Among the six movie theaters in China with the most box office revenue on Feb. 10 - the last day of this year's Chinese New Year holiday - five were located in Beijing, according to box office ranking website maoyan.com.

The day capped a week of significant box office growth in the Chinese capital, despite little change in ticket sales numbers in the country overall compared to the previous Spring Festival season. 

During the week-long holiday from Feb. 4 to 10, China took in 5.84 billion yuan (about US$860 million) at the box office, an increase of 1.27 percent over the same period of last year. Theaters in the country put on 2.61 million movie screenings for a total of 131 million people, with both numbers on par with those from last year.  

Beijing's overall holiday box office scored 218.8 million yuan, a year-on-year rise of 19.5 percent. The number of film screenings was 73,300, up 26.9 percent, while the number of moviegoers was 4.15 million, up 7.7 percent over the same period last year. The growth rates of these indicators far exceed the national average. 

"Affected by the increase in ticket prices, there's not much growth in the number of moviegoers across China," said Yin Hong, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication in Tsinghua University. "However, the movie attendance and the box office in Beijing have increased significantly, which has contributed a lot to the growth of the film market."

According to Yin, the growth indicates the maturity of the Beijing's film market. "On the one hand, Beijing has a large number of cinemas and screens, and the people have developed a habit of going to movies on a regular basis; on the other hand, people in Beijing enjoy a higher overall cultural spending capacity."

During the holiday week, Jackie Chan Cinema at Wukesong received 95,000 movie watchers and a box office revenue of 5.4 million yuan, increasing by 14.7 percent and 35.4 percent respectively over the same period last year. Attendance for all screenings averaged over 80 percent, topping all cinemas across the country during the holiday. 

Ticket prices at Jackie Chan Cinema also increased by 8 to 10 yuan on average. Wang Yujia, a general manager at the Jackie Chan Cinema, said that the price hike was however not the reason for the increased box office revenue, which he attributed to the quality of the films, the reasonable scheduling of screening, and rational ticket pricing.

"Over the years, cinemas in tier-3 and tier-4 cities (small and medium-sized cities) have seen increasing purchasing power and box office due to the migrant population in big cities going back home for the Spring Festival, while cinemas in tier-1 and tier-2 cities haven't seen a marked rise in the two indicators. For this Spring Festival holiday, we've adjusted our arrangement and made real-time arrangement from the ticket pricing to screening scheduling," Wang said. 

In addition to the movie-going craze in Beijing cinemas, many Beijing-produced films were very popular in cinemas across the country during the holiday week. The domestic sci-fi blockbuster "Wandering Earth" reaped in 2 billion yuan in six days, breaking the single-film box office record of the seven-day Chinese New Year holiday. 

Out of the eight films that hit the theaters for this year's Chinese New Year holiday, four were produced by Beijing-based companies: "Crazy Alien," "The New King of Comedy," "The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang," and "Peppa Celebrates Chinese New Year." "Wandering Earth" which led in the box office and also received wide critical acclaim, was a production co-funded by Beijing Culture Company and Beijing Dengfeng International Cultural Communication Company.

During the week-long holiday, films produced in Beijing brought in 4.22 billion yuan at the box office, accounting for 72.4 percent of the total box office of all the new films.

In addition, the city put on 6,067 screenings for public good purpose throughout the city during the week, showing more than 30 films, and 70 percent were new films. The screenings received 130,000 people.

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