by Xinhua writer Zhang Yunlong

BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- China's May Day holiday box office is gaining traction, with the crime thriller "Cold War 1994" emerging as one of the early frontrunners in pre-sales for May 1, as a crowded slate of 11 new releases heads into one of the country's key moviegoing periods.

The film is a prequel to the long-running "Cold War" police thriller franchise, set in Hong Kong on the eve of the city's return to the motherland in 1997. A high-profile kidnapping case pulls multiple parties -- British authorities, the police force, wealthy businessmen and criminal networks -- into a shifting struggle for control, deepening the political and institutional backdrop that has defined the series.

According to film data platforms Maoyan and Beacon, "Cold War 1994" has accounted for over 40 percent of opening-day pre-sales, placing it, in the words of Beacon analyst Chen Jin, "in a tier of its own" ahead of the rest of the field.

The figure reflects accumulated franchise equity: "Cold War" (2012) grossed 252 million yuan (about 37 million U.S. dollars) on the Chinese mainland, a figure "Cold War 2" more than doubled at 677 million yuan in 2016 -- a consistent upward arc that is the kind of market-tested asset film studios increasingly favor.

For producers, the return to the franchise reflects a longer-term bet on serialized storytelling. Several of the highest-grossing films in Chinese box office history belong to franchises that have delivered multiple installments over the past decade -- among them the "Ne Zha," "The Wandering Earth," "Pegasus" and "Detective Chinatown" series -- a pattern underscoring the structural advantage franchise properties hold over standalone releases, namely, built-in audiences.

"Cold War 1994" producers describe their own franchise revival in similar terms. "It's rare for a film to remain in public conversation for more than a decade," producer Bill Kong said at a recent promotional event. "That's exactly why building the 'Cold War' universe well is our responsibility -- we must see it through."

The broader May Day slate spans romance, suspense, comedy and animation. Titles including family drama "Dear You," crime thriller "Vanishing Point," comedy "Being towards Death," and sequel "The Devil Wears Prada 2," have also shown strong pre-release interest.

"Dear You" has drawn particular notice as a quiet outlier: the film has posted consecutive box-office gains during preview screenings and garnered a near-perfect 9.7 audience score on the ticketing platform Taopiaopiao.

That competitive diversity plays out in sharply segmented audience profiles. "Cold War 1994" leads all new releases among male and older viewers -- while "Vanishing Point" and "The Devil Wears Prada 2" skew toward female audiences. According to Beacon figures, both "The Devil Wears Prada 2" and "Cold War 1994" draw more than 30 percent of revenues from first-tier cities, while "Vanishing Point" shows comparatively stronger traction in smaller cities.

Adding another variable, distributors have broadly lowered ticket pricing compared with last year's May Day holiday. The adjustment reflects an industry-wide desire for broader attendance. The five-day holiday last year generated a total box office revenue of 747 million yuan, a sharp drop from 1.5 billion yuan in 2024.

The pricing move reflects a sector still recalibrating. China's annual box office has hovered between 40 billion yuan and 50 billion yuan in the past three years, well below the pre-pandemic peak of over 64 billion yuan in 2019, while short-form video and other forms of entertainment have continued to erode theatrical habits.

The outlook for the upcoming holiday, however, is not uniformly optimistic. Maoyan analyst Lai Li offered a more cautious assessment, noting that overall market enthusiasm remains relatively subdued, with no major tent pole to anchor broader attendance. "We hope these films can earn strong word-of-mouth after opening, and that positive buzz helps carry the market into a longer box office run," Lai said.

Whether the early momentum can translate into sustained performance over the holiday stretch remains to be seen. Still, the final figures for May Day will offer a read on whether China's theatrical market is finding a more stable footing.