During the May Day holiday, the film and performance market continues to be hot, and the diverse cultural consumption scenarios and various support policies work together to meet the leisure and entertainment needs of different groups, while also injecting new impetus into the holiday economy in various places.
The film market is rich in supply
This year's "May Day" movies are rich in genres, with action films with grand scenes and delicate emotions moving forward together. According to the data from Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of 18:40 on May 3, the total box office (including pre-sales) in the 2025 "May 1st" period exceeded 500 million yuan.
Realistic films performed well, "The Queen of Dumplings" focuses on single mothers' entrepreneurship in adversity, and has strong emotional resonance; "One Only" is adapted from a high-scoring French film, telling stories about hearing-impaired families and attracting young audiences. The popularity of IP movies remains unabated, and the key to "Nezha: The Devil Child's Trouble" is postponed for the third time, and its IMAX version continues to attract family movies.
Policy preferential policies ignited the movie viewing craze. This year, the State Film Administration, in conjunction with financial institutions and online movie ticketing platforms, is expected to invest a total of no less than 1 billion yuan in movie viewing subsidies throughout the year, and continue to carry out promotional activities such as "Watch movies together on weekends". In addition, the State Film Administration has joined forces with railways, civil aviation and the domestic cruise ship "Ida Magic City" to create movie-themed trains, flights and cruise ships around "traveling with movies" to create "sea, land and air" immersive light and shadow journeys for tourists.
The film market is booming, but we still need to pay attention to content innovation and sustainable development. In the next step, we must continue to make efforts in tapping the market potential of the segmented track, developing peripheral derivative products, and promoting the integrated development of the film and cultural and tourism industries.
Performances leverage cultural and tourism consumption
Around May Day, concerts and music festivals appeared in many places, becoming a new growth point for the cultural and tourism economy. Platform data shows that during the May Day holiday, more than 5,000 large-scale commercial performances across the country are expected to exceed 100, with the number of audiences exceeding 2 million, and it is expected to drive hotel tourism consumption of more than 2 billion yuan. The orders for ticket products for exclusive scenic spots of platform concerts and music festivals rose nearly 1 times year-on-year, forming a linkage effect of "3-hour performances leveraging 72-hour consumption".
More and more cultural and commercial districts are implanting highly interactive interpretation content, integrating cultural and tourism experience into daily life. Shanghai, Chengdu and other places have extended the consumption chain through models such as "performing arts + business districts" and "ticket economy", and have linked catering and hotels to provide late-night services to improve consumption stickiness.
Young people are willing to go to a city for a concert. According to Meituan Travel Report, young users born in the 1995 search for related products of Meituan Music Festival increased by 107% year-on-year. Tickets for hotels and attractions with economic performances such as music festivals are "booked in advance", among which the number of tourists who book hotels and attractions tickets for more than 8 days in advance increased by 11% year-on-year. Many young tourists also have strong demand for immediate consumption during their trip.
In order to meet consumer needs, Meituan Travel launched a special event "Travel with Concerts", aiming at popular domestic music festivals and concert destinations during the May Day period, providing tourists with one-stop services such as "hot hotels and worry-free homestays near the concert", "popular attractions near the concert", "exclusive routes around the concert", etc., to bring the "May Day" cultural and tourism economy to the "May Day".
Domestic IP continues to heat up
During the May Day holiday, Xi'an's "Twelve Hours of Chang'an" theme block ushered in a new round of passenger flow peak. Through immersive interactive interpretation, tourists can deeply experience the charm of traditional culture, further enriching the cultural connotation of the tourism experience.
From the popular Nezha Cultural Scenic Area in Yibin, Sichuan, to the crowds of people in Leling Film and Television City, Shandong, the filming site of "Detective Chinatown 1900", to the real-life performance of "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" in Xi'an, the deep integration of culture and tourism not only injects new impetus into the holiday economy, but also builds an ecological system of long-lasting consumer popularity through emotional connection, cultural empowerment and experience upgrades.
"Checking in popular attractions with film and television works shows that tourists are keen on interactive and experiential tourism." said Yin Jie, professor at the School of Tourism of Huaqiao University. This trend is particularly obvious during the May Day holiday. Tourists are no longer satisfied with static viewing, but actively participate in innovative business formats such as live dramas and role-playing.
This holiday, a number of domestic IPs used the "grill economy" to drive the integrated development of culture, sports, business and tourism. In recent years, thanks to the rapid development of China's online literature, animation, games, film and television industries, high-quality domestic cultural IPs such as "Nezha" and "Genshin Impact" have continuously emerged, providing content support for the prosperity of the Guzi economy. From "Guzizhang" to IP joint activities, domestic IP transformed into a touchable, participateable and disseminated consumer experience, which not only became the "new favorite" of young people's cultural consumption, but also became a microcosm of urban commercial innovation and development.
"At present, the digital economy and cultural consumption are deeply integrated, and the cultural market is undergoing a transformation from content supply to emotional resonance. The high viscosity and wide radiation of high-quality cultural IP have enabled the derivative consumption market to expand rapidly, injecting new impetus into the cultural market. Reshaping cultural consumption with domestic IP will be an important incision for the future development of the cultural and tourism industry." Wang Chen, vice president of public affairs of China Literature Group, said. (Economic Daily reporter Jiang Tianjiao)
