Chinese mainland's movie theater Spring Festival box office revenue, including pre-sales, hit a record high of over 1.9 billion yuan (about 262.03 million U.S. dollars) as of 15:01 Wednesday, according to data released by the box office tracker Beacon.
A total of six films, whose productions are based on popular stories or sequels to previous blockbusters, just hit China's big screens on Chinese New Year's Day on Wednesday.
These popular Spring Festival movies are "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero", "Nezha: Demon Child Conquers the Sea", "Detective Chinatown 1900", "Operation Leviathan", "Creation of the Gods II: Demonic Confrontation" and "Boonie Bears: Future Reborn".
"During the Spring Festival, I am really looking forward to the 'Nezha: Demon Child Conquers the Sea'. I can't wait to see how amazing the visuals and story are going to be. The previous one left a very deep impression on me. It made a novel adaptation of the traditional mythological story, with distinct character images and a thrilling plot. Therefore, I hope this new sequel can continue the high standard of the previous one, have more stunning visual effects, further explore the story of NeZha, and bring us a passionate and touching audio-visual feast," said a resident in Yichun City, east China's Jiangxi Province.
"There are a lot of movies this year. Whether it's 'Detective Chinatown 1900' 'Nezha: Demon Child Conquers the Sea' 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero', they all showcase traditional Chinese culture. 'Detective Chinatown 1900' was filmed right here in Shandong. My family and I bought a few tickets on the first day of the Chinese New Year," said a resident in Dongying City, east China's Shandong Province.
Chinese mainland's film box office for Spring Festival holiday hits record 1.9 bln yuan on Wednesday
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has outlined a comprehensive strategy of empowerment to promote the sustainable and high-quality development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with more inclusive measures, according to an MIIT official on Monday.
Speaking in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing, Shan Zhongde, vice minister of the MIIT, detailed the empowerment will be implemented from five aspects of ecosystem, innovation, digitalization, talent, and service.
"More inclusive and targeted policy measures will be rolled out. We'll improve the long-term mechanism for clearing overdue payments to protect the legitimate rights and interests of SMEs in accordance with the law. SMEs will be supported to participate in national talent programs and recruit high-level professionals, carry out training for business leaders in SME operation and management, and to jointly cultivate a team of outstanding entrepreneurs," said Shan.
Data showed that there were over 60 million Chinese SMEs by the end of 2024, including over 600,000 sci-tech and innovation-based SMEs, over 140,000 SMEs that use special and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products, and 14,600 such SMEs that are called 'little giants'. Meanwhile, 300 distinctive industrial clusters have also taken shape.
The Ministry also plans to further refine the tiered-cultivation system for high-quality enterprises to support SMEs that are able to produce novel and unique products using special and sophisticated technologies to undertake national-level research tasks, while improving the supporting capacity of industrial chains, so as to foster the emergence of more such SMEs. The ministry aims to support at least 5,000 more such "little giant" SMEs in achieving high-quality growth by 2026.
"We will continue to carry out the special campaign of digital empowerment for SMEs, and deepen the construction of pilot cities for digital transformation. Digital products and solutions that are small, fast, light and well-targeted will be vigorously developed so as to enable more SMEs to dare to transform, know how to transform, and do well in digital transformation. We plan to complete the digital transformation of 40,000 SMEs in 100 cities by 2026," said Shan.
In addition, the ministry will improve the four-tier public service system spanning county, municipal, provincial, and national levels, and establish more pilot-scale testing platforms to promote the high-quality SME development with high-quality services.
China outlines strategy to empower development of SMEs: official