China's National Day holiday box office reaches 1.9 bln yuan

China's box office during the week-long National Day holiday exceeded 1.9 billion yuan ($274 million), China Film News reported Monday.

Project Gutenberg, a crime thriller starring Hong Kong actors Chow Yun-Fat and Aaron Kwok, was the winner and earned 628 million yuan from Oct 1 to 7, accumulating a total of 683 million yuan at the box office since its release on Sept 30.

Hello, Mrs. Money came in second, taking in 408 million yuan. Produced by rising production company Mahua FunAge, the film has raked in a total of 516 million yuan in the box office

The comedy initially topped the box office charts but was surpassed by the Project Gutenberg.

Industry experts were surprised but happy to see the turn-over, said the report.

"Usually comedies like Hello, Mrs. Money were no doubt the biggest hits during holidays, but the change this year shows that the market and audience increasingly pay more attention to the story, quality and acting in movies," said Yu Chao, a movie theater manager in Beijing.

Director Zhang Yimou's Shadow took the third place on box office charts, making 386 million yuan during the week. It has registered a total of 453 million yuan since its release on Sept 30.

Fourth place went to another comedy Fat Buddies, with earnings of more than 166 million yuan last week.

Rounding out the top five was the coming-of-age film Cry Me a Sad River, gaining 92 million yuan during the holiday.

This year's National Day holiday box office was about 28 percent lower than last year's 2.63 billion yuan during the same period, according to the newspaper.

However, figures from the film database Maoyan showed that the country's total box office this year has hit the benchmark of 50 billion yuan by Oct 4, 47 days earlier than last year.