Fireworks at box office greet Year of the Snake

Riding a wave of blockbusters, the Spring Festival holiday — the country's most lucrative box office season — set a record on Monday as the highest-grossing in history for the holiday period.

As of 9:30 pm on Monday, the Year of the Snake — which began on Jan 29 — saw ticket receipts for all six new movies, including presale revenues, reach 8.5 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), surpassing the total of last year's Spring Festival, the previous record holder, according to Maoyan Pro and Beacon, two major industry trackers.

Topping the festival charts is Ne Zha 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the animated blockbuster Ne Zha. The special effects-laden movie, which reimagines the adventures of the titular hero, a renowned mythological figure, as he teams up with the son of a dragon king to thwart a cunning scheme, has grossed over 4.1 billion yuan.

Filmmaker Chen Sicheng's Detective Chinatown 1900, a loosely connected prequel to his popular Detective Chinatown franchise, has earned 2.1 billion yuan, securing the second spot. The crime comedy, which stars actors Liu Haoran and Wang Baoqiang as, respectively, a detective's translator and a Chinese man adopted by an indigenous family in the United States, follows the unlikely duo as they investigate a series of murders that will have an impact on all Chinese in the US.

Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force, the sequel to director Wuershan's mythological epic Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms, took third place, grossing 959 million yuan. Revisiting the franchise's tale set around 3,000 years ago, the new installment highlights a Mulan-like female general who sacrifices herself to save many civilians.

Maverick director Tsui Hark's martial arts movie Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants came in fourth, grossing 578 million yuan, while Boonie Bears: Future Reborn — the 11th installment of the enduring animated franchise about two bear siblings — was fifth, bringing in 475 million yuan.

Hong Kong director Dante Lam's military film Operation Hadal, the first Chinese movie to feature deep-sea submarine conflicts, has grossed 270 million yuan, placing it sixth on the festival charts.

With five out of the six festival movies being sequels, Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association, said the box office bonanza demonstrates the progress of the Chinese film industry in various aspects, ranging from storytelling capabilities to special-effects techniques.

Among the blockbusters, Ne Zha 2 and Creation of the Gods II draw inspiration from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) novel Fengshen Yanyi (The Investiture of the Gods), while Legends of the Condor Heroes is adapted from the late wuxia novelist Louis Cha's best-selling work The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

Rao said the trend showcases how traditional culture and literature have evolved into fertile ground for cinematic innovation, reflecting a growing cultural confidence.

Yin Hong, deputy chairman of the China Film Association, predicted that Ne Zha 2 could become the highest-grossing film in the history of Chinese cinema. Yin attributed its success to a five-year production process that involved tailoring more than 1,900 special-effects scenes that prioritize artistic quality and resonate with audiences.