In May of 2017, the box office revenue of China’s mainland film market reached RMB 3.88 billion, with a year-on-year growth rate of 23.59%; while the admissions reached 115.82 million, with a year-on-year growth rate of 21.32%; and the number of screening reached 7.29 million, with a year-on-year growth rate of 26.52%. 45 new films were released in May, yet unlike the previous two months, when the Hollywood blockbusters dominated the box office in the mainland, the Indian film, Dangal, became the dark horse. With box office revenues of RMB 1.06 billion, it was the top-grossing film in May.
In terms of accumulated box office revenues, 7 films exceeded RMB 100 million in May. Among them, Dangal topped the list with RMB 1.06 billion. Among them, only 4 are home-made (including domestic films and co-productions), accounting for 13.34% of the total, 4 are revenue-shared films accounting for 46.30%, and 2 are buy-out films with the box office share of 28.69%. Apart from the comedy Dangal, the genres of these films are mainly fantasy and action films. In May, the audience attached high importance to the content and quality of films. Among the 10 monthly top-grossing films, 8 of them scored 7 points or above of ratings at Douban and the film Dangal was rated at 9.2 points.
Compared with the same period last year, the box office revenues witnessed steady growth since the 2nd week in May, 2017, which was mainly driven by Dangal. The film maintained a sound momentum with its high quality content and word-of-mouth recommendation, with its showtimes growing from 14% to 32%. Until the 4th week, when the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was released, it pushed the box office to a year-on-year growth of 63.68%.
Among the newly released films in May, imported films far exceeded home-made films in terms of box office revenues. Among all the newly released films, home-made films accounted for 5.04%, with 52.22% being revenue-shared, 3.69% co-productions and 39.05% buy-out films (buy-out and HK buy-out films).