China’s longest-ever Spring Festival holiday has kicked off a multi-front contest for viewers’ time and money. With nine days off from 15–23 February, film studios, streaming platforms and short-drama producers are all racing to capture an especially valuable window for new releases and audience growth.
Early box-office figures point to a cautious market. By 12:30 on 16 February, cumulative Spring Festival presales and early screenings had climbed to about RMB 470 million, with roughly 9.83 million tickets sold and 1.686 million screenings logged. The headline statistic is that presale revenue is roughly half what it was at the same stage last year, while average ticket prices have fallen from about RMB 58 to RMB 48.2, and promotional low-price tickets have become commonplace.
The traditional centrepiece — theatrical tentpoles — still dominates expectations, but pressure from last year’s runaway hit complicates the picture. Han Han’s franchise entry "Fei Chi Ren Sheng 3" leads presales at about RMB 190 million, buoyed by two earlier instalments that hauled in RMB 1.7 billion and RMB 3.3 billion respectively. If history holds, its mix of comedy and racing-adventure could deliver strong returns.
High-profile alternatives cluster behind it. Zhang Yimou’s contemporary spy drama for the big screen, tentatively titled "Jingzhe Wusheng", sits in second place with roughly RMB 87.5 million in presales; Yuan Heping’s star-studded martial-arts spectacle "Biaoren: Wind Rises in the Desert" follows with about RMB 50.4 million. Mid‑tier offerings include near‑future sci‑fi romance "Xinghe Rumeng" and several IP sequels and animated features that rely on established family audiences.
Yet film financing and distribution look more risk-averse than in previous years. Rather than a single platform or studio staking a blockbuster, almost every major film now carries multiple producing partners and broadcast sources to spread exposure and cost. "Biaoren", for example, lists eight producers and more than thirty co-producers, a structure that reduces single‑point failure but also dilutes concentrated marketing firepower.
If the big‑screen market is moving cautiously, the short‑drama sector is strikingly aggressive. Platforms including iQiyi, Tencent Video, Kuaishou and niche players have rolled out festival-season short‑drama slates and promotional mechanics — live actor relays, themed portals, collectible merchandise and AI-enabled character interactions — aimed at both retention and rapid viewer acquisition. Several short series and IP sequels have already posted million‑plus reservations.
This year’s short‑drama surge is also defined by a new emphasis on AI tools. Platforms are incentivising high-volume, low-cost production of AI-assisted “漫剧” and simulated-human content through favourable revenue-sharing and green‑lighting policies. The strategy is designed to exploit short-form, high-frequency viewing habits and to seed breakout moments that can “break out” into broader conversation during the holiday.
Long-form dramas, by contrast, are playing it safe. Major streaming services have staggered a handful of family‑friendly period and romantic dramas over the holiday, but few truly big-budget, high‑risk projects have been scheduled. Many of the heavyweight series that could have commanded festival attention are still airing or were deliberately kept off the Spring Festival calendar after fans and platforms pushed back against congesting the holiday with too many simultaneous premieres.
What this year’s spread reveals is a film and streaming market in transition. Ticket buyers and viewers are showing more discernment; fan‑driven box‑office guarantees are weaker than before; and platforms are experimenting — sometimes wildly — with format, technology and financing to find new profitable models. The holiday remains a premium moment for breaking new hits, but the industry increasingly looks like a multi‑player ecosystem rather than a single‑stage blockbuster business.
For international observers, the significance is twofold. First, China’s content market is maturing: success now depends less on star names and franchise pedigree and more on storytelling quality, platform strategy and targeted monetisation. Second, the emergence of AI-assisted short content and the widespread use of joint financing models signal shifting production economics that foreign distributors and co‑producers should monitor closely as both a risk and an opportunity for partnerships and format licensing.