take precedent during the weeklong public festival. Accordingly, over the past five years, the National Day holiday has become a bright spot on the release calendar for those distributors seeking box office gold as the chart above illustrates.

Total box office revenue across the National Day holiday grew by more than 400% from 2012 to 2015 before taking a dip last year among a sluggish box office, but this year’s diverse and competitive slate of films has the potential to bring about the biggest National Day box office haul on record.

The clear frontrunner this year is Never Say Die (羞羞的铁拳), a new comedy from Kaixin Mahua (开心麻花) the comedic troupe behind 2015’s National Day victor Goodbye Mr. Loser. Action fans will also get their fix with several shoot-em ups including The Foreigner (英伦对决) starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan, the Wolf Warriors-esque military thriller Sky Hunter (空天猎), and the gritty Hong Kong gangster flick Chasing the Dragon (追龙) featuring Andy Lau and Donnie Yen.