A spectator walks past movie posters at a cinema in Qingzhou, east China's Shandong Province, Aug. 17, 2025. (Photo by Wang Jilin/Xinhua)

China's 2025 box office has already eclipsed last year's total, marking a major milestone for the market as the National Day holiday gets underway.

According to data from ticketing platform Maoyan, as of early Thursday afternoon, the year-to-date grosses, including presales, reached 42.5 billion yuan (about 5.98 billion U.S. dollars), surpassing the full-year haul of 2024.

Local films continue to dominate the market, accounting for nearly 90 percent of ticket sales, with all ten of the year's top earners being domestic productions.