My People, My Country tops box office as patriotic fervor boosts ticket sales

The film My People, My Country jumped to the top of the Chinese box office on Monday as the patriotic offering continued to bring in the crowds, displacing disaster drama The Captain, which has ruled the roost for nine consecutive days.

The film grossed more than 22 million yuan ($3.11 million) on the 15th day of screening and its total box office revenue exceeded 2.58 billion yuan, according to box office tracker Maoyan.

Depicting stories of ordinary people during some of China's most memorable times, the sevenpart anthology was directed by seven directors including Chen Kaige and Zhang Yibai.

In second place is The Captain, which had earned over 2.45 billion yuan at the box office by Monday.

The two films were screened in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China during the National Day holiday, a peak moviegoing period.

According to a report from Maoyan, the two films, together with The Climbers, accounted for about 96 percent of total box office takings in China during the holiday.

"Films like My People, My Country and The Captain are both based on stories of ordinary people that many audience members can relate to, and also have good entertainment value aside from inspiring people to think. That has helped attract audiences and is becoming a trend for films in similar genres released during the National Day holidays," said Chen Shaofeng, a professor of culture and entertainment at Peking University.

The National Day holiday this year reaped 4.38 billion yuan in box office takings, a 129 percent year-on-year increase, and a record high compared with the previous National Day holidays, a report from Maoyan showed. Film box office takings hit 795 million yuan on the first day of the National Day holiday, the highest single-day recorded compared with past National Day moviegoing seasons.

The holiday moviegoing season also saw more than 116 million cinema visits, also the highest compared with same period in past years.

"Today, more teenagers have a strong emotional attachment to our homeland and they are growing to be a major force among all moviegoers," said Chen.

According to figures from Taopiaopiao, a leading box-office database, teenagers accounted for about 12.7 percent of those who were keen to watch My People, My Country. That is in sharp contrast with 6.2 percent of the potential film visitors who were aged under 19 for Sky Hunter, in 2017. In 2016, when Operation Mekong took the box office by storm, the total number of teenagers who wanted to watch the movie stood at 1.3 percent.