According to the Financial Associated Press on January 9 (Reporter Cui Ming), Tang Detective, Nezha, Fengshen... popular IPs are making a return, and listed film companies are showcasing their best cards for the showdown in the 2025 Spring Festival schedule.

This year's film Spring Festival schedule has entered the warm-up period earlier compared to previous years. Although there are still more than two weeks until the Spring Festival schedule, the Financial Associated Press reporter noticed that some cinema chains in Shanghai have already put up promotional materials for new Spring Festival films in their ticket sales halls.

According to data from MAOYAN ENT Professional Version, 7 films have been scheduled for the 2025 Spring Festival, with the total number of viewers wanting to see them surpassing 2 million, among which the Wanda Film Holding invested "Tang Detective 1900", Beijing Enlight Media invested "Nezha: The Devil's Child Stirs Up the Sea", and China Film Co., Ltd. invested "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero" rank as the top three in the desired films for the Spring Festival.

Several film industry insiders told Financial Associated Press reporters that considering the confirmed films are not small in size and all have accumulated audiences, combined with the 8-day duration of the 2025 Spring Festival, the box office during this period is expected to exceed last year's performance and set a new record for the Spring Festival box office in China's film history.

Listed film companies are showcasing their best cards as IP sequels gather for the Spring Festival schedule.

As of now, seven new films have been scheduled for the 2025 Spring Festival, including "Tang Detective 1990", "Nezha: The Devil's Child Stirs Up the Sea", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero", "Fengshen Part 2: The Western Fire", "Boonie Bears: Rebooting the Future", "Operation Dragon", and "The Sacrifice House", making for an impressive lineup.

A major highlight of this year's Spring Festival schedule is the investment from leading listed film companies, with Wanda Film Holding, Beijing Enlight Media, China Film Co., Ltd., Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism, and Bona Film Group all having major films scheduled for release during the Spring Festival.

Among them, Beijing Enlight Media continues to undertake the main investment and distribution of "Ne Zha". This film is a sequel to the animated movie "Ne Zha: Born to Be a God" released in 2019, which achieved a box office miracle of 5 billion and became the box office champion of domestic films that year, bringing substantial profits to Beijing Enlight Media.

Also featuring successful IP sequels are Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism's "The Investiture of the Gods: Part Two - War at the West Qi", Wanda Film Holding's "Detective Chinatown 1900", and Bona Film Group's "Operation Dragon".

Among them, "The Investiture of the Gods: Part Two - War at the West Qi" produced by Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism is a crucial link in the trilogy. The previous installment, "The Investiture of the Gods: Part One - The Wind and Cloud of Chaoge", was released in 2023, with a cumulative box office of 2.6 billion yuan. "Detective Chinatown 1900" serves as a prequel to the Detective Chinatown series, which saw "Detective Chinatown 2" and "Detective Chinatown 3" being released during the Spring Festival periods of 2018 and 2021, achieving box office results of 3.3 billion yuan and 4.5 billion yuan respectively. "Operation Dragon" continues the storyline of the previous film "Operation Red Sea", which secured 3.6 billion yuan at the box office during the 2018 Spring Festival, becoming the box office champion for domestic films that year.

In the 2025 Spring Festival period, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero" produced by China Film Co., Ltd. and "Boonie Bears: Back to Future" produced by Huaqing Fantawild are also worth noting. The former is based on the well-known martial arts novel by Jin Yong, while the latter is the 11th film in the Boonie Bears series, which has consecutively appeared in the Spring Festival for 8 years.

According to MAOYAN ENT professional data, as of the time of writing, the cumulative number of people wanting to watch during the 2025 Spring Festival has exceeded 2 million, with "Detective Chinatown 1900", "Ne Zha: The Devil Child Comes to the Sea", and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero" ranking as the top three in the MAOYAN ENT want-to-watch list for the Spring Festival.

Industry expectations for the box office to exceed last year, with the first-day box office being critical.

After the failure of the summer period in 2024 and the dullness of the National Day period, the film market is in urgent need of a boost. This year's Spring Festival is seen as a crucial moment for the entire industry to reignite the market and bring audiences back to theaters.

"The Spring Festival has traditionally been the biggest box office period of the year and is also the season when high-grossing films are most likely to appear." A film distribution person told reporters that the films planned for this year's Spring Festival generally have strong IP "endorsements" or support from high-grossing previous works, with a large audience base, and the genres are quite diverse.

MAOYAN ENT market Analyst Lai Li stated to the reporters from the Financial Associated Press that overall, the 2025 Spring Festival period is indeed a time of intense competition. It is hoped that these blockbusters can draw audiences back to the theaters and bring a "good start" to this year's film market.

Additionally, individuals from Institutions stated to the reporters from the Financial Associated Press that the concentrated release of high-quality content will effectively boost audience enthusiasm for viewing films, promote market demand and box office recovery, and further drive the performance improvement of related listed companies.

After analyzing various industry professionals, it is currently expected that the total box office for the 2025 Spring Festival period may fall within the range of 8.3 billion to -9 billion yuan, surpassing last year's record for the box office of the Spring Festival period in China's film history (with the 2024 Spring Festival box office at 8.016 billion yuan), and under optimistic viewing demand, the final box office results could exceed expectations. However, actual box office earnings still need to consider specific performances such as audience attendance and film reputation.

"(The box office for this year's Spring Festival period) has a great possibility of exceeding last year's, but the specific data is difficult to determine now and still depends on the box office situation on the first day of the period, as well as the post-viewing reputation of these films," a film industry insider told the reporters from the Financial Associated Press.

Yoo Dong, founder, Chairman, and General Manager of Bona Film Group, recently stated in a media interview that if the first-day box office for the 2025 Spring Festival period can break 1.7 billion yuan, then the entire Spring Festival period's box office performance will be "stable."

According to data from the National Film Bureau, the first-day box office for the 2021 Spring Festival period (February 12, the first day of the Lunar New Year) exceeded 1.7 billion yuan, which remains the highest single-day box office record for the first day of the Lunar New Year to this day.

Editor/lambor