Spring Festival box office Photo: VCG

As the cinema went dark, 41-year-old Song Jin finally had time to enjoy his favorite film, Pegasus 3, in Beijing. "I have been following the Pegasus franchise ever since the first one in 2019 and have never missed a single one of them," he told the Global Times after watching the latest film in director Han Han's racing franchise. Enthusiasm for classic Chinese wuxia and nostalgia for returning successful franchises like Boonie Bears dominated the 9-day-long Spring Festival film period, the longest in history.

The season came to an end on Monday, with the total box office for the 2026 Spring Festival film season surpassing 5.7 billion yuan ($825 million). 

"The overall box-office performance of this year's Spring Festival declined," Lai Li, an analyst from Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan, told the Global Times on Monday. "The primary reason is the absence of a particularly high-profile blockbuster or major standout film this year, along with generally moderate presales and an overall lukewarm reception for films. Additionally, the average ticket price this year also decreased."

Despite the overall sub-optimal sales for new releases during the season, Lai noted some highlights, including the single-day box-office performance on the first day of the Chinese New Year exceeding expectations, which marked a positive start to the period.

Box-revenue for the day, February 17, reached 1.278 billion yuan, while screenings hit 595,000, setting a new record for the highest number of single-day screenings on the first day of the Chinese New Year. 

Additionally, driven by the Spring Festival, the total 2026 box office passed the 6.7 billion yuan mark on Saturday, surpassing North America to rank first globally. The number of moviegoers during the 2026 Spring Festival surpassed 100 million, marking the eighth consecutive year that the film season's attendance exceeded that threshold. 

The box office on the second day of the Spring Festival saw a significant drop, with the single-day revenue reaching only 846 million yuan. This also led to downward revisions in the box office projections for several films. On the third day, the single-day performance once again outperformed expectations, injecting renewed confidence into the market and helping the total box office for the season surpass 3 billion yuan that evening. Subsequently, the daily declines were not particularly pronounced, with overall performance remaining relatively stable.

Looking at the performance of individual films, Pegasus 3 took the lead with a box-office take exceeding 2.9 billion yuan, accounting for over 50 percent of the film period's total earnings. It currently also ranks second in the global box office for 2026, trailing only Avatar: Fire and Ash. 

In second place, Scare Out by renowned director Zhang Yimou, earned over 864 million yuan, falling short of expectations. Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in The Desert beat out Boonie Bears: The Hidden Protector in the latter half of the season, securing third place with over 803 million yuan. It was also the only film during the Spring Festival season to see its single-day box office revenue rise for four consecutive days. 

Boonie Bears: The Hidden Protector accumulated over 712 million yuan in revenue, maintaining steady performance thanks to its broad appeal among family audiences. Panda Plan: The Magical Tribe, starring Jackie Chan, ranks fifth with over 192 million yuan, while Per Aspera Ad Astra sits at sixth place with over 80 million yuan. 

Notably, the Hong Kong film Night King, which premiered on the fourth day in South China's Guangdong Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, regions where Cantonese is widely used, earned over 71 million yuan during the season, with Guangdong Province alone contributing over 90 percent of its total box office.

Chinese film critic Tan Fei regards Night King as a uniquely styled comedy. "The creators didn't need to dilute their linguistic style to cater to a broader market, meaning the most authentic expressions could be preserved in their original flavor. For audiences in Guangdong and Guangxi, watching Night King is like attending a secret party where only insiders understand the language," he said in an interview with the Global Times.