Box offices during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday－which has emerged as the most lucrative movie season in recent years－raked in the second-highest amount of revenue ever during the period, signaling a good start to the Year of the Tiger.

During the holiday, which ended on Sunday, Chinese cinemas earned 6 billion yuan ($943.8 million), edging out the 5.9 billion yuan during the 2019 festival period, according to movie data tracking service Beacon.

Cinemas were closed two days before the Lunar New Year began in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. During Spring Festival last year, they took in a record-setting 7.8 billion yuan, the highest ever for the holiday period.

Living up to the expectations of most industry insiders, The Battle at Lake Changjin II－an epic sequel set during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53)－was the top moneymaker of the eight films that debuted during the festival period. It earned 2.5 billion yuan, accounting for more than 40 percent of the country's overall box office receipts during the festival.

Too Cool to Kill, a comedy remake of the 2008 Japanese hit The Magic Hour, was the second-highest earner (1.39 billion yuan), followed by Nice View (668 million yuan), which recounts a miraculous startup business story. Boonie Bears: Back to Earth (562 million yuan), the eighth installment of the long-running animated franchise, finished fourth, while the motorcycle-themed Only Fools Rush In (474 million yuan), the fourth directorial effort by novelist-turned-filmmaker Han Han, rounded out the top five.

Snipers (263 million yuan)－a new film by Beijing Winter Olympic ceremonies Chief Director Zhang Yimou, his first offering released during the competitive holiday week－ranked sixth despite earning the highest score among holiday films on Douban, one of the country's most popular review aggregators.

Due to various efforts, including Zhang's appeal for more screenings and the reduction of ticket prices for his film, Snipers showings began increasing on the fourth day of the holiday week.

Zhang Rongdi, an analyst with Beacon's research department, said the original Battle at Lake Changjin－China's highest-grossing film of all time－was released just four months before the sequel. That is the shortest interval between an original film and its sequel in China, a move meant to help the second film gain popularity quickly.

Studios have been churning out patriotic blockbusters, as such films have become more popular among Chinese audiences over the past two years, Zhang Rongdi said. According to a Beacon survey, 31.2 percent of all ticket buyers for the sequel have watched the first Lake Changjin movie.

Despite the box office bonanza during the holiday week, industry analysts said higher ticket prices－roughly 52.8 yuan per person on average, up 8 percent from last year and 18 percent from 2019－have turned off many movie enthusiasts, exemplified by the hashtag "Spring Festival movies are too expensive "that went viral on the Sina Weibo micro-blogging platform recently.

After thousands of Chinese cinemas struggled to attract viewers and provide quality films amid sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks last year, the analysts said operators had little choice but to raise ticket prices during Spring Festival to offset losses, with studios and theaters roughly splitting profits.

With a stable rise both in terms of tickets sold and box office revenue in recent years, movie watching has become a festival pastime for millions of Chinese people, said Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association.

However, he said the domestic film industry should take note of the sharp reduction in theater admissions, reflected by the 114 million tickets sold during this year's festival period－down nearly 30 percent year-on-year.

"Some consumers might originally have planned to watch three or more movies during the festival, but the high ticket prices could have deterred them," said Rao, suggesting domestic theaters make tickets more affordable to ensure sustainable development.