(Yicai Global) June 26 -- China’s box office raked in the second-highest amount ever during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday compared with the same period in previous years, thanks to some popular new releases. The thriller ‘Lost in the Stars’ contributed over half of this amount.

China’s cinemas bagged CNY910 million (USD126.2 million) from June 22 to June 24, only just behind the CNY912 million earned during the holiday in 2018, according to box office statistics platform Dengta Data. Some 22.1 million people went to the movie theater over the holiday, and there were 1.2 million screenings.

‘Lost in the Stars,’ a remake of the Russian film ‘A Trap for Lonely Man,’ had grossed CNY496 million (USD68.6 million) as of 9 p.m. China time on June 24 and CNY700 million since its release to date. 

“During pre-sales, ‘Lost in the Stars’ already demonstrated a clear advantage,” said Chen Jin, a data analyst at Dengta Data, “Not only did pre-sales soar but more than 420,000 users tagged it on e-ticketing platform Taopiaopiao before its release.”

Chinese love story 'Love Never Ends' came second, raking in CNY104 million (USD14.3 million) over the holiday and CNY143 million to date, while US sci-fi action thriller 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' ranked third with CNY82 million during the break and CNY553 million since its release on June 9.

Cartoons are becoming more and more popular in China and a number of animated movies, such as ‘Crazy Little World’ and ‘The Fantastic Journey of Three Fools,’ were also released over the break, Chen said.

Animated movies have earned more than CNY4.8 billion (USD660 million) so far this year, more than the whole of 2022, according to Dengta Data. Boonie Bears：Guardian Code, released during the Lunar New Year holiday in January, has raked in CNY1.5 billion at the box office and remains the third highest grossing movie of 2023 so far.

Editor: Kim Taylor