(Yicai Global) Jan. 27 -- After enduring the negative impact of Covid-19, China's cinemas welcomed crowds of moviegoers during the Spring Festival holiday.

This is the first Spring Festival holiday after the adjustment of the country's response to the virus earlier this month.

"The audiences are all back!" said Dong Wenxin, a cinema manager in the eastern Chinese city of Jinan, who was thrilled to see the return of crowds to her theater. "They are really back."

The week-long holiday ends today. It is usually a lucrative moviegoing period in China.

The holiday box office sold a total of 117 million tickets as of 11 a.m., generating a whopping revenue of CNY6.16 billion (USD909 million), according to box office tracker Maoyan.

The earnings overtook that of the same holiday last year, making this year's Spring Festival holiday the second highest-grossing to date.

Six domestic titles were released on the Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, which fell on Jan. 22 this year.

Topping the holiday box office chart was the twist-filled "Full River Red," Zhang Yimou's first foray into the "suspense plus comedy" genre. The historical drama raked in CNY2.34 billion, accounting for about 38 percent of the box office total.

It was immediately followed by Guo Fan's "The Wandering Earth II," a prequel to the 2019 sci-fi blockbuster "The Wandering Earth," which pulled in CNY1.98 billion.

Third place on the chart went to animated film "Boonie Bears: Guardian Code," the newest installment in one of the longest-running movie franchises in China. It grossed CNY680 million.