The 2025 May Day period (May 1st-May 5th) ended with a total box office of nearly 750 million yuan (data from Lighthouse Professional Edition), with 18.89 million moviegoers and 2.335 million screenings. Although this result has shrunk significantly compared with 1.528 billion yuan in the same period of 2024, the market has shown a slight recovery trend compared with the "low point" during the Qingming Festival. During the period, 10 new films including "The Dumpling Queen", "Gold Hunting Game" and "Princess Mononoke" competed with "Nezha: The Devil Child Conquers the Dragon King" which continued to be released during the Spring Festival. Among them, two films had box office revenues of over 100 million yuan.
According to the backstage data of Lighthouse, the proportion of male audiences in this year's May Day program has increased significantly, reaching 43.8%, an increase of 5.2 percentage points year-on-year. Among them, male audiences accounted for 62.3% of "Thunderbolt*", continuing the traditional audience characteristics of superhero movies; "Gold Hunters" attracted 51.4% of male audiences with its financial crime theme.
Another point reflected by the data from ticketing websites is that regional preferences for the May Day holiday show obvious differences. "Princess Mononoke" is particularly popular among young people in East China, "Gold Hunter" accounts for more than 25% of the box office in South China, and "The Vast Horizon is My Love" has performed well in the sinking market in North China with the Phoenix Legend IP. The box office rankings of second-tier cities such as Wuhan, Suzhou, and Nanjing have risen, reflecting the differentiated cultural consumption vitality in the regions.
May Day box office chart
The feature film "Dumpling Queen" directed by Andrew Lau and starring Ma Li has been leading the way since the pre-sale stage. After six days of release, the cumulative box office exceeded 215 million yuan, becoming the only new film in this year's May Day box office to exceed 200 million yuan. The film is adapted from the entrepreneurial story of Zang Jianhe, the founder of "Wan Chai Pier". Thanks to the social resonance of female themes and the appeal of Ma Li as the leading female for the first time, it topped the box office in 29 provinces. At the roadshow in Shanghai, Ma Li promised the audience, "If the box office exceeds 500 million, I will make dumplings for everyone." However, the current AI forecast of Maoyan Professional Edition shows that its total box office is expected to be 400 million yuan.
"Dumpling Queen" grossed over 200 million yuan in 6 days
"Gold Hunters" is another movie with a box office of over 100 million yuan during the May Day holiday this year, contributing more than 135 million yuan in box office revenue. The prolific director Herman Yau and the prolific actor Andy Lau collaborated again after the "Shock Wave" series. Without the traditional police and gangster scenes, car chases and fighting, the perspective of dismantling the financial storms of investment banks attracted the attention of many male audiences.
The Japanese animation "Princess Mononoke" was released in mainland China for the first time, ranking third with a box office of nearly 70 million yuan. The high reputation of 8.9 points on Douban highlights the classic charm of Hayao Miyazaki's works. The film's box office revenue is mainly concentrated among young audiences in first- and second-tier cities, with women being the majority of the audience.
It is worth mentioning that "Nezha" which has been released for 97 days has a box office of nearly 64.35 million during the May Day period. Although it ranks sixth in the period, it is very close to the fourth and fifth places "A Red Star" and "Thunderbolt"*. With 6.4% of the screenings, it contributed 8.8% of the box office share, and the average number of people per show was the highest among all the films in the May Day period, with a significant long-tail effect. Background data shows that "Nezha: The Devil Boy Conquers the Dragon King" has the highest proportion of viewers over 35 years old, and is still the first choice for most family audiences. In addition, the proportion of new audiences and low-frequency audiences in the market who choose to watch "Nezha: The Devil Boy Conquers the Dragon King" is also the highest.
The comedy genre, which has performed stably in the May Day period in the past few years, performed slightly worse this year. The two films "A Good Start to Life" and "My Love from the Vast Horizon" only contributed 16% of the box office. Among the 13 new films originally scheduled, three films, "One and Only", "Bear Kids: Adventure Bear Soldiers" and "Dark Mystery", were withdrawn at the last minute, reflecting the lack of confidence of small and medium-sized films in the market. The youth film "One and Only", which has an eye-catching adaptation of the original novel and a brilliant creative team, has gained good reputation after being postponed and tested through previews.
"Unique" withdrawn from May Day schedule and released in preview
This year is the year of film consumption in China. As of May 5, the 2025 annual movie box office reached 26.309 billion, an increase of 30.7% over the same period last year, continuing to lead the global film market. Among them, "Nezha: The Devil Boy Conquers the Dragon King" had a box office of over 15.37 billion, making an outstanding contribution and significantly breaking the global single-market box office record. Lighthouse analyst Chen Jin pointed out that the May Day schedule is relatively rich in number and types. Good differentiation is conducive to reducing homogeneous competition, promoting full coverage of audiences, promoting the healthy development of the schedule market, and meeting the diverse needs of multi-level audiences.
