Due to the impact of the epidemic, the total box office of “May 1st” this year is only 17.6% of that of last year, the lowest in recent years (except 2020).

According to the data of Lighthouse, cat’s eye and other platforms, as of 21:30 on May 4, the total box office (including pre-sale) of “May 1st gear” (April 30-may 4) in 2022 was 295 million yuan. The top three films at the box office are: I really hate long distance love 87.499 million, villain League 71.118 million and magic animal: Dumbledore’s mystery 32.874 million.

Due to the impact of the epidemic, the total box office of “May 1st” this year is only 17.6% of that of last year, the lowest in recent years (except 2020). The national box office of “May 1st” in 2021 was 1.674 billion yuan, 1.527 billion yuan in 2019, 1.006 billion yuan in 2018, 784 million yuan in 2017 and 650 million yuan in 2016.

However, due to the restrictions of objective factors such as the operating rate of cinemas and the number of films in the country, this year’s “May 1st” has “tried its best”.

Zhang Rongdi, an industry analyst at the lighthouse Research Institute, said: “almost all cinemas in Beijing and Shanghai have been closed, and there are no tickets for real estate. Compared with 13 new films released in May 1st in 2021, this year’s May 1st is greatly affected by the epidemic and the number of films released is less. Affected by many factors such as cinema operating rate, the overall box office has also decreased accordingly.”

Other industry insiders are also more tolerant of the evaluation of the “May 1st gear”. “Because the cinemas in the two important ticket warehouses in Shanghai and Beijing are all closed, the box office performance is good in this case.” Xu Jia, a person in the film production industry, said. A person in charge of a cinema in Chengdu told the first finance and economics reporter: “the performance of our cinema is OK when there are no films in the May 1st file this time.”

Since the “Qingming Festival” this year, the national cinema business rate has been maintained at about 50%. However, the national cinema business rate has been rising slowly recently. According to the lighthouse professional cinema business map, on May 4, the total number of cinemas operating in China was 7887, with a national cinema business rate of 65.4% (cinemas with box office reports). The one-day box office is also gradually picking up. On May 1, the one-day box office exceeded 60 million, exceeding 60 million for the first time since March 6.

The lighthouse Professional Edition shows that Shenzhen, Chengdu and Chongqing are the top 3 cities in the box office performance of May 1 this year. Affected by the epidemic, Beijing and Shanghai, the two largest ticket warehouses in the first tier cities, were not on the list. The second tier cities in the Pearl River Delta and Sichuan and Chongqing became the main force of the box office, which was quite different from the Qingming Festival a month ago. At that time, the top 3 cities at the box office were Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu.

In terms of the number of films, only 5 new films were released in the “May Day” this year, and 8 films were temporarily announced to be withdrawn. In fact, the collective withdrawal of films is closely related to the low operating rate of cinemas. Xu Jia told the first financial reporter: “at least the national business rate is more than 70%, and the release of the film will be more secure.” In addition, he also mentioned, “among these 70%, it would be ideal if the first tier cities accounted for 65%. The producers and distributors of films all hope that the business rate of larger ticket warehouses is high.”

“I really hate long distance love”, the box office champion of this “May 1st” was produced by light media (300251). Last year, “May 1st” light media also launched the love film “your wedding”, and “your wedding” grossed more than 500 million at the box office of “may 1st” last year. Zhang Rongdi, an industry analyst at the lighthouse Research Institute, said: “romantic films are the regular type of” May Day “. As early as 2013, the pioneering work of youth romantic films,” to our lost youth “, was released in May Day. In the future, there will be” why Sheng Xiaomo “,” the only love letter from Beijing to Seattle “, and in recent years, there will be blockbusters such as” later us “,” your wedding “and” I really hate long-distance love “ As the only love film in the schedule, it is a better choice for the film to stick to the “51 file” that users have formed the habit of watching love films. “