China's box office soars as new year dawns

China's box office sales from Dec 28, 2020, to Jan 3 this year topped 2.13 billion yuan ($330 million), up 93 percent week on week.

More than 56 million moviegoers visited theaters during the seven days, also registering a 93 percent increase week on week, showed data compiled by China Film News.

Both the weekly box office earnings and audience figure posted notable growth compared with the same period a year before, rising more than 80 percent and 70 percent, respectively.

Topping the weekly box office chart was Chinese family film A Little Red Flower, which, released on Dec 31, took in 760 million yuan over its opening week.

The hit drama helped drive China's New Year's Day box office to hit 600 million yuan, a record high for the holiday, contributing more than 40 percent of the daily total, according to the China Movie Data Information Network.

The total China box office revenue of A Little Red Flower, currently at 850 million yuan, was forecasted by movie-ticketing and film data platform Maoyan to hit 1.4 billion yuan.

China's 2020 box office was 20.4 billion yuan, of which the top 10 earners were all domestic productions, according to official figures.