Holiday period sees second-highest box office take

Box offices during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday－which has emerged as the most lucrative movie season in recent years－raked in the second-highest amount of revenue ever during the period, signaling a good start to the Year of the Tiger.

During the holiday, which ended on Sunday, Chinese cinemas earned 6 billion yuan ($943.8 million), edging out the 5.9 billion yuan during the 2019 festival period, according to movie data tracking service Beacon.

Cinemas were closed two days before the Lunar New Year began in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. During Spring Festival last year, they took in a record-setting 7.8 billion yuan, the highest ever for the holiday period.