The National Day holiday box office this year surpassed 1.1 billion yuan, with "The Trace of the Detective" leading the early going and "Resident Evil: Outbreak Night" arriving later to carry the back half.
According to statistics from the China Film Administration, the 2026 National Day holiday box office reached 1.165 billion yuan, with daily box office exceeding 100 million yuan for seven consecutive days, and 31.9959 million admissions; screenings totaled 3.29 million, up 2.21% year on year; the average ticket price was 36.41 yuan, 0.28 yuan lower than the same period last year. Among the releases, "The Trace of the Detective" led with 423 million yuan.
In addition, "Resident Evil: Outbreak Night" was released on October 5 and ranked first in single-day box office for the final three days of the holiday period, effectively supporting the second half of the holiday box office.
Still, this year's National Day box office was not ideal, and the gap with peak holiday box office of more than 4 billion yuan is by no means small. Zhu Yuqing, founder of Juyinghui, said in an interview that since this year's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, China's film market has officially entered a "film shortage" phase, and the lack of high-quality content will remain the biggest problem facing Chinese cinema for a relatively long period, making cinema operations more difficult. This is an issue the entire industry is closely watching and urgently needs to solve.
The Trace of the Detective leads
There was not much surprise in "The Trace of the Detective" leading. As the only film with pre-sale box office exceeding 20 million yuan, "The Trace of the Detective" maintained a front-running position throughout the holiday. During this year's National Day holiday, "The Trace of the Detective" led with 423 million yuan in box office and a 36.3% share; "What Does That Mean, Couple" held second place steadily with 244 million yuan and a 20.9% share; "Resident Evil: Outbreak Night" accumulated 174 million yuan in box office in three days of release. The top three films together accounted for 72.1% of the overall market.
In addition, older films released during the summer season, "Welcome to Dragon Restaurant" and "Eight Immortals!", each earned more than 50 million yuan, while the re-release of "Avengers 4" also took in more than 40 million yuan. Chen Jin, a data analyst at Beacon Professional Edition, analyzed that from the ticket-purchasing profile, "The Trace of the Detective" had a more balanced coverage across all age groups, "What Does That Mean, Couple" performed prominently in Northeast China, and both "Welcome to Dragon Restaurant" and "Eight Immortals!" had a proportion of group purchases of three people or more exceeding 21%, showing that long-running films remain favored by family viewing groups.
It is understood that "The Trace of the Detective" was produced by New Classics Media under China Literature Group, written and directed by Chen Sicheng, and starring Zhang Yi, Ma Li, and Chen Minghao in lead roles. The film topped the National Day box office chart with a runaway advantage on its first day of release. According to Maoyan Professional Edition data, on its opening day the film led with 71.09 million yuan in box office and a share of nearly 40%, while cumulative admissions exceeded 2 million, firmly ranking first among new releases during the holiday. It was learned from China Literature Group that "The Trace of the Detective" was created under the guidance of the Press and Publicity Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, adapted from the documentary literature "China's Detective: Republic Criminal Police Cui Daozhi," and based on real cases. It tells the story of trace examination expert Cui Xun growing from an overlooked technician into a legendary figure who repeatedly broke new ground.
"With good word of mouth, 'The Trace of the Detective' achieved a box office rebound during the holiday period, and top films are expected to continue supporting the film market in mid-to-late October," Chen Jin said.
Returning to 2014 National Day levels
In 2024, "The Volunteers: To the War" and in 2025, "The Volunteers: Blood and Peace" both continued the pattern of "one big film carrying an entire holiday period"; by 2026, that pattern no longer held, and the market lacked an absolute "super blockbuster."
It should be noted that within the 4.385 billion yuan National Day box office in 2021, "The Battle at Lake Changjin" alone accounted for 3.206 billion yuan, while "My Country, My Parents" added another 965 million yuan, with the two main-melody blockbusters together contributing 95% of the holiday box office. In other words, the high point of the National Day holiday was a high point supported by hit films; once hits are absent, the holiday is like a receding tide, and it becomes immediately clear who has been swimming naked, with the true quality revealed at once.
In the absence of a super blockbuster to drive growth, this year's total National Day box office returned to the level of 1.118 billion yuan seen in 2014. In addition, the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival fell on September 25 and did not overlap with the National Day holiday, lacking the boost of a combined "Mid-Autumn plus National Day" break, which had a certain impact on the overall market during the period.
Lai Li, a market analyst at Maoyan Entertainment, said that as audiences' viewing thresholds continue to rise, the market needs to provide more works with strong innovation in content and form to stimulate viewers' motivation to watch films and then convert that into ticket purchases. During this year's holiday, "Resident Evil: Outbreak Night" precisely relied on its strong IP attributes and better-than-expected word of mouth to form strong ticket-purchase conversion among core audiences, not only meeting the viewing needs of niche audiences but also driving box office growth and the spread of popularity.
It is worth noting that the film "Resident Evil: Outbreak Night," released on October 5, achieved solid results. On its first day of release, it earned 75.837 million yuan, contributing 37.5% of the day's box office with a 24.5% screening share, becoming the day's box office champion, and it continued to rank first in single-day box office for the following two days. The Douban rating for "Resident Evil: Outbreak Night" rose from 7.2 to 7.3, the highest among new National Day releases on Douban. As one of the world's top game IPs, the "Resident Evil" film series has strong appeal among gamers and thriller audiences. Many cinemas were observed offering activities such as "watch 'Resident Evil: Outbreak Night' and receive a commemorative ticket stub." However, due to its high level of violence and excessive gore, minors need to choose whether to watch it with caution.
Zhu Yuqing believes that given its scale, attendance rate, and appeal, "Resident Evil: Outbreak Night" might have achieved a better box office result and lifted the overall market if it had been released earlier in the holiday period. In an interview, he analyzed that the film earned more than 70 million yuan on its first day; if it had been released on the first day of the holiday period, its final mainland box office could have reached the 1 billion yuan level. Unfortunately, due to various factors, the film was released midway through the holiday period, and after the holiday ended the overall market quickly fell back, so the box office was not very ideal.
As of October 7, total box office for the year stood at 30.746 billion yuan. However, that figure still lags considerably behind the same period in 2025. In addition, in the fourth quarter of 2025, there was an imported blockbuster like "Zootopia 2," which contributed 1.2 billion yuan over its first two days in its opening weekend. In the fourth quarter of this year, "Avengers 5" and "Dune 3" are set to be released. Zhu Yuqing said that, from the current situation, this year's leading domestic films have basically all been released, and hopes can only rest on imported films going forward, but it is difficult for a film like last year's "Zootopia 2," which earned more than 4 billion yuan, to appear again. Therefore, the overall market situation this year is not optimistic.