2026 Qingming Festival Film Season Boosts China’s Box Office to 12.263 Billion Yuan

China’s film market has witnessed a steady recovery driven by the 2026 Qingming Festival film season, with the total box office reaching 289 million yuan by 17:00 on April 6, according to data from Dengta Professional Edition, a leading film data platform. The season has not only delivered popular works but also pushed the national cumulative box office in 2026 to 12.263 billion yuan.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, an animated film, claimed the top spot in the Qingming Festival box office rankings with over 60 million yuan in ticket sales during the period, followed by I, Xu Ke, Rescue Plan, Genius Game and Oh My Mom in the top five, Dengta Professional Edition reported. Notably, the festival’s total screening sessions hit a new record in China’s film history, exceeding 1.45 million, with the audience number surpassing 8 million and nearly 20 films covering diverse genres such as realism, suspense and comedy.

As of now, the top 10 highest-grossing films in 2026 are respectively Run for Life 3, Biaoren: Wind Rises Over the Desert, Silent Awakening, Boonie Bears: Bear Year After Year, Panda Plan: Adventure of the Tribe, Night King, Rescue Plan, Beaver Transformation Plan, Return to Silent Hill and Pipe Burst. Platform forecasts suggest that two potential films from the Qingming season, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and I, Xu Ke, will reach final box offices of 185 million yuan and 153 million yuan respectively, replacing Return to Silent Hill and Pipe Burst in the top 10.

It is worth noting that the top six films in the annual box office rankings by April 6 were all released during the Spring Festival holiday. For more than a month after the Spring Festival, no film in China’s market had a box office exceeding 200 million yuan until the imported sci-fi film Rescue Plan, which has now grossed 199 million yuan and is expected to cross the 200 million yuan mark, with a predicted final box office of 268 million yuan.

In terms of average ticket prices during the Qingming season, Rescue Plan stood at 45.6 yuan, much higher than the 40.9 yuan of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, 34.2 yuan of I, Xu Ke and the overall average of 38.6 yuan for the season.

Explaining why Rescue Plan has become the most resilient film after the Spring Festival, a relevant person in charge of a film and television company told the Securities Daily, “On the one hand, sci-fi films have accumulated a large audience, while the supply of high-reputation domestic sci-fi films has been scarce in recent years; on the other hand, Rescue Plan has maintained rising popularity since its release, and its dual advantages of theme and word-of-mouth have driven its box office growth.”

Yang Huaiyu, senior researcher at Shanghai Xiazhi Liangshi Consulting and Management Co., Ltd., also told the Securities Daily that films after the Spring Festival generally had a box office of around 100 million yuan. “The post-Spring Festival period is a traditional off-season for film viewing, and the short Qingming holiday diverts audiences to spring outings, leading to a weak overall market,” he said. “In addition, new releases are mainly low-to-medium budget ‘inventory-clearing’ films, and studios are unwilling to invest heavily in promotion or produce big-budget works, resulting in a lack of blockbusters.”

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which led the Qingming box office, has also achieved remarkable results globally, grossing 372 million US dollars worldwide and setting a record for the highest opening weekend box office in North America in 2026 with 131 million US dollars. Praised as a family-friendly work, it has an IMDb rating of 6.5 and a 42% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.