By 2026, box office revenue has exceeded 11.8 billion yuan, with four films surpassing 1 billion yuan.

Reporter Li Haoyue

According to data from the Lighthouse Pro Version, as of 5:00 PM on March 31, the total box office for the film market in March has already reached 2.112 billion yuan. By this point, 2026’s box office performance has reached 11.869 billion yuan; since the start of the year, there have been four films whose box office has exceeded 1 billion yuan, namely “Hi, Mom 3”, “Biao Ren: The Wind Rises in the Gobi”, “Silent Shock Without Sound”, and “Boonie Bears·All Year With Bears”.

“Hi, Mom 3” won the box office champion for the first quarter of 2026 with a box office of 4.35 billion yuan. The studio’s share amounts to 1.544 billion yuan. According to the reporter’s statistics, seven listed companies—Maoyan Entertainment, Damai Entertainment, Wanda Pictures, Bona Film, China Film, Hengdian Film and Television, and Joy Yi—will receive the film’s box office share.

Yang Huaiyu, a senior research fellow at Shanghai Xiayi Liangshi Consulting and Management Co., Ltd., told The Securities Daily that the overall performance of China’s film market in the first quarter of 2026 has been steady. In March, which is a slow season, the box office also exceeded 2 billion yuan, showing continued market resilience. Overall, in the first quarter, the industrialization level of leading projects has improved, listed companies’ participation has increased, the scheduling and supply structure has been optimized, and the driving effect of leading films has been especially prominent.

The upcoming Qingming Festival slate in April will kick off the competition for the second quarter of the film market. According to Lighthouse Pro Version data, 19 films have already been confirmed to be released during the Qingming Festival slate, exceeding 11 films in the same period of 2025. As of March 31, the total box office for new releases in the Qingming Festival slate has already surpassed 30 million yuan (including previews and advance sales). The films “I, Xu Ke”, “My Mom, Hey!”, “Sunshine Women’s Choir”, “The Super Mario Bros. Galaxy Movie”, and “Genius Game” are currently temporarily in the top five on the advance box office chart.

Chen Jin, a data analyst at Lighthouse Pro Version, told The Securities Daily that the increase in the number of Qingming Festival films this year mainly comes from multiple low-budget thriller films entering the market in a cluster. Over the past two years, the domestic thriller genre has produced multiple box office “dark horses.” For example, “Yuan-Yang Lou·Terror”, released at the end of October 2024, won 130 million yuan at the box office. Now its sequel, “Butterfly Tower·Terror”, has also been scheduled for this year’s Qingming Festival slate.

It is understood that “Butterfly Tower·Terror” is the Qingming Festival new release with the highest number of participating listed companies. A total of five listed companies—China Film, Maoyan Entertainment, Yuyi Film, Hengdian Film and Television, and China Yuyi—appear in the production lineup.

“As the first holiday viewing period after the Spring Festival, besides the ample supply of thriller films, this year’s Qingming Festival slate also features the globally popular game IP adaptation movie ‘The Super Mario Bros. Galaxy Movie.’ In addition, during the lineup there is also a realistic female-themed masterpiece ‘I, Xu Ke’, the family comedy ‘My Mom, Hey!’, and the mystery crime film ‘Genius Game.’ With diversified and multi-type offerings, it is expected to bring audiences from different circles into theaters.” Chen Jin said.

When discussing the competitive trends for this year’s Qingming Festival slate, Chen Jin said: “I hope that the reputation of the Qingming Festival slate films can be recognized by the market. At the same time, the already released imported sci-fi film ‘The Saving Plan’ has been receiving widespread praise, with a strong and steady box office trend, and is expected to continue showing outstanding performance during the Qingming Festival slate. I also look forward to this year’s Qingming Festival slate box office achieving a year-on-year increase, injecting vitality into China’s spring 2026 film market.”

(Editor: Wen Jing)

Keywords:

                                                            Film
                                                            Box office